Afghanistan, af-gan-is-tan', the land of the Afghans, a lofty plateau of Central Asia. The area is placed at 250,000 square miles, about three times that of Minnesota. Afghanistan lies east of Iran, from which country it may be entered by means of tedious caravan routes, leading ankle deep through burning sands; or the traveler coming by way of India may spend weeks climbing upward through the stony defiles of the Himalayas. For nearly a century this country was a bone of contention between the British authorities on the south and Russian influence on the north. In 1907 Great Britain and Russia entered into an agreement whereby the former undertook "neither to annex nor occupy any portion of Afghanistan nor to interfere in the internal administration of the country," provided the Amir keeps his word with the British government. The Russians on their part declared that Afghanistan is without the sphere of Russian influence. They engaged to conduct their political negotiations with Afghanistan through British channels. The agreement contains a clause that both countries are to have the same commercial opportunity. Afghanistan continued as a monarchy until 1973, when the king was overthrown by military officers and the country was proclaimed a republic. In 1979 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) invaded Afghanistan, precipitating the decade-long Afghan-Soviet War. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the country erupted in civil war. Guerrilla groups that had fought against the Soviets continued to oppose the Soviet-installed central government; it fell in 1992 and anarchy prevailed until the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement, seized control of Kabul in 1996. By the late 1990s, most of the rest of the country had come under the control of the Taliban, which enforced a strict form of Islamic rule. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the Taliban was accused of harboring international terrorists. Aided by U.S. and British troops, a coalition of opposition forces known as the Northern Alliance drove the Taliban from power in late 2001. The swarthy Afghans are a haughty, warlike, treacherous, bargaining race of hillsmen of white blood. They are akin to the Persians who also make up a considerable part of the 5,000,000 population. They hate the British by whom they have been drubbed unmercifully, but they deem it wise to accept money, guns, cannon, and ammunition, and to tolerate a sort of British protectorship. Save certain Tartar elements the religion of the people is Mohammedan. The government is rapacious, arbitrary, and cruel, but it fits in with local ideas of religion, and any change would be regarded with fanatic suspicion. The ruler is called the Amir. He resides at Kabul, a town of 70,000 people. Afghanistan is called a buffer state because it protects British India from Russia. Travelers give various pictures of the country. One describes bare mountains, sandy wastes, dried up mountain torrents, glaring sun, and sand storms. Another speaks of eternal snowcaps on the mountains, desolate gray landscapes, blizzards, and the reign of winter. Another speaks of fierce mountain tribesmen, assassinations, highway robbery, poverty, starvation, a lean and hungry land, and slaves toiling for hard masters. Others, again, speak of goats on the mountain slopes, waters guided along channels to irrigate fruitful meadows, gardens, orchards, and fields. The picturesque Arab-like Afghan who rides, fights, and trades; his caravan routes, trading towns, looms, shawls, and merchandise, attract the attention of others. No doubt the mountains are rich in minerals. Copper, iron, lead, and gold are obtained in small quantities. Lapis lazuli and other precious stones are found. Wheat, barley, and peas are sown in the fall and reaped in early summer. Rice, millet, and Indian corn are planted in the spring and gathered in the fall. Irrigated orchards produce apples, pears, almonds, peaches, quinces, plums, apricots, pomegranates, figs, and mulberries in abundance. Fresh, preserved, and dried fruits form a considerable part of the food of the people. American orchards and gardens are indebted to Afghanistan for choice species of fruit trees and ornamental shrubs. Fruits, silks, felts, rugs, carpets, musk, asafoetida, castor oil, madder, and indigo are for sale, as well as spices, wool, cattle, hides, tobacco, and tea. At present, merchandise is carried by means of horses and camels, but railroads are entering the country by way of Russia, Persia, and India. See RUSSIA; ASIA.