What are the most plausible PODs to wank Afghanistan?
FALightFighter said:Wanking "Afghanistan" as we know it today is pretty much impossible- its the leftovers where British India stopped expanding north/northwest, Russia stopped expanding south and Iran stopped expanding east. With some small changes (British India takes the whole thing, most likely), you could probably get a better situation in that area today, if that meets the requirement for a wank
The Durrani Empire can only work is you can get Ahmed Shah to stop expanding after a certain point, because he was overextending the empire even before he died.
Any strong Afghanistan will have to include the Punjab, though. However, the Durranis had... chilly relations with the Sikhs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh_holocaust_of_1762
The Afghans have two choices with the Sikhs.
1. Reconcile their differences. Which is hard.
2. Massacres/deportations, which although satisfying the conditions for an Afghanwank will leave a bitter aftertaste.
Does an Afghanistan wank necessarily have to be a territory one? What about an Afghan Kingdom that successfully plays both Russia and Britain (who don't gain the NW area of Pakistan), instead of Punjab integrates Persian/Pakistani Baluchistan (much closer to Afghanistan linguistically, also allowing it a coastline) and develops a sense of democracy evolving from the Loya Jurga tradition, and successfully modernises ala South Korea?
Would that count as an Afghanistan wank?
Kurarun/Krall did something like that for one of the map contests, although sans a coastline:
That's a much stronger Afghanistan, especially considering there are more Afghans in NW Pakistan then there are in OTL Afghanistan. A bigger population (workforce) would be a big plus in wanking Afghanistan.
Also , I'm not sure of this, but isn't NW Pakistan also much more resource filled than Afghanistan? I'm not sure.
Yes. Kashmir, Waziristan (FAFA), Queta, Pakhtunkhwa and Baltistan would increase the population by something like 120% and the cities of Peshawar and surrounding areas are more fertile than Afghanistan and would likely be the capital, rather than Qabul. If we counted Indian Kashmir that would be even more people.
Whilst some might say moving the capital to OTL Pakistan would stop it from being an 'Afghan'-wank and becomes an alt Pakistan, I think as long Pashto remains the official language and certain cultural traditions like Pashtunwalli and the Loya Jurga are kept prevalent then I think it's fulfils the OP.
Sorry to say but that's simply not true, there was an Afghan Kingdom and even if it was influenced by Brits and Russians at time, it retained an identity throughout the XIXth century and actually won wars, as a Kingdom, against both.
It's not a leftover country or a colonial legacy country like some African countries but, like Persia, an historical country which actively resisted foreign invasions.
I see your point but then again, that's a thing you could say about most countries: Vietnam is the leftover from when China stopped expanding south, the States is the result of Mexico not expanding North and Canada not expanding South, etc... A good example of why it doesn't apply to Afghanistan is the loss of GB against Afghanistan, the fact Persia couldn't hold onto Herat, even before GB's help.