Amanullah Khan was crowned the Amir of Afghanistan after his father, Amir Habibullah was assassinated in February 1919. Amanullah Khan was fiercely anti-British and wanted to destroy an old agreement which gave the British control over Afghanistan's foreign policy. The British resisted this move, and so began the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919). After a brief struggle, the British were forced to negotiate and in the end surrendered their control over Afghanistan's foreign policy.

Afterwards, Amanullah became a national hero, and was given the tile Ghazi. He then turned his attention to modernizing Afghanistan. He changed his title from Amir to Padshah (King) in 1926. King Amanullah's modernization plans were not greeted so warmly by everyone in Afghanistan, and as result, many tribes revolted. In the end, the revolt caused Amanullah Khan the throne. He left Afghanistan and lived in exile in Italy and Switzerland. He died in 1960, and was buried in Jalalabad, near his father's tomb

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south-central Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast. The territories now comprising Afghanistan have been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. The land is at an important geostrategic location, connecting East, South, West and Central Asia, and has been home to various peoples through the ages. The region has been a target of various invaders since antiquity, including Alexander the Great, the Mauryan Empire, Muslim armies, and Genghis Khan, and has served as a source from which many kingdoms, such as the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Timurids, and many others have risen to form empires of their own.

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