Since the formation of Pakistan, Afghanistan has nurtured an irredentist claim to the lands west of the Indus, a misplaced dream rooted more in myth than in history. From the Treaty of Gandamak (1879) to the Durand Agreement (1893), every major accord had already delimited Afghanistan’s authority long before Pakistan was born. By the mid-19th century, Afghan rule had receded from Punjab and Peshawar; by the Treaty of Gandamak, it had surrendered control of its remaining frontier regions to the British, a concession that reshaped the political map of the region. Modern Afghanistan itself had taken form only in the mid-18th century under Ahmad Shah Durrani, whose brief empire stretched from Mashhad to Multan before fragmenting under the weight of tribal rivalries and imperial pressures.
The Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880) stands as one such defining moment in South Asian history.
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