Afghanistan: History Repeating Itself?

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The collapse of the Afghan army and government and takeover by the Taliban has evoked many historical comparisons, but how valid are they? To find out Dan is joined by author, historian and friend of the podcast William Dalrymple to delve into the deeper history of Afghanistan. In particular, William and Dan discuss the First Afghan War which ended in one of the great catastrophes of British imperial history. In early 1842 a British force was slaughtered or died of exposure as they attempted to retreat from Kabul to Jalalabad. This defeat for the British remains a powerful symbol in Afghanistan even today. William explains what happened that terrible winter and how the events of Afghanistan's colonial past still influence its people and politics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Dance Noes History at Following the Events in Afghanistan this week
0:04.3	and we decided to record an emergency.
0:05.8	Well a couple of them actually podcasted which is the first one.
0:08.5	This is with William Dalrymple, the brilliant author prize winning Lord and celebrated author
0:14.0	historian, who had known his podcast many times before.
0:17.2	He has been so influential writing his history of this part of the world that we know from
0:20.8	leaked diplomatic cables that Harry Clinton was furious that Hamid Karzai president of
0:24.9	Afghanistan was reading William Dalrymple that his head be turned by the deeper history
0:30.6	of Afghanistan.
0:31.6	And he's coming on talk to me today mainly about the first Anglo-Afghan war.
0:35.7	The worth three of them, I guess there's now four of them I suppose.
0:38.8	But at the first Anglo-Afghan war, 1839 to 42ish ended in one of the great catastrophes
0:46.4	of British imperial history.
0:48.0	In 1842, right at the beginning of the year, a British commanded force largely made up
0:52.6	of Indian, East India company troops, Indian mercenaries if you like, and civilians,
0:56.5	was ambushed as they retreated from Kabul to Jalalabad around 90 miles away.
1:02.6	Thousands and thousands of people were killed or perished in the terrible winter conditions.
1:07.3	It is one of the most infamous, one of the greatest reverses in the history of European
1:12.6	imperialism at the hands of local resistance.
1:15.6	Tomorrow you'll be hearing from an American policymaker who was in the White House on
1:19.5	the President Bush and President Obama.
1:22.6	Today it's all about William Dowrymple looking at some of the deeper history.
	...

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