Kingdom of Iraq
| المملكة العراقية الهاشمية | |||||
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al-Mamlaka al-Iraqiya al-Hāschimiya |
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| Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq | |||||
| 1920-1958 | |||||
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| Official language | Arabic | ||||
| capital city | Baghdad | ||||
| Head of state |
King Abdallah ibn Husain I (1920) Faisal I (1920–1933) Ghazi I (1933–1939) Faisal II (1939–1958) |
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| Head of government | Prime Minister List of Prime Ministers |
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| area | 437,072 km² | ||||
| population | 6,000,000 | ||||
| Population density | 13.73 inhabitants per km² | ||||
| currency |
Iraqi dinar until 1931 Indian rupee |
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| founding | 1921 | ||||
| independence | October 3, 1932 (from the United Kingdom ) |
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| resolution | 1958 | ||||
| National anthem |
السلام الملكي As-Salam al-Malaki "The Royal Salute" |
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| Time zone | UTC +3 | ||||
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The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq ( Arabic المملكة العراقية الهاشمية al-Mamlaka / Malika al-Iraqiya al-Hāschimiya ) was a state in the Middle East and existed from 1921 to 1958 in what is now the Republic of Iraq . The three kings Faisal I , Ghazi I and Faisal II came from the Hashimite dynasty.
prehistory
After Hussein ibn Ali called for the fight against the Ottomans during the First World War in 1916 and founded the Kingdom of Hejaz , his sons Abdallah ibn Husain and Faisal took part in the Arab uprising . After the defeat of the Ottomans, the three Turkish vilayets Mosul , Baghdad and Basra on the territory of Mesopotamia were occupied by British troops and united in April 1920. The League of Nations , which sanctioned this measure, then transferred a League of Nations mandate over the area to Great Britain , the British Mandate Mesopotamia .
On April 8, 1920 Abdallah ibn Husain I were proclaimed King of Iraq and Faisal King of Syria . After the outbreak of an uprising directed against the British , Abdallah ibn Husain surrendered the throne and left the country. On August 23, 1921, the British installed his brother Faisal I, who had been expelled from Syria, as king of Iraqi territory.
In 1924 areas in the north, the regions around Mosul and Kirkuk , were annexed to Iraq according to the Anglo-Iraqi Treaties .
development
independence
The Kingdom of Iraq became independent from Great Britain on October 3, 1932 after the formal end of the British League of Nations mandate. It eventually joined the League of Nations itself. Nevertheless, as enshrined in the 1930 Treaty, Britain continued to play an important political, military and economic role. After gaining independence, the Iraqi government made territorial claims on Kuwait , which was under the administration of the United Kingdom.
Faisal outlined the main problem facing the Iraqi state in an internal memo as the country's division into separatist Kurds, a Sunni elite favored since the Ottoman era, and a marginalized Shiite majority. The king also identified the widespread tribal structures of society as an obstacle to a unified national identity. Faisal himself thought that the only way to cross the border was through the protracted application of material and judicial power. In the 1930s, the government succeeded in increasing the number of school leavers trained in secular state schools from 800 to 14,000. The school system was also able to open up to members of the Shiite population.
Political instability and coup attempts
The state power of the kingdom was limited by the influence of tribal rulers. In 1933, 15,000 armed men in the military and police stood against around 100,000 rifles in the possession of tribesmen. Likewise, tribes controlled around nine tenths of rural land holdings. In 1933 Ghazi I was crowned king. Many Iraqis opposed the great influence of the British, including the military and politicians such as Rashid Ali al-Gailani . Nonetheless, there were also proponents of a temporary British presence, such as Nuri as-Said . In 1936 the first military coup took place in Baghdad, which was followed by four more by 1941. The leader of the putschists, General Bakr Sidqi, was assassinated, but the military established itself as an apparatus of power in Iraq and remained a constant of instability in Iraq that should not be underestimated.
In 1939 King Ghazi I died in a car accident. Arab-Iraqi nationalists called for the British to withdraw, which they ignored.
Second World War
see also: Military coup in Iraq 1941
During World War II , Iraq, whose government has traditionally been friendly to the British, was on the side of the Allies . But in April 1941 there was another coup by officers , with the pro-British Prime Minister Nuri as-Said being deposed and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani taking over the office. The monarchy was retained and the rights of the British enshrined in the 1930 Treaty were largely restricted. This led to military clashes between the Iraqi army and the British. The military coup was approved and materially supported by Nazi Germany , the main character being the agent Fritz Grobba . The new government was devoted to the Axis powers . It was under the leadership of Rashid Ali al-Gailani , as the so-called "Government of National Defense". After a few weeks, his coup government was overthrown by British troops and a pro-British government under Nuri as-Said was reinstated in its place .
post war period
On March 22, 1945, Iraq founded the Arab League with other Arab states and on November 21, Iraq became a member of the United Nations . Together with Syrian , Jordanian , Lebanese and Egyptian troops, the Kingdom of Iraq turned against the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and jointly attacked Israel. However, they were defeated in 1949. Iraq, however, remained pro-Western. The Iraqi government signed the Baghdad Pact with Turkey , Iran , the United Kingdom and Pakistan in 1955 to establish the Central Treaty Organization . When the pro-Soviet states of Syria and Egypt founded the United Arab Republic in 1958 , Iraq and Jordan founded the Arab Federation as a pro-Western counter-alliance on February 14 of the same year .
End of the monarchy
The Arab Federation did not last long when on July 14, 1958 the army staged another coup . This coup had bigger consequences this time. The officers under Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew the government under Nuri as-Said and King Faisal II. The king was killed. Crown Prince Abdulilah and Prime Minister Nuri Essaid were picked up by an angry mob in Baghdad a few days later, killed and their naked bodies dragged through the streets. The Hashemite dynasty in Iraq was almost exterminated and the Republic of Iraq was proclaimed. The new government withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and moved closer to the Soviet Union .
population
The population consisted mainly of Sunni and Shiite Arabs . Sunni Kurds , Christian Arameans (the Assyrians ), Turkmens and Jews lived next to them, especially in northern Iraq . This ethnic and religious diversity with a high potential for conflict was another factor in the instability in Iraq. There was resentment against Christians in the population, which culminated in the 1933 massacre of Semile (many Christian Arameans / Assyrians were murdered and expelled) and continues to this day. After the open outbreak of the Israeli-Arab conflict in 1948, over 300,000, almost all of the Jews, were expelled from Iraq.
politics
A constituent assembly was held in 1924 . The Kingdom of Iraq was a constitutional monarchy from 1925 . The first free parliamentary elections took place in the spring of 1925. The governments, however, often alternated, especially from 1945 onwards. Most frequently, the pro-British Nuri as-Said was Prime Minister. His opponent was the nationalist Rashid Ali al-Gailani. Ministerial posts were mainly awarded to the 40 most influential families. In 1952 Nuri as-Said was overthrown again, who had dissolved the parties after he came back to power in 1954.
business
Iraq, especially the south of the country, was and is an oil-rich region. This was one of the reasons the British wanted to keep a great deal of economic influence in the country. Together with France , the United States and the Netherlands , the country's oil rights were shared in the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) (each of these four countries received 23.75 percent).
The IPC thus had an oil monopoly in Iraq. Levies were paid to the government in Iraq, but these were only a small fraction of the company's profits. Five percent of the oil rights went to a private company owned by British millionaire Calouste Gulbenkian .
See also
literature
- Bernd Philipp Schröder: Germany and the Middle East in the Second World War. (= Studies and documents on the history of the Second World War. Volume 16). Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1975, ISBN 3-7881-1416-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Abdullah ibn Hussein in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
- ↑ Kettermann 2001, p. 158.
- ^ Edmund A. Ghareeb, Beth K. Dougherty: Historical Dictionary of Iraq. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham / Maryland / Oxford 2004, p. Lvii.
- ^ William J. Duiker , Jackson J. Spielvogel: World History: From 1500. 5th edition. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, California, USA 2007, p. 839.
- ↑ Adeed Dawisha: Iraq - A political history from Independence to Occupation. Princeton 2009, pp. 74f.
- ↑ Adeed Dawisha: Iraq - A political history from Independence to Occupation. Princeton 2009, pp. 83-88f.
- ^ Phebe Marr: The Modern History of Iraq. Boulder 2012, p. 19f.
- ^ A b c E. A. Ghareeb, BK Dougherty: Historical Dictionary of Iraq. 2004, p. Lvii.
- ↑ a b Iraqi History ( Memento of the original from August 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Overview of Iraqi History ( Memento from January 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Henner Fürtig : Brief history of Iraq: from the foundation in 1921 to the present. CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49464-1 , p. 36 ff.
- ↑ The Independent Commission of Historians - Foreign Office waived in "The Office ...", an alleged standard work from 2010 to the Foreign Office, forward to address the German role in the Middle East and the coup.
