Afghanistan is a country in southwestern Asia that is situated on a landlocked plateau between Iran, Pakistan, China, and several countries in Central Asia.

Afghanistan is a rugged place. Rocky mountains and deserts cover most of the land, with little vegetation anywhere except the mountain valleys and northern plains. The country has hot, dry summers and bitterly cold winters.

Kabul is the capital and largest city.

Afghanistan has long been known as the crossroads of Asia, with ancient trade and invasion routes crossing its territory. Over the centuries many different people passed through Afghanistan, and some made it their homeland.

Today this history is reflected in the country’s ethnic and linguistic diversity. The Pashtuns, who make up the largest ethnic group, were long known as Afghans, but in modern times the term Afghan denotes nationality for all citizens of the country.

• Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747.
• Afghanistan was a monarchy from 1747 and the country served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won independence from British control in 1919.
• A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup when military officers overthrew the king and established a republic, which was followed by a Communist counter-coup in 1978.
• In 1979, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) invaded Afghanistan to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off the long and destructive Soviet-Afghan War.
• The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels.
• Subsequently, the country endured a series of civil wars and anarchy until 1996, when an Islamic fundamentalist movement called the Taliban seized control of Kabul. A hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994, the Taliban gave refuge to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, under Osama Bin Ladin.
• Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, U.S. military and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001.
• The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution and a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005.
• On 7 December 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan. The National Assembly was inaugurated on 19 December 2005.