History of Qatar

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Qatar was inhabited by hunters and gatherers during the Stone Age, but the land became increasingly dry from the 5th millennium BC onwards. Abandoned by the people. In the following millennia, Qatar was only populated sporadically. In 628, the residents of Qatar joined the Prophet Mohammed and converted to Islam . But even in the following years the land was of little importance because of the lack of water. Apart from sporadic trading settlements and storage areas for pearl divers on the coast, the country was only inhabited by Bedouins .

Around 1760 Bedouins immigrated to the north-west of Qatar under the Al Thani clan , followed a few years later by the Al Khalifa clan from the Kuwait area . In the period that followed, there were many power struggles between these clans. In 1783 the Al Khalifa succeeded in repelling a Persian attack and conquering Bahrain , whereupon a large part of the tribe settled on the island, which led to the reorganization of the balance of power in Qatar. At the end of the 18th century, Qatar came increasingly between the conflicting interests of Persia , Oman and the Arabs of the pirate coast. During this uncertain time, the Al Thani clan, with its center in Doha on the east coast of Qatar, gained dominance. The establishment of the Al-Thani dynasty is dated to 1822.

However, in 1867 there was again a fierce battle for rule in Qatar between the Al Thani and the Al Chalifa of Bahrain. The Qatari settlements of Doha and al-Wakra were attacked and destroyed by Bahraini troops. An attack by the Al Thani on Bahrain failed, but Great Britain intervened and forced a peace. The following year, a protection treaty was signed between Qatar and Britain, which brought the country under British influence. This resulted in the recognition of the Qatar peninsula as an independent state and at the same time the final separation of Qatar and the island of Bahrain. However, from 1871 the Ottomans also tried to enforce their claims to Qatar more intensively. Parts of the country were occupied and an Ottoman garrison was stationed in Doha . Because of the increasing interference of the Ottomans in the administration of the country, Qassim Al Thani turned to the Wahhabis for help . This movement was started under Ibn Saud to push back the Ottomans in the Gulf region. Now Great Britain intervened (1913) to eliminate the Ottoman influence and to prevent the influence of the Wahhabis. In 1916 the last Ottoman troops had to leave the country. In the following years, Great Britain enforced its political and economic influence. When after 1930 the pearl trade in the Gulf largely collapsed due to the emergence of Japanese cultured pearls, this led to a severe economic crisis that forced many Qataris to emigrate. However, the first oil discoveries took place as early as 1939, which soon made oil production Qatar's new economic pillar. Sheikh Abdullah ibn Jassim ruled the country from 1913 to 1949, followed by his brother Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani until 1960. Internal disputes in the ruling house led to two coups: First, Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani ousted his father, Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah, in October 1960 Al Thani, in 1972 Ahmad himself fell victim to a coup by his cousin Chalifa bin Hamad Al Thani . The absolute rule of the dynasty continued to exist.

After the withdrawal of the British, Qatar proclaimed its independence on September 3, 1971 and thus, like Bahrain, refused to join the United Arab Emirates as a federation of Arab Emirates . The sheikhs of Qatar also now accepted the title of emir. In 1981 the Gulf Cooperation Council was established with Oman , the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait . In 1995 Khalifa ibn Hamad was in turn overthrown by his son Hamad ibn Khalifa (since 1995), who began to initiate democratic reforms. In 2003 women's suffrage was introduced.

Qatar has been the headquarters of US forces in the Middle East since 1998 and was also the command center in the US war against Iraq in March 2003.

As the seat of the Al Jazeera news channel , Qatar came into conflict with its regional neighbors during the Arab Spring . On June 5, 2017, several states, led by Saudi Arabia , broke off their diplomatic relations with Qatar. They accused the country of supporting terrorism. As a result, the Qatar crisis began in 2017 .

In mid-July 2017, US intelligence officials told the Washington Post that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had initiated a hacking attack on official Qatar government websites on May 24 , in which the attackers entered fabricated quotes from Sheikh bin Hamad Infiltrated pages and into social media in which he praised Iran and Hamas , for example . These quotes are said to have served as evidence that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain used to block Qatar's media.

Ruler of the Al Thani dynasty of Qatar

literature

  • Peter Hellyer: Hidden Riches - An Archaeological Introduction to the United Arab Emirates . Ed .: Union National Bank. 1998, p. 226 .
  • Kerim Kami Key: The state of Qatar - an economic and commercial survey . K. Key Publications, Washington 1976, pp. 60 .
  • Fred Scholz, Werner Stern: Qatar - Desert State with an Industrial Future? In: Fred Scholz (Ed.): Perthes Country Profiles . Klett-Perthes, Gotha and Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-623-00695-5 , p. 182-206 .
  • Wiegand Ritter, Ernst Weigt: Qatar - An Arab petroleum emirate . In: Society for regional research and applied geography (Hrsg.): Nuremberg economic and social geographic work . tape 38 , 1985, ISSN  0546-9112 .
  • Christoph Baldus: Development of the Emirates Qatar. Strategies - Problems - Successes . Mainz 2010, p. 104 ( full text [PDF; 6.5 MB ]).

Web links

Commons : History of Qatar  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Sources and Notes

  1. ↑ Two archaeological sites - the fortress Zekrit and the inland Murwab settlement - have been thoroughly researched by a French team of archaeologists since 2002 ( archaeological report "Qatar" ).
  2. ↑ Fred Scholz, Werner Stern: Qatar - Desert State with an Industrial Future? In: Fred Scholz (Ed.): Perthes Country Profiles . Klett-Perthes, Gotha and Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-623-00695-5 , Historical and Political Tradition, p. 182-84 .
  3. ↑ Fred Scholz, Werner Stern: Qatar .. 1999, ruling house and state, p. 184-85 .
  4. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
  5. ↑ Saudi Arabia closes the border - Qatar is cut off from the Arabian Peninsula. Die Welt from June 5, 2017.
  6. ↑ Karen DeYoung and Ellen Nakashima: "UAE orchestrated hacking of Qatari government sites, sparking regional upheaval, according to US intelligence officials" Washington Post, July 16, 2017