Why does mountainous, poor and backward Afghanistan always become the object of conquest by great powers?

When it comes to Afghanistan, what do people think of? War, refugees, poverty, limited resources? These words have been accompanied by the development history of Afghanistan, making this country a poor and backward landlocked country. Afghanistan has a land area of only 652,000 square kilometers. This country belongs to a typical subtropical continental climate, so it has formed desert and mountainous terrain. Due to the dry climate and traffic congestion, Afghanistan cannot develop any modern industry at all, and can only export commodities featuring handicrafts. However, Afghanistan, which ranks among the least developed countries, has become the object that many big countries want to conquer most. What is the reason?

Map of Afghanistan

First of all, Afghanistan's strategic position is very important, and geopolitical issues are the main reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan by big countries. Afghanistan is located at the crossroads of Iran, Arabian Sea, India and Central Asia. Whether in the past or now, Afghanistan has always been a springboard and outpost between these big countries and civilized regions. For example, in the 1930 s, Hitler tried to infiltrate fascist forces into the khanate of Afghanistan and turned this country into a stronghold to contain British India. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and tried to use it as a springboard to go south to Southeast Asia, which promoted the new process of hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the cold war, the United States? Greater Middle East? The strategic concept once again included Afghanistan in the invasion target.

Soviet troops in Afghanistan

These countries all want to achieve their strategic goals through Afghanistan's important geographical location. In 1980s, the reason why the United States intervened in the Afghan dispute and supported the Taliban was to prevent Afghanistan from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States launched the war in Afghanistan, so its influence on the five Central Asian countries surged. This time, Russia is unwilling.

Because Russia doesn't want to see any Central Asian country fall into the arms of the United States and threaten Russia's security, Russia should also try its best to intervene in Afghan affairs and safeguard its important position in Central Asia. Both the United States and Russia have strong geopolitical purposes, so they will not miss any opportunity to intervene in the civil strife in Afghanistan.

Begging Afghans

Secondly, Afghanistan's invisible resources are far more than imagined, which is also the deep intention of the great powers to conquer Afghanistan. 20 10 according to American media reports, the United States secretly sent explorers as early as 2004, and they found mineral resources with a total value of more than 1 trillion dollars in Afghanistan, which will support Afghanistan to become one of the richest countries in the world after the war.

Overnight, Afghanistan went from a poor and war-torn country to? Rich as oil? A big country with mineral resources. But as far as Afghanistan's extremely depressed economy is concerned, the country simply has no ability to exploit mineral resources normally in a short time. This undoubtedly gave these big countries the opportunity to conquer Afghanistan and plunder mineral resources.

Afghan children in the war

Finally, a big country conquering Afghanistan can not only develop the original mineral resources of this country, but also become a monopolist of oil and gas resources in Central Asia. Central Asian countries are called? Persian Gulf in 2 1 century? Because there are abundant oil and gas resources here, and Afghanistan is an ideal channel to connect oil and gas resources in Central Asia, in order to break Russia's monopoly position in oil and gas exploration and development in Central Asian countries and gain a share in the competition of oil and gas resources in Central Asia, Afghanistan naturally becomes a victim of the big country game.