Zahir Shah and his Uncles
1933-53

Three of the Musahiban brothers were still alive after Nadir Shah's death, and they exercised decisive influence over decisionmaking during the first 20 years of Zahir Shah's reign.

The eldest, Muhammad Hashim, who had been prime minister under the late king, retained that post until 1946, when he was replaced by the youngest of the Musahiban brothers, Shah Mahmud.

Hashim is described by Fraser-Tytler as a statesman of great administrative ability and high personal integrity who devoted all of his energy to his country. In the months immediately following Nadir Shah's assassination, while the tribes remained quiet and the followers of ex-king Amanullah remained disorganized and impotent, Hashim began to put into practice the policies already planned by the Musahiban brothers. Internal objectives of the new Afghan government, up to the outbreak of World War II, were focused on improving the army and developing the economy (including transport and communications). Both goals, however, required external assistance. Seeking to avoid involvement with the Soviet Union and Britain, Hashim turned to a far-off nation that had both the interest and the technical expertise required-Germany. By 1935 the Afghan government had invited German experts and businessmen to help set up factories and build hydroelectric projects. Lesser amounts of aid were also accepted from Italy and Japan, but these two countries did not achieve Germany's level of prominence in Afghanistan's foreign relations. By the beginning of the 1940s Germany was Afghanistan's most important foreign friend.

Afghanistan joined the League of Nations in 1934, the same year that the United States accorded Afghanistan official recognition. Regional ties to nearby Islamic states were reinforced by the conclusion in 1937 of friendship and nonaggression pacts with Turkey and Iran. Although never implemented because World War II intervened, Dupree notes that the pacts laid the groundwork for coordination among the three states in later periods. The relationship with Turkey was especially close.

A few relatively minor uprisings along the Afghan border, including one on behalf of ex-king Amanullah, occurred late in the 1930s, but these were overshadowed by the outbreak of World War II. The king issued a proclamation of Afghan neutrality on August 17, 1940, but the Allies were unhappy with the presence of a large group of German nondiplomatic personnel. In October the British and Soviet governments demanded that Afghanistan expel all nondiplomatic personnel from the Axis nations. The Afghan government considered this an insulting and illegitimate demand, but it undoubtedly found instructive the example of Iran, which Britain and the Soviet Union had invaded and occupied in August 1941 after the Iranian government ignored a similar demand. Zahir Shah and his advisers found a face-saving response, ordering all nondiplomatic personnel from the belligerent countries out of Afghanistan. A Loya Jirgah called by the king at this time supported his policy of absolute neutrality. Although World War II disrupted Afghanistan's incipient foreign relationships and to some extent the government's domestic goals, it also provided larger markets for Afghan agricultural produce (especially in India). By the war's end the government had exchanged official missions with both China and the United States, and the latter had replaced Britain as the major market for Afghanistan's principal export, karakul skins.

Shortly after the end of the war, Shah Mahmud replaced his older brother as prime minister, ushering in a period of great change in both the internal and external politics of Afghanistan. Among other things, the new prime minister presided over the inauguration of the giant Helmand Valley Project (which brought Afghanistan into a closer relationship with the United States) and the beginning of relations with the newly created nation of Pakistan, which inherited the Pashtuns on the side of the Durand Line formerly ruled by Britain. The issue of Pashtunistan (or Pakhtunistan)-agitation for an independent or semi-independent state to include the Pashto and Pakhtu speakers within Pakistan, whether officially joined with Afghanistan or not-would have a resounding impact on Afghanistan politics, as would the political liberalization inaugurated by Shah Mahmud.

The Helmand Valley Project, inaugurated in 1945 with an agreement between the Afghan government and an American company, was designed to harness the irrigation and hydroelectric potential of the Helmand. There were myriad problems with the project, and although parts of it were completed before 1953, it was not until Daoud became prime minister in 1953 that the project began to move toward completion.