Amanullah Khan

Amanullah Khan became Emir in 1919 and within months ended the Third Anglo-Afghan War, severing Afghanistan's protected status under the United Kingdom and claiming full sovereignty. He declared himself King in 1926 and pushed sweeping modernization — Western-style institutions, social liberalization — that alienated conservative and tribal power centers. In January 1929, an uprising led by Habibullah Kalakani forced him to abdicate and flee to British India as civil war spread. He spent three decades in European exile, eventually dying in Zürich on 26 April 1960. His body was returned and bur…