Afghanistan, meaning land of the Afghans[10], has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. The country is at an important geostrategic location, connecting East, South, West and Central Asia,[11] and has been home to various peoples through the ages. The region has been a target of various invaders since antiquity, including Ancient Macedonians led by Alexander the Great, Muslim armies, Mongols and others. Afghanistan has served as a source from which many kingdoms, such as the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Timurids, and others have risen to form empires and influence neighboring regions.[12]
The political history of Afghanistan begins in the 18th century with the rise of Pashtun tribes (known as Afghans in Persian), when in 1709 the Hotaki dynasty established its rule in Kandahar and, more specifically, when Ahmad Shah Durrani created the Durrani Empire in 1747 - the last Afghan Empire[13] and the forerunner of modern Afghanistan.[14][15][16] Its capital was shifted in 1776 from Kandahar to Kabul and most of its territories ceded to neighboring empires. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in "The Great Game" played between the British and Russian empires.[17] On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained independence from the United Kingdom over its foreign affairs.
Since the late 1970s Afghanistan has experienced a continuous state of civil war punctuated by foreign occupations in the forms of the 1979 Soviet invasion and the October 2001 US-led invasion that overthrew the Taliban government. In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council authorized the creation of an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help maintain security and assist the Karzai administration. The country is being rebuilt slowly with support from the international community and dealing with a strong Taliban insurgency.