Iraq: A Brief History

1. Iraq: A Brief History The 8th Century Baghdad was the center of an Islamic Empire, the greatest civilization of the time. It was the largest city in Europe or the Middle East. Great mosques were created there, and scholarly works in philosophy and science, translated from Greek into Arabic in Baghdad, would later contribute to a new birth of creativity in Europe called the Renaissance.

2. Iraq: A Brief History 1258 The city was destroyed by invading Mongols led by Ghengis Khan, who killed as many as 800,000 people. In the wake of the Mongol invasion, for the next 3 centuries, various tribes gained control of different parts of the region.

3. Iraq: A Brief History The 16th Century The land that is today called Iraq was a frontier between two powers, the Sunni Ottomans to the north (green on the map) and the Shiite Safavis to the south (pink on the map). In 1632, the Ottomans gained control and ruled the land until the end of WWI.

4. Iraq: A Brief History British Rule At the close of WWI (1918), Great Britain and France, both interested in Middle Eastern oil, were given mandates by the League of Nations to govern much of the Middle East. The colonial powers created the current nation states in the region. Britain governed Iraq. Iraqis, feeling deeply humiliated by the Western powers, revolted and rebelled.

5. Iraq: A Brief History Paternalism and Monarchy In 1921, Great Britain compromised with Iraq, allowing Iraq to have its own king. But the king, Faisal I, was hand-picked by Britain and was required to take advice from Britain on both domestic and international affairs. In 1932, the British granted Iraq independence, but continued to require the Iraqis to consult with Great Britain on any matters that might concern the British. They also maintained an air base in Iraq.

6. Iraq: A Brief History An Independent Iraq Following British rule, tribal disputes threatened Iraqi unity, and opposition groups vied for control of the army. King Ghazi I overthrew the civilian government and established military rule in the country.

7. Iraq: A Brief History After WWII The British could no longer maintain influence over the Middle East, but U.S. influence increased in the region. The U.S. was concerned that the Soviet Union might gain control over Middle Eastern oil. In the 1950’s, the Soviets became allies of Syria and Egypt. The U.S., in turn, began to support the new state of Israel.

8. Iraq: A Brief History 1958 Qasim Coup Arab nationalists were angry at the traditional monarchs of their lands who had cooperated with colonial France and Britain and in some cases seemed to be mere instruments of European colonial power. Now that the colonial powers had withdrawn from the region, these monarchs were overthrown in many countries, including Iraq, where a coup by military officers placed ‘Abd al-Karim Qasim in power.

9. Iraq: A Brief History 1963 Ba’athist Coup Qasim relied on the Soviets for support. The U.S. CIA aided a political group called the Ba’ath Party in assassinating Qasim, and the Ba’ath Party came to power in Iraq.

10. Iraq: A Brief History The Ba’ath Party The Ba’ath Party was a secular (non-religious), nationalist, pan-Arab movement. It was tightly organized into small cells. Advancement to higher ranks in the party required that members train and prove their loyalty in lower ranking cells before moving up to higher positions in the organization. When it came to power, the Ba’ath Party killed thousands of educated elites and political opponents, including communists. In response, the Soviets withdrew their support from Iraq, and the U.S. stepped in to supply Iraq with armaments.

11. Iraq: A Brief History 1979: Saddam’s Rule Saddam Hussein was a leading figure in the Ba’ath Party and was in charge of developing the security forces who kept the regime in power through extermination and torture of political opponents. Saddam became President of the country in 1979. He maintained control, in part, through totalitarian terror, and in part, by providing the people with services like free education and health care.

12. Iraq: A Brief History Saddam’s Rule Saddam secularized Iraqi society and law, allowing women greater freedom. This angered the Muslim Shi’a majority in southern Iraq. When radical Shiites came to power through revolution in neighboring Iran, Saddam feared that they might export their conservative religious revolution, influencing the Shiites in his own country to rebel.

13. Iraq: A Brief History Saddam’s Rule In 1980, Saddam began an 8-year war with Iran, a disastrous endeavor that killed a million people and ended in a stalemate. During the war, Saddam killed not only thousands of Shiites in his own country, he also executed as many as 100,000 Kurds in the north, who posed a threat because they sought independence from Iraq.

14. Iraq: A Brief History Desert Storm In 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait in a bid to gain control of more oil in the region and access to the Persian Gulf. President Bush (the first) organized a broad coalition of countries to oppose Saddam and sent a U.S. force of half a million troops to push Iraq out of Kuwait. The Iraqis were quickly defeated, but Saddam was allowed to remain in power.

15. Iraq: A Brief History Second U.S. Invasion In 2003, George W. Bush accused Saddam of failing to cooperate with U.N. inspections for weapons of mass destruction and claimed to have intelligence evidence that Saddam was creating WMD’s and supporting terrorists. Unlike his father, he was unable to gain broad international support for an invasion of Iraq, but proceeded with the invasion anyway, beginning the current war with Iraq.