Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919, Afghanistan was able to relinquish its protected state status to proclaim independence and pursue an independent foreign policy free from the influence of the United Kingdom. His rule was marked by dramatic political and social change, including attempts to modernise Afghanistan along Western lines. He did not fully succeed in achieving this objective due to an uprising by Habibullah Kalakani and his followers. On 14 January 1929, Amanullah abdicated and fled to neighbouring British India as the Afghan Civil War began to escalate. From British India, he went to Europe, where after 30 years in exile, he died in Italy, in 1960 (yet apparently and reportedly according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Amanullah died in Zürich in Switzerland). His body was brought to Afghanistan and buried in Jalalabad near his father Habibullah Khan's tomb. Early years Amanullah Khan was born on 1 June 1892, in Paghman near Kabul, Afghanistan. He was the favoured and the third son of the Emir Habibullah Khan. Amanullah was installed as the governor of Kabul, and was in control of the army and the treasury. He gained the allegiance of most of the tribal leaders. In February 1919, Emir Habibullah Khan went on a hunting trip to Afghanistan's Laghman Province. Among those in his retinue were his brother Nasrullah Khan, Habibullah's first son Inayatullah, and Habibullah's commander-in-chief Nadir Khan. On the evening of 20 February 1919, Habibullah was assassinated while in his tent by Shuja ul-Dawla (one of the pages who slept in his tent) on orders from his younger son, Amanullah, leaving Nasrullah as successor to the Afghan throne. Nasrullah at first refused to take the throne and declared his allegiance to Inayatullah, Habibullah's first born son. Inayatullah refused and said that his father had made Nasrullah the rightful heir and wanted him to become Emir. All the local tribespeople gave their allegiance to Nasrullah, who was a pious and religious man. The remainder of Habibullah's party journeyed southeast to Jalalabad, and on 21 February 1919 reached the city, where Nasrullah was declared Emir, supported by Habibullah's first son Inayatullah. Amanullah Khan, third son of Habibullah by Habibullah's first wife,