Emirate of Afghanistan

The Emirate of Afghanistan was the Central Asian state that carried the Afghan lands from the fallen Durrani Empire to the twentieth century, lasting from 1823 to 1926. When the Durrani house collapsed, the Barakzai chief Dost Mohammad seized Kabul and built a new emirate on tribal loyalty and British subsidies in turn. Its history is the Great Game in miniature: caught between Russia pushing south and Britain guarding India, the emirs survived by playing the empires against each other. The British invaded in 1838, installed a puppet, and were destroyed in the retreat from Kabul in 1842, after which Dost Mohammad returned to his throne. A second invasion in 1878 forced his grandson's grandson to sign the Treaty of Gandamak, surrendering the frontier districts and foreign policy to Britain. Abdur Rahman, the Iron Emir, used British guns and gold to crush rival chiefs and draw the borders of the modern country. In 1926 his grandson Amanullah exchanged the old title of emir for king, and the emirate became a kingdom.