Pakistan (803 ' 940 km2), country whose Indus constitutes the backbone, is located at the Western limit of the climatic field of monsoon. On most of its territory, except of course Himalayan North, the natural environment approaches the dry grounds of the deserts of Iran and Arabia.
First ages of Indus
It is on the current Pakistani territory that opened out, there are 4000 or 5000 years, the first civilizations, those of Indus. Dravidian people occupy the north of the Indian sub-continent and settle close to the rivers, where, thanks to their control of the irrigation, they practice the cultivation of cereals. At this point in time develops an urban civilization of which remain, in particular, the vestiges of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. An advanced town planning - where warehouses abound, silos, tanks and earthenware jars - is used as support with the appearance of a caste of merchants who will weave bonds with the Sumerian ones of Mésopotamie. The writing, known by short inscriptions on seals, remains enigmatic. The decline of these civilizations is towards 1800 av. J. - C.
Waves of invaders
Towards half of the II E thousand-year-old front J. - C. break the first invaders from Central Asia. These Indo-European, or Aryan people, when they do not war, are itinerant pastors. They bring the metallurgy of iron, the use of the horse and an social organization based on the system of the castes. After having pushed back the Dravidian populations, which flee towards the south of the Indian peninsula, they are turned into a sedentary population then undergo the attacks of new invasions come from the North-West. The great urban centres are on a downward slope with them.
Dominations and empires follow one another the wire of the centuries then. The areas of plain of Indus are integrated into the Empire achéménide and pour tribute with the King of the kings. Alexandre the Large one launches a forwarding until Pendjab and goes down again the course of Indus in 326 av. J. - C. current Pakistan is then divided between the empire of Mauryas and the kingdoms gréco-bactriens. Açoka (III E front century J. - C.) there propagates the Buddhist faith; starting from Gandhara, this one radiates towards the Central Asia and the Far East.
Subjected to various invasions - from which those of Guptas and Huns -, the area fall into anarchy and is divided, starting from the O C century apr. J. - C., in small kingdoms.
Diffusion of Islam and Mogul Empire
The Arabs, who penetrate in Sind towards 712, diffuse Islam. This area for a time is included in the caliphate of Baghdad. In Pendjab, Islamized in its turn, follow one another during more than three hundred and fifty years Turkish and Afghan dynasties
In 1526, the emir Baber, come from Fergana, crosses the master keys which separate Afghanistan from Pakistan and extends his power of Agra beyond. It is the beginning of the Mogul Empire. Fathers and sons follow one another on four generations in the one hundred fifty years space, which allows a remarkable stability of the administration and a sometimes sumptuous blooming of the social life, artistic and cultural.
It is in connection with the four emperors Akbar, Djahangir, Chah Djahan and Aurangzeb, which one uses the expression “Large Mogul”. The emperors are guards of the letters and arts. The cities open out with their mosques, their palates, their walls enclosing and their gardens. Lahore becomes one of the capitals of Large Mogul, as well as Delhi or Agra. The cultural blooming of the Mogul Empire culminates under the reign of Akbar (1556-1605). To the XVIII E century, the Empire is declining and splits up under the pressure of the Neighboring states.
British domination
The grounds of Indus fall under the British domination during first half of the XIX E century. After a first anglo-Afghan war, Sind passes under the control of the British Crown in 1843 and Pendjab is occupied by the English Company of the Indies six years later. The revolt of the cipayes (1857-1858), repressed hard, is the last nationalist start of the Moslem princes: Pakistan is included in the empire of the Indies. The Moslems are isolated political responsibilities and administrative, more readily entrusted to the Hindus, and very little are enlisted in the army.
The creation of Pakistan
The year 1946 sees multiplying the bloody clashes between the two communities. The viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, are constrained to accept the partition. The proclamation of independence (August 14th, 1947) is accompanied by solid masses and fatal transfers of population: 8 million Hindus and Sikh is transferred from Pendjab towards the Indian territory; more than 6 million Moslems of India take refuge in Pakistan. The new State covers 23 % of the Indian sub-continent and shelters the three fifths of the Moslems of the South Asia. It shows the characteristic to be made up of two entities territorial apart 1700 km.
Eastern Pakistan understands Eastern Bengal, Western Pakistan gathers Sind, Western Pendjab, Baloutchistan, the frontier provinces of the North-West and a certain number of small States which chose to adopt the new Islamic nation.
Antagonism indo-Pakistani
The new State is in the grip of very great difficulties: it is necessary to reinstall the refugees, to create an administration, to set up an army, to found an industry, to divide with India water of Pendjab and especially to ensure the operation of a burst geographical entity. The question of the Cashmere, moreover, is a permanent source of very serious tensions with India.
On the internal plan the coups d'etat follow one another which carry to the power of the successive teams of soldiers. Dissatisfaction is especially pronounced in Eastern Pakistan, where the Moslem population Bengali, organized within the Awami league, feels nearer to India (country where it is wedged) that of dominating Western Pakistan although more remote. The disorders follow one another and the civil war bursts in 1971: the Pakistani army intervenes in Bengal. An open conflict opposes it to the Indian army, which supports Bengal. Demolishes, Pakistan is constrained to accept a cease-fire on on December 16th. Pakistan Eastern, independent, becomes Bangladesh. Pakistan, which withdrew itself from the Commonwealth in 1972, recognizes the new State in 1974.
Of Ali with Benazir Bhutto, then Nawaz Sharif
Pakistan is an Islamic Republic where the political life, very run up against, is marked by the weight of the soldiers. After the scission of Bangladesh, Ali Bhutto, who must strengthen the national cohesion of the new Pakistani entity, makes adopt in 1973 a Constitution establishing a presidential regime.
But, whereas the political life remains very animated, the general Zia ul-Haq organizes a coup d'etat in July 1977, seizes the power and founds the martial law. The presidential power is reinforced, while the army is very strongly implied in the political arena. A system technocratico-soldier dominates the country with the downstream of the owners of great semi-feudal fields. The opponents are imprisoned. The hanging of Ali Bhutto in 1979 raises an international reprobation; the press is narrowly monitored. The general Zia ul-Haq supports a rigorous practice of Islam.
After its disappearance in an air crash (1988), it is replaced by Ghulam Ishaq Khan, then president of the Senate. This one calls at the post of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, girl of Ali Bhutto, after the victory of the PPP (Pakistan' S People Party) to the elections of 1988.
In 1990, the first woman to direct a Moslem country is relieved and replaced by Mian Nawaz Sharif, which is opposed very quickly to the president of the Republic. The organized legislative elections in October 1993 bring back Benazir Bhutto to the power. But, after being dislocated of its functions in November 1996, by the president of the Republic, Farooq Ahmed Leghari, using of her constitutional powers like asked him the opposition, Benazir Bhutto, undergoes the following year a severe defeat with the legislative elections; Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, chief of the Moslem League which removes the three quarters of the seats, becomes the new Prime Minister for the country.
In 1998, Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, member of the Moslem League, succeed Farooq Ahmed Leghari, resigner, in charge of the State. In 1999, the signature with India, of a historical agreement to reduce the accidental war risks nuclear between the two countries, did not prevent old antagonisms from re-appearing, and the two signatories to devote itself to a new higher bid of nuclear tests.