What is it about this shithole has made empires want it? Has

>>1584795
It's literally in the most central possible position in Asia. It itself is completely unremarkable shithole but it sits on one version of the Silk road, on route from Central Asia to South Asia (very important during the Great Game) and from East or South Asia into Iran and the Middle East.

Besides that it's a little bit fascinating for being categorically impossible to categorize. It's equally Southern, Western and Central Asian states that has ties to all those but that doesn't really belong in any of them.

>>1584795
>What is it about this shithole has made empires want it?
opium

It wasn't a shithole until the Mongols took it.

Afterwards, it was located in between Russian colonial possessions and British colonial possessions, and the great game kicked in from there.

>>1584795
It's the gateway to India, and mostly wanted by Central Asian Turkic rulers looking to raid India for its riches.

>>1584795
It was a buffer state between the Russian Empire and british India as you can see by the borders (tiny strip of land that separe former russian lands from modern day Pakistan) . The bongs didn't want their most precious dominion to be endangered by the ruskies, so here we have Afghanistan.

Isn't Afghanistan a feudal clusterfuck of different ethnic groups? How does it even stay together, and how is it an actual country?

From what I hear the Pashtuns are the most dominant group yet only make up like 30-40% of the total population.

>>1584834
>How does it even stay together,
stingers.

>>1584834
Before the commies fucked it up, it was a decentralized feudal system with a weak but generally respected monarchy.

Afterwards, a failed state.

>>1584834
It's not so much ethnic differences, most of the population is Pashtun or Tajik, it's the fact that tribal identity trumps everything else.

>>1584808
>It's literally in the most central possible position in Asia
[citation needed]

>>1584834
>How does it even stay together,

It doesn't.

>>1584850
>Before the commies fucked it up

And Americans. Taliban own 40% of Afghanistan today.

>>1584943
The Taliban was a Pakistani movement.

Certainly, the US supported the Pakistani government during the 80s, and that contributed to the rise of the Taliban.

The actual Mujihadeen were a surprisingly small amount of the problem compared to the scumbags running Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Hindsight is 20/20

>>1584834
Islam

>>1584957
Truth.

File: Near East Middle East Far East_zpsbokzhnf5.png (180KB, 1024x711px) Image search: [Google]

180KB, 1024x711px

>>1584808
it borders iran, turkmen countries, India, and China.
It's basically the Southern land corridor that directly links the near east and the far east

[pic related]

>>1584876
It is roughly 40% pashtun, 40% hazara and 20% other (tadjik, Turkmen, paki and persians) >>1584893