Is it possible for Iran and Afghanistan to be part of one country after WWII? How can this be possible? Can it stick together? And how does that affect things?
Only under iranian imperial leadership
Persians Well never considered Afghans as equals they might only have the parts that are traditionally Persian like Herat maybe qandhar Which has always been a bone of contention between safavid and mughals
The rest of Pashtun heartland will be under local fiefdoms
Why did Iranians never considered Afghans as equals?
Think about it
Iranians have a pedigree of established dynastic rule for thousand plus yrs
Afghans Other than a few exceptions of their Warrior kings holding parts off sub continent and present day of Afghanistan for brief periods of time have always been warring tribal factions
Even abdali the afgan father of nation was a prodigee of Nadir shah of Iran
Have you met humans?![]()
In middle eastAfghanistan has been part of Iran for a while. Most even speak Farsi.
Just asking lol.
In middle east
Iranians are the French, in terms of dominant culture
Arabs are the English, best merchants
Turks are the germans, best soldiers
Horrible generalization ofcourse , apologies if I offended anyone
Some but cannot imagine Islam without Persian literary contributionsArabs have also been extremely influential throughout history and have had a cultural impact on Iran. Just saying.
Is it possible for Iran and Afghanistan to be part of one country after WWII? How can this be possible? Can it stick together? And how does that affect things?
There was a point at which the Iranian Revolution could have gone many ways, Khomeini and his followers aren't the only Islamist faction that can come out victorious, so it is within the realm of possibility that some faction wins in Iran that spreads well to Afghanistan. "Spreading well" requires not only appealing to a sufficiently influential group within Afghanistan, it also means not alarming Iran's neighbours. In OTL, everyone around Iran was pretty darn scared of the Islamic revolution spreading.
Hmmm. Here's one idea (and one I think is very unlikely, but it's within the realm of possibility), let's say that Khomeini's bunch win power after the Iranian revolution as OTL and the Soviets don't invade Afghanistan in December 1979 as they did in OTL. As a result, Afghanistan continues its slide into chaos, President Amin seeks American support to try and stabilize his regime (and maybe also help grab that land he wants off of Pakistan), which means that Iran isn't upset by the Soviets invading their neighbour but is instead alarmed by the US moving forces into that same neighbour. As a result, Soviet attempts to woo the Islamic Republic go much better than OTL and the two form an outright alliance by mid 1980 or so. In the face of this alliance, either Iraq doesn't invade at all, or invades anyway but due to Iraq now attacking a Soviet ally and due to Iran being a key partner in dealing with Afghanistan, the Soviets drop the Iraqi alliance and decisively backs Iran, leading to the Iraqi invasion being utterly crushed. In Afghanistan, now the Soviets have an ally, they get the Iranians to invade to unseat the Amin regime and install a compromise "Islamic Socialist Republic" - basically just a grab-bag of ideologues and pragmatists who will keep Afghanistan stable for the Soviets while being sufficiently Islamist to satisfy the Tehran regime. So TTL's Afghan war starts with a US-backed Communist regime fighting against an Iranian invasion backed by Soviet funding and hardware in alliance with pro-Iranian Afghan tribes (I don't expect Amin would last very long though - likely he is overthrown by someone the US finds easier to work with and Pakistan's ISI finds more ideologically appealing at some point in the first years of the conflict). Let's say that while Iran are a little weaker in terms of technology and equipment, they more than make up for it in having more support inside Afghanistan than OTL's Soviet invasion, so by the end of the 80s, the Iranians have won their war in Afghanistan.
Let's further assume that this Iranian-Soviet alliance doesn't save the Soviet Union and it collapses in the early 90s (an Iran-Soviet alliance could definitely alter the Soviet collapse, but let's say that in this TL it doesn't substantially alter it). In the aftermath of the fall of Communism, the Afghan regime grows even closer to their remaining patron, and eventually, in order to give their shared revolutionary ideology a fill-up on some year with a greater than average set of foreign policy setbacks, Afghanistan holds a plebiscite to legitimize unification with Iran, forming one Islamic Republic.
But there is one problem forming Islamic Republics in Iran and Afghanistan and uniting them. Iran is Shia and Afghanistan is Sunni and hence there is little chance for them to be co-operating, not to speak of uniting. What is the basic reason for the enmity between Iran and Saudi Arabia, if not Shia-Sunni rivalry.
Is it possible for Iran and Afghanistan to be part of one country after WWII? How can this be possible? Can it stick together? And how does that affect things?
But there is one problem forming Islamic Republics in Iran and Afghanistan and uniting them. Iran is Shia and Afghanistan is Sunni and hence there is little chance for them to be co-operating, not to speak of uniting. What is the basic reason for the enmity between Iran and Saudi Arabia, if not Shia-Sunni rivalry.
Hmm, so basically an Iran eventually run by the People's Mujahedeen (or at least with the MEK taking part in the creation of the Iranian political system from the beginning w/o jumping into bed with Saddam and all that)? There's an interesting (and scary) thought.
Hmm, so basically an Iran eventually run by the People's Mujahedeen (or at least with the MEK taking part in the creation of the Iranian political system from the beginning w/o jumping into bed with Saddam and all that)? There's an interesting (and scary) thought.