Iraq

The territory of modern Iraq is roughly equivalent to that of ancient Mesopotamia, which fostered a succession of early civilizations. Of these, the earliest known was the civilization of Sumer, which arose probably in the 4th millennium  BC and had its final flowering under the 3rd Dynasty of Ur at the close of the 3rd millennium BC. Periods of control by Babylonia and Assyria followed. In 539 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia gained control of the region, which remained under Persian rule until the conquest by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. After Alexander's death the Greek Seleucid dynasty reigned in Mesopotamia for some 200 years, infusing the region with Hellenistic culture. A long period followed under new Persian dynasties (Arsacids, Sassanids) until Muslim Arabs overran the region in the 7th century AD. From 750 to 1258 Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid caliphs. After the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258 and further pillage by the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane in the following century, Turkish and Iranian rulers vied for supremacy until the Ottoman Empire finally secured its control in the 17th century. Turkish Supremacy The history of modern Iraq properly begins with the last phase of Turkish rule, during the 19th century. For several centuries following the initial Turkish conquest in 1534, Turkish rule had been exercised through local sovereigns, and many of the nomadic Arab tribes were never fully brought under Ottoman control. In 1831, however, Sultan Ali Reza Pasha deposed the last local Mesopotamian ruler, Daud Pasha, and the province of Iraq, then subdivided into the three vilayets, or administrative districts, of Mosul, Baghdad, and Al Basrah, came directly under Turkish administration. The Arabs began to experience the burdens of the new and more efficient methods of Turkish administration, particularly with regard to tax collection. Local resentment of the centralized authority of the empire began to develop, giving rise to a strong spirit of Arab nationalism. In the latter part of the 19th century Great Britain and Germany became rivals in the commercial development of the Mesopotamian area. The British first became interested in Iraq as a direct overland route to India, and in 1861 established a steamship company for the navigation of the Tigris to the port of Al Basrah. Meanwhile, Germany was planning the construction of a railroad in the Middle East-to run "from Berlin to Baghdad"-and, overcoming British opposition, obtained a concession to build a railroad to the Persian Gulf. Despite this defeat, the British government managed to consolidate its position in the Persian Gulf area by concluding treaties of protection with local Arab chieftains. British financiers were also successful in obtaining a concession in 1901 to exploit the oil fields of Iran; in 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) was formed to develop this new industry. After Turkey entered World War I (1914-1918) as an ally of the German Empire, British forces invaded southern Mesopotamia in November 1914 and gradually pushed northward against heavy Turkish opposition. In March 1917 the British occupied Baghdad. Mesopotamia was fully under British military control by October 1918. British Mandate Early in the war, in order to ensure the interest of the Arabs in a military uprising against the Turks, the British government had promised a group of Arab leaders that their people would receive independence if a revolt proved successful. In June 1916 an uprising occurred in Al �ijaz (the Hejaz), led by Faisal al-Husein, later Faisal I, first king of Iraq. Under the leadership of British General Edmund Allenby and the tactical direction of British Colonel T. E. Lawrence, the Arab and British forces achieved dramatic successes against the Turkish army and succeeded in liberating the Arabian territory. In 1918 an armistice was signed with Turkey, and the British and French governments issued a joint declaration stating their intention to assist in establishing independent Arab nations in the Arab areas formerly controlled by Turkey. In July 1920, when the Mesopotamian Arabs learned of the decision of the Supreme Allied Council, they began an armed uprising against the British government, then still occupying Iraq. The British were forced to spend huge amounts of money to quell the revolt, and the government of Great Britain concluded that it would be expedient to terminate its mandate in Mesopotamia. The British civil commissioner thereupon drew up a plan for a provisional government of the new state of Iraq: It was to be a kingdom, with a government directed by a council of Arab ministers under the supervision of a British high commissioner. Faisal was invited to become the ruler of the new nation. In August 1921 a plebiscite elected Faisal king of Iraq; he won 96 percent of the votes cast in the election. Monarchy Established The integrity of the newly established state was menaced from without by Arabia to the south and Turkey to the north, and from within by various groups with separatist aspirations, such as the Shiites of the Euphrates River area and the Kurdish tribes of the north. These groups acted in conjunction with Turkish armed forces endeavoring to reclaim the lands in the Mosul area for Turkey. The British were thus forced to maintain an army in Iraq, and agitation against the British mandate continued. King Faisal formally requested that the mandate under which Iraq was held be transformed into a treaty of alliance between the two nations. The British government concurred, and in June 1922, a 20-year treaty of alliance and protection between Great Britain and Iraq was signed. In the spring of 1924 a constituent assembly was convened. It passed an organic law establishing the permanent form of the government of Iraq. Elections for the first Iraqi parliament were held in March 1925. In the same year a concession was granted to an internationally owned oil company to develop the oil reserves of the Baghdad and Mosul regions. In 1927 King Faisal requested that the British support Iraq's application for admission to the League of Nations. The British refused to take such action at that time, but in June 1930 a treaty between Great Britain and Iraq included a recommendation by Great Britain that Iraq be admitted to the League of Nations as a free and independent state in 1932. The recommendation was made that year and the British mandate was formally terminated. In October 1932 Iraq joined the League of Nations as an independent sovereign state. King Faisal I died in 1933 and was succeeded by his son, King Ghazi I. Foreign Agreements In 1931 the exploitation of the oil reserves in Iraq was further advanced by an agreement signed by the Iraqi government and the Iraq Petroleum Company, an internationally owned organization composed of Royal-Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, French oil companies, and the Standard Oil companies of New York and New Jersey. The agreement granted the Iraq Petroleum Company the sole right to develop the oil fields of the Mosul region, in return for which the company guaranteed to pay the Iraqi government annual royalties. In 1934 the company opened an oil pipeline from Mosul to Tripoli, Lebanon, and a second one to Haifa, in what is now Israel, was completed in 1936. In 1936 Iraq, under King Ghazi, began to move toward a general alliance with the other nations of the Arab world in forming the so-called Pan-Arab movement. A treaty of nonaggression, reaffirming a fundamental Arab kinship, was signed with the king of Saudi Arabia in the same year. In April 1939 King Ghazi was killed in an automobile accident, leaving his three-year-old son the titular king, as Faisal II, under a regency. World War II In accordance with its treaty of alliance with Great Britain, Iraq broke off diplomatic relations with Germany early in September 1939 and during the first few months of World War II had a pro-British government under Premier General Nuri as-Said. In March 1940, however, Said was replaced by Rashid Ali al-Gailani, an extreme Arab nationalist, who embarked at once on a policy of noncooperation with the British. British pressure for the implementation of the Anglo-Iraqi alliance precipitated a military revolt on April 30, 1941, and a new pro-Axis government headed by Premier Gailani was formed. Alarmed at this development, the British landed troops at Al Basrah. Declaring this action a violation of the treaty between Great Britain and Iraq, Gailani mobilized the Iraqi army, and war between the two countries began in May. Later that month the government of Iraq conceded defeat. The armistice terms provided for the reestablishment of British control over Iraq's transport, a provision of the 1930 treaty of alliance. Shortly afterward a pro-British government was formed, later superseded by a cabinet headed by Said. In 1942 Iraq became an important supply center for British and American forces operating in the Middle East and for the transshipment of arms to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). On January 17, 1943, Iraq declared war on the Axis powers, the first independent Muslim state to do so. Meanwhile, Iraq's continuing assistance to the Allied war effort made possible a stronger stand by Arab leaders on behalf of a federation of Arab states. War with Israel Throughout 1945 and 1946 the Kurdish tribes of northeastern Iraq were in a state of unrest, supported, it was believed, by the USSR. The British, fearing Soviet encroachment on the Iraqi oil fields, moved troops into Iraq. In 1947 Said began to advocate a new proposal for a federated Arab state. This time he suggested that Transjordan (present-day Jordan) and Iraq be united, and he began negotiations with the king of Transjordan regarding the effectuation of his proposal. In April 1947 a treaty of kinship and alliance was signed by the two kingdoms, providing for mutual military and diplomatic aid. Immediately following the declaration of independence by Israel in May 1948, the armies of Iraq and Transjordan invaded the new state. Throughout the rest of the year Iraqi armed forces continued to fight the Israelis and the nation continued to work politically with the kingdom of Transjordan. In September Iraq joined Abdullah ibn Husein, king of Transjordan, in denouncing the establishment of an Arab government in Palestine as being "tantamount to recognizing the partition of Palestine," which Iraq had consistently opposed. With the general defeat of the Arab forces attacking Israel, however, the government of Iraq prepared to negotiate an armistice, represented by Transjordan. On May 11, 1949, a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Transjordan was signed, but Iraqi units continued to fight Israelis in an Arab-occupied area in north-central Palestine. Transjordanian troops replaced the Iraqi units in this area under the terms of the armistice agreement, signed on April 3, 1949. Oil Accords and Elections Royalties paid to the government of Iraq by the Iraq Petroleum Company increased substantially under accords reached in 1950 and 1951. By the terms of an even more advantageous arrangement, concluded in February 1952, Iraq obtained 50 percent of the profits. Seventy percent of the oil royalties were to be allocated to the National Development Board, established in 1950. In 1953 the 911-km (566-mi) Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline of the Iraq Petroleum Company was formally opened. The first parliamentary elections based on direct suffrage took place on January 17, 1953. Constitutional government was reestablished on January 29, and King Faisal II formally assumed the throne on May 2, 1953, his 18th birthday. In April 1954 the U.S. government agreed to extend military aid to Iraq. A series of political crises during the first half of the year led to parliamentary elections in June. Political groups hostile to the U.S. arms agreement triumphed in the voting. The Chamber of Deputies was dissolved on August 4, and new elections were called for September. The government suppressed the National Democratic Union, a left-wing organization; the Socialists boycotted the election, and the government won an overwhelming victory. Pro-Western Pacts In February 1955 Iraq concluded the Baghdad Pact, a mutual-security treaty with Turkey. Advancing plans to transform the alliance into a Middle Eastern defense system, the two countries urged the other Arab states, the United States, Great Britain, and Pakistan to adhere to the pact. Great Britain joined the alliance in April; Pakistan became a signatory in September and Iran in November. That month the five nations established the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO). In July 1956 Jordan (as Transjordan had been renamed) accused Israel of deploying an invasion army near Jerusalem, whereupon Iraq moved forces to the Jordanian border. Israeli representatives, denying aggressive designs on Jordan, interpreted the Iraqi move as a maneuver in a struggle between Iraq and Egypt for control of Jordan. In response to the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt, the Iraqi government gave unequivocal support. Egypt was invaded by Israel, Great Britain, and France in October 1956; in early November, Iraqi and Syrian troops occupied positions in Jordan in accordance with terms of a mutual-defense agreement. In January 1957 Iraq endorsed the recently promulgated Eisenhower Doctrine. This doctrine stated that the United States would supply military assistance to any Middle Eastern government whose stability was threatened by Communist aggression. In February 1958, following a conference between King Faisal and Hussein I, king of Jordan, Iraq and Jordan were federated. The new union, later named the Arab Union of Jordan and Iraq, was established as a countermeasure to the United Arab Republic (UAR), a federation of Egypt and Syria formed in February of that year. The constitution of the newly formed federation was proclaimed simultaneously in Baghdad and Amman on March 19, and the document was ratified by the Iraqi parliament on May 12. Later that month Nuri as-Said, former premier of Iraq, was named premier of the Arab Union. Republic Proclaimed The UAR, bitterly antagonistic to the pro-Western Arab Union, issued repeated radio calls urging the people, police, and army of Iraq to overthrow their government. On July 14, 1958, in a sudden coup d'état led by the Iraqi general 'Abd al-Karim Kassem, the country was proclaimed a republic. King Faisal, the crown prince, and Said were among those killed in the uprising. On July 15 the new government announced the establishment of close relations with the UAR and the dissolution of the Arab Union. However, Kassem made attempts to gain the confidence of the West by maintaining the flow of oil. In March 1959 Iraq withdrew from the Baghdad Pact, which was then renamed the Central Treaty Organization; in June 1959 Iraq withdrew from the sterling bloc (a group of countries whose currencies are tied to the British pound sterling). Following the termination of the British protectorate over the emirate of Kuwait in June 1960, Iraq claimed the area, asserting that Kuwait had been part of the Iraqi state at the time of its formation. British forces entered Kuwait in July at the invitation of the Kuwaiti ruler, and the UN Security Council declined the Iraqi request to order their withdrawal. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, the Iraqi government claimed in 1961 and 1962 that it had suppressed Kurdish revolts in northern Iraq. The Kurdish unrest persisted, however. The long conflict was temporarily settled in early 1970, when the government agreed to form a Kurdish autonomous region and Kurdish ministers were added to the cabinet. Military Coups On February 8, 1963, Kassem was overthrown by a group of officers, most of them members of the Baath Party; he was assassinated the following day. Abdul Salam Arif became president, and relations with the Western world improved. In April 1966 Arif was killed in a helicopter crash and was succeeded by his brother, General Abdul Rahman Arif. During the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War (1967), Iraqi troops and planes were sent to the Jordan-Israeli border. Iraq subsequently declared war on Israel and closed its oil pipeline supplying the Western nations. At the same time diplomatic relations with the United States were severed. In July 1968 General Arif's government was overthrown, and Major General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, a former premier, was appointed head of the Revolutionary Command Council. In the following years Iraq maintained general hostility toward the West and friendship with the USSR. The positions of individual Arab countries with regard to Israel caused some friction between Iraq and its neighbors. In 1971 Iraq closed its border with Jordan and called for its expulsion from the Arab League because of Jordan's efforts to crush the Palestinian guerrilla movement operating inside its borders. From 1972 to 1975 Iraq fully nationalized and compensated all foreign oil companies operating within its borders. The country enjoyed a massive increase in oil revenues starting in late 1973 when international petroleum prices began a steep rise. The discovery of major oil deposits in the vicinity of Baghdad was announced publicly in 1975. Iraq aided Syria with troops and matériel during the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. Calling for military action against Israel, Iraq denounced the cease-fire that ended the 1973 conflict and opposed the interim agreements negotiated by Egypt and Syria with Israel in 1974 and 1975. War with Iran In early 1974 heavy fighting erupted in northern Iraq between government forces and Kurdish nationalists, who rejected as inadequate a new Kurdish autonomy law based on the 1970 agreement. The Kurds, led by Mustafa al-Barzani, received arms and other supplies from Iran. After Iraq agreed in early 1975 to make major concessions to Iran in settling their border disputes, Iran halted aid to the Kurds, and the revolt was dealt a severe blow. In July 1979 President Bakr was succeeded by General Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim and fellow member of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, who immediately rounded up dozens of officials on charges of treason. Tension between the Iraqi government and the revolutionary regime in Iran increased during 1979, when unrest among Iranian Kurds spilled over into Iraq. Sectarian religious animosities exacerbated the conflict. In September 1980 Iraq declared its 1975 agreement with Iran, which Hussein had negotiated, null and void and claimed authority over the entire disputed Shatt al Arab estuary. The quarrel flared into a full-scale war. Iraq quickly overran a large part of the Arab-populated province of Khuzestan (Khuzistan) in Iran and destroyed the Abadan refinery. In June 1981 a surprise air attack by Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad. The Israelis charged that the reactor was intended to develop nuclear weapons for use against them. In early 1982 Iran launched a counteroffensive and by May it had reclaimed much of the territory conquered by Iraq in 1980. In the ensuing stalemate, each side inflicted heavy damage on the other and on Persian Gulf shipping. Although it declared neutrality in the war between the two nations, the United States announced in November 1984 that it had resumed diplomatic relations with Iraq. After a cease-fire with Iran came into effect in August 1988, the Iraqi government again moved to suppress the Kurdish insurgency. During the late 1980s the nation rebuilt its military machine, in part through bank credits and technology obtained from Western Europe and the United States. Occupation of Kuwait In 1990 Iraq revived a long-standing territorial dispute with Kuwait, its ally during the war with Iran, claiming that overproduction of petroleum by Kuwait was injuring Iraq's economy. Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait on August 2 and rapidly took over the country. The UN Security Council issued a series of resolutions that condemned the occupation; imposed a broad trade embargo on Iraq; and demanded that Iraq withdraw unconditionally by January 15, 1991. When Iraq failed to comply, a coalition led by the United States began intensive aerial bombardment of military and infrastructural targets in Iraq and Kuwait in January 1991. The ensuing Persian Gulf War proved disastrous for Iraq, which was forced out of Kuwait in about six weeks. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were killed, many of the country's armored vehicles and artillery were annihilated, and its nuclear and chemical weapons facilities were severely damaged. In April, Iraq agreed to UN terms for a permanent cease-fire; coalition troops withdrew from the southern region as a UN peacekeeping team moved in to police the Iraq-Kuwait border. Meanwhile, the Baghdad government used its remaining military forces to suppress rebellions by Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north. Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees fled to Turkey and Iran, and U.S., British, and French troops landed inside Iraq's northern border to set up refugee camps to protect another 600,000 Kurds from Iraqi government reprisals. Throughout 1992 Iraq came under intense international pressure to eliminate its remaining weapons of mass destruction. In 1993 UN officials announced that they had completed dismantling Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare capability, prompting calls by Iraq for an end to the UN-sponsored trade embargo. In June 1993 the United States launched a widely criticized cruise missile attack against Iraq in retaliation for a reported assassination plot against former U.S. president George Bush. In October 1994 the United States, with help from Britain and France, deployed about 40,000 troops and more than 600 aircraft in the Persian Gulf region in response to a buildup of Iraqi troops along the Kuwaiti border. Many analysts thought Iraq was trying to force the UN to lift its trade embargo against Iraq. A short while later, Iraq's soldiers were withdrawn from the border. In November Saddam Hussein signed a decree formally accepting Kuwait's sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity. The decree effectively ended Iraq's claim to Kuwait as a provincial territory. In 1994 Iraq continued its efforts to crush internal resistance with an economic embargo of the Kurdish-populated north and a military campaign against Shiite Muslim rebels in the southern marshlands. The Shiites were quickly quieted, but the crisis in Kurdistan, which had long suffered from internal rivalries, was prolonged. Kurds had often disputed over land rights, and as their economic and political security deteriorated in the early 1990s, the conflicts became more extreme. In May 1994 supporters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) clashed with supporters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), leaving 300 people dead. Over the next two years the PUK and KDP fought several more times, eventually devolving into a state of civil war. In August 1996, leaders of the KDP asked Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to intervene in the war. Hussein sent at least 30,000 troops into the UN-protected Kurdish region, capturing the PUK stronghold of Irbìl. The KDP was immediately installed in power. The United States responded with two missile strikes against southern Iraq, but in early September Iraq again helped KDP fighters, this time taking the PUK stronghold of As Sulaymanìyah. The economic crisis in the rest of Iraq continued to worsen in 1995 and 1996. Prices were high, food and medicine shortages were rampant, and the free-market (unofficial) exchange rate for the dinar was in severe decline. In April 1995 the UN Security Council voted unanimously to allow Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to meet its urgent humanitarian needs. Iraq initially rejected the plan, but it later accepted the plan in 1996. Iraq began to export oil at the end of the year.