History

Early History

The mention of the word Mesopotamia undoubtedly brings to mind social studies classes in elementary school. We all seem to have studied the Fertile Crescent and the "Cradle of Civilization" and the Sumerians who lived in it. The Sumerians have an honored place in social studies for developing a sophisticated irrigation system to control the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates. To facilitate pottery-making they invented the wheel, then modified it for use over land, thereby revolutionizing land transportation and providing all future humankind with something to reinvent. They combined tin with copper to produce bronze, a metal that was both easier to work with and more durable than tin or copper alone. They began the study of astronomy and mathematics. And finally, they developed the writing system called cuneiform ("wedges"), to which the alphabet you are reading in can ultimately be traced. Here is a sample of cuneiform writing, in which symbols for the words ha 'fish' + am 'wild bull' + mu 'year' + ra [question word] + bi 'innkeeper' are written together to represent the name Hammurabi.

The history of Mesopotamia for the 3,000 years or so after the Sumerians rings with names that bring exotic pictures to the Western mind: the Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Chaldean peoples; the cities of Babylon (now Hila) and Nineveh (now Mosul); the rulers Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, and Trajan; the civilizations of the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Christian Byzantines.

It should be noted that as far back as 3000 BC, a liquid substance seeped through cracks in the earth that could be used as caulking in walls, arks (as in Noah's, probably), or baskets (as in Moses', probably). Set on fire, it became a frightening weapon.

The Islamic Empire

Muslim Arabs poured into Mesopotamia in the seventh century CE, soon after the death of the prophet Muhammad. Within a hundred years, the Arab Islamic empire, ruled by caliphs, extended from Spain across Central Asia to parts of India; now, fourteen hundred years later, these regions are still Islamic.

The Abbasid caliphs established the city of Baghdad as their capital in the eighth century. As the western end of the Silk Road, a trade route that stretched all the way to China, it became one of the largest cities in the world and a center of arts, libraries, mathematics, science, medicine, and other hallmarks of civilization. It was in Baghdad that the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid (who ruled between 786 and 809) listened to Scheherazade's fairy tales for a thousand and one nights.

Over the next few centuries, the centralized power of the caliphate waned, and the empire fragmented into autonomous regions called emirates, ruled by emirs. (Some emirates still exist: the small kingdoms on the Persian Gulf are called the United Arab Emirates.) With the fragmentation, Baghdad and the regions between the rivers played a far less important role in the Islamic empire, as most of the true power was held by the emirs. Both Baghdad and the Abbasid caliphate were destroyed by the Mongols in 1258. Under the Mongols, the Mesopotamian region became a neglected frontier province nominally under the control of central authority. For practical purposes, however, power in the area rested in the hands of the tribal sheikhs.

Ottoman Rule, 1534–1917

The Ottoman Turks annexed Mesopotamia in the 16th century, consolidating their hold on all the lands that had belonged to the Islamic caliphate. Mesopotamia formed the easternmost lands of the Ottoman Empire, and was divided administratively into the three provinces of Mosul (where mostly Kurds lived), Baghdad, and Basra (both mostly Iraqi Arab).

The Turkish-speaking Ottomans had continual difficulties with the area. As we mentioned before, Iraq is, and was, a center of the Shi'ite sect of Islam. The Ottomans were Sunnis, and so, in effect, the majority Shi'ites in Iraq were under the rule of a minority Sunni government imposed from afar, a state of affairs that led to numerous uprisings. In addition, Iran immediately to the east was Shi'ite, and the Ottomans and Persians squabbled frequently over the Shi'ite area of Iraq. To complicate matters, there were frequent uprisings by the Kurds in the north. As a result of these difficulties, the Ottomans ceded most of the practical power to local governors, especially during the latter days of Ottoman rule.

In those latter days, several events occurred that laid the foundation for the recent events in Iraq. One of these was the reform of the Janissaries, the elite Ottoman military force, in the early 19th century. As part of the reform, the Iraqi Janissary regiments were reorganized and ultimately formed the Ottoman Sixth Army. The Ottoman military, with its education and other benefits, attracted a large number of Iraqis; by the end of the 19th century, there were more Iraqi officers in the Ottoman army than any other Arabs. These Iraqi officers were mostly Sunnis; they formed a relatively sophisticated, politically powerful force that would come into its own after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

Another event that had modern repercussions was an action taken by Midhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Baghdad between 1869 and 1872. In 1871, Midhat Pasha and the sheikh who ruled Kuwait sent a joint expedition to occupy Al-Hasa, an area south of Kuwait on the coast of the Persian Gulf. In recognition of the sheikh's cooperation, Midhat Pasha appointed him a sub-governor and attached Kuwait to the Ottoman province of Basra. Subsequent treaties and acts undid Midhat Pasha's annexation of Kuwait to Basra, but Saddam Hussein used this temporary annexation as the rationale behind his claim that Kuwait was historically a part of Iraq.

A third set of events with modern repercussions was the developing use for oil (first for kerosene for light, and then for fuel oil for different kinds of internal combustion engines), the concomitant demand on the part of Western powers for oil, and the discovery of oil in the Middle East.

Oil was first discovered in the region at Baku, in what is now Azerbaijan. Immediately after that, Western groups began negotiating for concessions to explore for oil in the neighboring areas. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now British Petroleum) was granted a concession in Iran and discovered oil in 1908. Interested parties were sure that there was oil in Iraq as well (as we mentioned before, it had been oozing out of the ground for several thousand years), and there was much negotiating with the Ottoman Empire for rights to explore in the area in the years before World War I broke out.

World War One

During World War I, the Ottoman Turks sided with Germany and Austria–Hungary against the Allies. Turkish forces fought the British in Iraq and Egypt (where the British were joined by Arabs organized by T. E. Lawrence, the famed Lawrence of Arabia). In the meantime, Iraqis in the north and the mid-Euphrates area began to agitate for Iraqi independence, and by 1920, the nationalist movement had spread throughout the area.

One of the outcomes of the war was that the Ottoman Empire was finally dismantled. The Turkish-speaking area of the Empire became the modern state of Turkey, and the Arabic-speaking areas were parceled out to France (the area now Syria and Lebanon) and Britain (the area now roughly Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Iraq). As we mentioned before, the Kurds lost out at this point on their bid for an independent state.

The British Protectorate

In 1921, the British established a protectorate over Iraq, and for 11 years attempted to counterbalance the interests of the Iraqi nationalists with their own. They established a monarchy, an odd thing to do in retrospect, as the Iraqis had never had a ruling family and were unfamiliar with the concept. The first Iraqi king was Faysal, who had led the Arab revolt in Syria and had been appointed king of Syria, but who was expelled from Syria by the French.

The British also negotiated a treaty that was intended to define the relationship between themselves and Iraq and to further Iraqi independence. The treaty met with great resistance on the part of the Iraqis, and several political parties were organized, all focused on the goal of ending the protectorate and achieving true independence. The pressure from these political parties, which included challenges from the powerful Shi'ite families, was effective; in 1929, Britain announced that the protectorate would end in 1932.

In the meantime, the British dealt with the question of boundaries. Originally, Mosul province was to have been part of the autonomous Kurdish state so desired by the Kurds, but when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk came to power in Turkey and gained control of the Kurdish areas in Turkey, the British decided to include the Mosul province as part of Iraq. It was known by then that the Mosul province included what were probably extensive oil fields.

There was much negotiation between the Iraqis and the British over oil concessions, but eventually the Iraqis traded control over oil for British support in keeping Mosul province as part of Iraq, rather than letting it go to Turkey. In 1925, the League of Nations established Mosul as part of Iraq, and mandated that the Kurds were to be protected. This act guaranteed that the Mosul oil fields would belong to Iraq, and also guaranteed that the Kurds would constitute a continuing political problem.

Independent Iraq

In 1932, Iraq gained its independence and was admitted to the League of Nations. There were immediate problems and power struggles. In 1933, King Faysal died, to be succeeded by his son, King Ghazi, who was young and inexperienced; elements antagonistic to the government took advantage of this and instigated a series of assassinations and tribal uprisings. In 1936, the military pulled off a coup d'etat, and effectively dominated the political scene until 1941.

Despite the instability of the government, the country improved in the early years after independence. Irrigation projects were completed, railroads and oil pipelines were built, and border disputes were settled, including an agreement in 1937 with Iran as to the exact water border on the Shatt-al-'Arab. According to that agreement, the border was set at the low-water mark on the Iranian side, which gave Iraq valuable control over the shipping channel between Basra and the Persian Gulf.

World War II and the Fifties

At the beginning of World War II, Iraq refused to support Britain, and a very brief local war ensued when Iraqi troops resisted British attempts to station troops in the country. Britain prevailed, and was given the use of transportation and communication facilities and a declaration of war against the Axis powers on the part of Iraq.

After the war, the various political factions and parties in Iraq continued to struggle for power. Many of the struggles centered around the desire for more representative government on the part of younger politicians and resistance to them on the part of the older, established regimes. Finally, in 1958, a group of young military officers succeeded in obtaining support for a revolution, and on July 14 Baghdad was captured. Most of the members of the royal family were executed—thereby ending the brief Iraqi monarchy—and the revolutionists proclaimed Iraq a republic. A provisional constitution declared that Iraq formed an integral part of the "Arab nation," and that Arabs and Kurds were considered partners. All power was placed in the hands of the Sovereignty Council and the Cabinet.

Rise of the Ba'ath Party

Conflict among the officers soon arose, and five years later, in 1963, the revolutionary regime collapsed and its leader was executed. The military faction that brought about the collapse then established the Ba'ath ("Renaissance" or "Revival") Party, a group of young activists in the government who supported Arab nationalism and socialism. Soon the activists were in dissension, and in November of 1963 the president rallied the military to his side, arrested the leaders of the Ba'ath Party, and assumed real control.

The Ba'ath Party went underground and reorganized itself in preparation for regaining power. One of those who assisted in the reorganization was Saddam Hussein. The Ba'ath Party gained the cooperation of four officers in the military and in 1968 overthrew the government. After a bloodless coup in which the four officers were stripped of power (their lives were spared but they were sent abroad), the Ba'ath Party gained total control. Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr became president and premier, and most Cabinet posts went to other Ba'ath leaders.

The Ba'ath regime immediately had to contend with the Kurds. The latter, with arms from Iran, were able to pose a serious threat, and negotiations got underway. The government agreed to recognize the Kurds as a national group entitled to a form of autonomous status called self-rule. There was also to be a census to determine the frontiers of the area in which the Kurds formed the majority of the population.

By 1973 the negotiations broke down. The census had not been taken, and the Kurds did not accept the Iraqi government's declaration that the area in which Kurds formed the majority did not include Kirkuk, which of course contained the massive oil fields. War started in March 1974, with the Shah of Iran supporting the Kurds. The Shah was in the meantime anxious to renegotiate the water border in the Shatt al-'Arab, so in 1975 when the Ba'ath regime arrived at an agreement with him that the boundary would be the thalweg, or median line of the river, he withdrew his support from the Kurds and the war was soon over.

The Ba'ath regime instituted a number of plans for national reconstruction and development. Immediate objectives were to increase production and the standard of living, but the ultimate objective was to establish a secular socialist society. The regime's biggest successes were the nationalization of oil production, completed in 1975, and the implementation of irrigation projects, which included the building of dams on several of the rivers.

In 1979 President al-Bakr resigned, and Saddam Hussein immediately succeeded him.

The Iran–Iraq war, also called the Gulf War, started in 1980.

The Iran–Iraq War

Meanwhile, relations with Iran were worsening. The Shah was overthrown in 1979 by the Ayatollah Khomeini, who established a Shi'ite Islamic government, and made no secret of his plans to "export the Islamic revolution" and to overthrow secular governments, one of which was Iraq's.

The Iran–Iraq war, also called the Gulf War, started in 1980, and battles raged back and forth across the border for several years. At one point the Iraqi Kurds supported the Iranians, and the Iraqi army conducted a planned campaign against them. Chemical weapons were used, inflicting heavy casualties and causing an international humanitarian uproar. Whole villages were destroyed, and Kurds were forcibly relocated to the war front or out of the Kurdish area.

In 1987 the scales were tipped toward Iraq, which had received help from the Soviet Union and Western countries including the United States. In July 1987 the United Nations passed a resolution urging the two countries to accept a cease-fire, withdraw their forces, and settle their border disputes via negotiations held under the auspices of the United Nations. Iraq agreed, but Iran refused until the Ayatollah was convinced by advisers that his regime would collapse if he lost the war. Finally, in 1990, Iran and Iraq agreed to settle their differences on the basis of the 1975 agreement.

The Invasion of Kuwait

Iraq went heavily into debt with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the Iran–Iraq war. Saddam Hussein apparently felt that these debts would be forgiven, and was unpleasantly surprised to find that neither Kuwait nor Saudi Arabia would forgive Iraq the debt.

He resurrected the old argument that Kuwait was a part of Iraq (its "Fifteenth Province") and reopened questions as to the ownership of Warbah and Bubiyan, strategically located islands at the head of the Gulf. Kuwait declined to negotiate, and Iraq invaded in August of 1990.

The subsequent sanctions, Desert Shield, and Desert Storm were played out on a daily basis on American television. When diplomatic tactics failed to persuade Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, a coalition of 28 countries assembled military forces to enforce the United Nations sanctions. Air strikes began in January 1991 and were followed by a land attack on February 24. In early April, Iraq agreed to withdraw from Kuwait and accept the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Aftermath

Both the Iraqi army and the civilian superstructure were devastated by the war, and the continuing sanctions imposed severe hardships on the entire society.

The Kurds in the northeast rebelled, and the Iraqi army committed such excesses in putting down the revolt that thousands of Kurds felt compelled to flee into Turkey. They were persuaded to return only with international intervention and a great deal of publicity.

Less publicized have been Shi'ite rebels in the south, who fled to the marsh areas and from there have continually harassed the Iraqi army. In retaliation, the government has taken steps to drain the marshes (the waters of the Euphrates are reported to have been completely diverted from the marsh areas into a "third river"), depriving the Shi'ites of their cover and disrupting, perhaps permanently, the lives and unique culture of the Ma'dan.

Saudi Arabia set up a camp at Rafha, just over the border from Iraq, which has provided a haven for the Shi'ite participants in the post-Desert Storm uprisings and their families. As of this writing (March 1995), there are some 17,000 Iraqis in that camp. Many of these refugees are urban Iraqi Arabs from Basra, Najaf, Karbala, and Semawa, who are highly educated professionals and skilled workers. There are also a number of Assyrians. There are no Kurds in the Rafha camp: the Kurdish refugee camps were along the border between Turkey and Iraq.

It is important to note that Rafha is a closed camp: The refugees in it have been there since it was set up, and there has not been the continuing arrival of new refugees that characterizes most refugee camps.

The Cultural Orientation Project--http://www.culturalorientation.net, for more information contact sanja@cal.org
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