Amanullah Khan

Amanullah Khan

1892--1960, emir (1919--26) and king (1926--29) of Afghanistan; he obtained Afghan independence from Britain (1919)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Amanullah Khan

 

Born June 1, 1892; died Apr. 25, 1960. King of Afghanistan, 1919–29. One of the sons of Amir Habibullah.

Amanullah Khan came to power on Feb. 21, 1919, and on Feb. 28, 1919, he proclaimed the independence of Afghanistan. The exchange of friendly messages between Amanullah Khan and V. I. Lenin in 1919 resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia. In 1921 and 1926 treaties were signed by Afghanistan and the USSR. The 1926 treaty ensured neutrality and mutual nonaggression between the two countries. Amanullah Khan’s domestic reforms, which were guided by the ideas of the young Afghans, promoted the centralization of the country and the bourgeois transformation of its economy. In 1928, Amanullah Khan visited the USSR. The an-tigovernment uprising of 1928–29, led by Bacha-i Saqao and supported by British imperialism, forced Amanullah Khan to renounce the throne and emigrate. He died in Zurich and was buried in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.