Amanullah Khan e le Relazioni Internazionali con l'Italia

Abstract

Afghanistan has become important in the world above all owing to the 11th september. However the story of this middle eastern country is very complexed and has very remote origins. This land is known to be very conservative and traditionalist, but few of us are aware of the revolutionary moment that it has lived during the 20s, under the power of the reformer king Amanullah Khan. Amanullah succeeded the father, Habibullah Khan, after his death in 1919. Differently from the past sovereigns, Amanullah wanted to transform his country, more in line with the occidental countries. Unfortunately, in that period Afghanistan was under the british influence and to realize his dream of greatness, the new emir had to conquer the independence from it; determined in actualizing his plan, Amanullah declared war on the British Empire: the third anglo-afghan battle began in 1919 and finished few moths later with the sign of the Rawalpindy Treaty. Afghanistan was finally independent and the emir started his program of modernization, for example, writing a new constitution, declaring new rights for women, transforming his title from emir to king. In order to consolidate his power, Amanullah started to forge ties with the most important european countries, including Italy. The foreign relations between Rome and Kabul began in 1921, when Italy first recognized the independence of Afghanistan. The relationship was inconstant, above all after the nominee of Mussolini as head of the government and the Piperno affair who threatened the friendship between the two countries. But the link became stronger after the visit of Amanullah in Rome in 1928 and his election as “Cousin of the King” by Vittorio Emanuele III. In 1928, the conservative and traditionalist groups in Afghanistan started to oppose and rebel to Amanullah’s new modern laws and wanted his resignation. Scared for his life and family Amanullah went to exile first to India and then to Italy, from where he tried in vain to regain the throne and where he lived till his death in 1968.