Kingdom of Iraq

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Kingdom of Iraq المملكة العراقية (ar.) al-Mamlakah al-‘Irāqiyyah (translit.)
Flag Royal Seal of Iraq
Motto: لله أكبر Allahu Ackbar God is the Greatest
Anthem: موطني Mawtini "My Homeland"
Capital	Baghdad
Largest	Baghdad
Official languages	Arabic
Ethnic groups	Arabs • Kurds • Assyrians • Turkmen
Demonym	noun: Iraqi(s) adjective: Iraqi
Government	Constitutional monarchy
• King of Iraq	Sharif I of Iraq
• Prime Minister	Haider al-Abadi
• Vice Prime Minister	Nouri al-Maliki
Legislature	Royal Council of Deputies
Establishment
• Independence from Britain	1932
• Republic declared	1959
• Monarchy restored	2004
Area
• Total	397,674 km2 (153,543 sq mi) (66th)
• Water (%)	.9
Population
• 2015 estimate	30,004,561 (45th)
• 2010 census	31,192,483
GDP (nominal)	2010 estimate
• Total	$229.3 billion (46th)
• Per capita	6,862 (88th)
Gini	34.4 medium
HDI (2014)	0.642 medium · 120th
Currency	Iraqi dinar (ع.د)
Time zone	Arabia Time Zone (UTC+3)
• Summer (DST)	AST (UTC+3)
Drives on the	right
Calling code	+964
Internet TLD	.iq

The Kingdom of Iraq (Arabic: المملكة العراقية, al-Mamlakah al-‘Irāqiyyah), simply referred to as Iraq, is a country located in Western Asia. It borders Kurdistan to the north, Syria to the west, Jordan to the southwest, Iran to the east, Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, and the Persian Gulf to the south. The southern part of Iraq is within the Arabian Peninsula. The capital, Baghdad, is in the center of the country and its largest city. The largest ethnic groups in Iraq are Arabs and Kurds. Other ethnic groups include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians and Kawliya. Around 95% of the country's 26 million citizens are Shia or Sunni Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism and Mandeanism also present.

Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf and its territory encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through the center of Iraq and flow into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land.

The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as Mesopotamia is the world's oldest civilization. It is here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, and live in cities under an organized government. The area has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian empires. It was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.

Iraq's modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres. Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Republic of Iraq was created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party from 1968 until 2003. After an invasion by the United States and its allies, Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held. Prince Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein and his monarchist faction was voted into power, in favor of restoring the monarchy to stabilize Iraq, in 2004.

Etymology

The Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name. One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk (Biblical Hebrew Erech) and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for "city", UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is "deeply rooted, well-watered; fertile". During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī ("Arabian Iraq") for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī ("Foreign Iraq"), for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the plain south of the Hamrin Mountains and did not include the northernmost and westernmost parts of the modern territory of Iraq. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the alluvial plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contrasting it with the arid Arabian desert. As an Arabic word, عراق means "hem", "shore", "bank", or "edge", so that the name by folk etymology came to be interpreted as "the escarpment", viz. at the south and east of the Jazira Plateau, which forms the northern and western edge of the "al-Iraq arabi" area.

The Arabic pronunciation is [ʕiˈrɑːq]. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ (the only pronunciation listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and the first one in Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary) or /ɪˈræk/ (listed first by MQD), the American Heritage Dictionary, and the Random House Dictionary. The pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in US media.

History

Pre-historic era

Between 65,000 BC and 35,000 BC northern Iraq was home to a Neanderthal culture, archaeological remains of which have been discovered at Shanidar Cave This same region is also the location of a number of pre-Neolithic cemeteries, dating from approximately 11,000 BC.

Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq (alongside Asia Minor and The Levant) was one of centers of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture (known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period (PPNB) is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum and burnt lime (Vaisselle blanche). Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations.

Further important sites of human advancement were Jarmo (circa 7100 BC), the Halaf culture and Ubaid period (between 6500 BC and 3800 BC), these periods show ever increasing levels of advancement in agriculture, tool making and architecture.

Ancient Iraq

Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE, hematite. The king makes an animal offering to Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at Sippar.

The historical period in Iraq truly begins during the Uruk period (4000 BC to 3100 BC), with the founding of a number of Sumerian cities, and the use of Pictographs, Cylinder seals and mass-produced goods.

The "Cradle of Civilization", is thus a common term for the area comprising modern Iraq as it was home to the earliest known civilization, the Sumerian civilization, which arose in the fertile Tigris-Euphrates river valley of southern Iraq in the Chalcolithic (Ubaid period). It was here in the late 4th millennium BC, that the world's first writing system and recorded history itself were born. The Sumerians were also the first to harness the wheel and create city states, and whose writings record the first evidence of mathematics, astronomy, astrology, written law, medicine and organized religion.

The Sumerians spoke a Language Isolate, in other words, a language utterly unrelated to any other, including the Semitic Languages, Indo-European Languages, Afro-Asiatic Languages or any other Isolates. The major city states of the early Sumerian period were; Eridu}, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, Shuruppak, Uruk, Kish, Ur, Nippur, Lagash, Girsu, Umma, Hamazi, Adab, Mari, Isin, Kutha, Der and Akshak. Cities such as Ashur, Arbela (modern Irbil) and Arrapkha (modern Kirkuk) were also extant in what was to be called Assyria from the 25th century BC, however at this early stage they were Sumerian ruled administrative centers.

In the 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash created what was perhaps the first empire in history, though this was short lived. Later, Lugal-Zage-Si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. It was during this period that the Epic of Gilgamesh originates, which includes the tale of The Great Flood.

A tablet with cuneiform writing from ancient Iraq.

From approximately 3000 BC, a Semitic people had also entered Iraq from the west and settled amongst the Sumerians. These people spoke an East Semitic language which would later come to be known as Akkadian. From the 29th century BC Akkadian Semitic names began to appear on king lists and administrative documents of various city states. During the 3rd millennium BCE a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influences between Sumerian and Akkadian are evident in all areas including lexical borrowing on a massive scale—and syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This mutual influence has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian of the 3rd millennium BCE as a Sprachbund. From this period the civilization in Iraq came to be known as Sumero-Akkadian. Between the 29th and 24th centuries BC, a number of kingdoms and city states within Iraq began to have Akkadian speaking dynasties; including Assyria, Ekallatum, Isin and Larsa.

However, the Sumerians remained generally dominant until the rise of the Akkadian Empire (2335-2124 BC), based in the city of Akkad in central Iraq. Sargon of Akkad, originally a Rabshakeh to a Sumerian king, founded the empire, he conquered all of the city states of southern and central Iraq, and subjugated the kings of Assyria, thus uniting the Sumerians and Akkadians in one state. He then set about expanding his empire, conquering Gutium, Elam, Cissia and Turukku in Ancient Iran, the Hurrians, Luwians and Hattians of Anatolia, and the Amorites and Eblaites of Ancient Syria. After the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in the late 22nd century BC, the Gutians occupied the south for a few decades, while Assyria reasserted its independence in the north. This was followed by a Sumerian renaissance in the form of the Neo-Sumerian Empire. The Sumerians under king Shulgi conquered almost all of Iraq except the northern reaches of Assyria, and asserted themselves over the Elamites, Gutians and Amorites.

An Elamite invasion in 2004 BC brought the Sumerian revival to an end. By the mid 21st century BC the Akkadian speaking kingdom of Assyria, had risen to dominance in northern Iraq, it expanded territorially into the north eastern Levant, central Iraq, and eastern Anatolia, forming the Old Assyrian Empire (circa 2035-1750 BC) under kings such as Puzur-Ashur I, Sargon I, Ilushuma and Erishum I, the latter of whom produced the most detailed set of written laws yet written. The south broke up into a number of Akkadian speaking states, Isin, Larsa and Eshnunna being the major ones.

In 1792 BC, an Amorite ruler named Hammurabi came to power in this state, and immediately set about building Babylon from a minor town into a major city, declaring himself its king. Hammurabi conquered the whole of southern and central Iraq, as well as Elam to the east and Mari to the west, then engaged in a protracted war with the Assyrian king Ishme-Dagan for domination of the region, creating the short lived Babylonian Empire. He eventually prevailed over the successor of Ishme-Dagan and subjected Assyria and its Anatolian colonies. It is from the period of Hammurabi that southern Iraq came to be known as Babylonia, while the north had already coalesced into Assyria hundreds of years before. However, his empire was short lived, and rapidly collapsed after his death, with both Assyria and southern Iraq, in the form of the Sealand Dynasty, falling back into native Akkadian hands. After this, another foreign people, the language isolate speaking Kassites, originating in the Zagros Mountains of Ancient Iran, seized control of Babylonia, where they were to rule for almost six hundred years, by far the longest dynasty ever to rule in Babylon.

Iraq was from this point divided into three polities; Assyria in the north, Kassite Babylonia in the south central region, and the Sealand Dynasty in the far south. The Sealand Dynasty was finally conquered into Babylonia by the Kassites circa 1380 BC. The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) saw Assyria rise to be the most powerful nation in the known world. Beginning with the campaigns of Ashur-uballit I, Assyria destroyed the rival Hurrian-Mitanni Empire, annexed huge swathes of the Hittite Empire for itself, annexed northern Babylonia from the Kassites, forced the Egyptian Empire from the region, and defeated the Elamites, Phrygians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Cilicians, Gutians, Dilmunites and Arameans. At its height the Middle Assyrian Empire stretched from the Caucasus to Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and from the Mediterranean coasts of Phoenicia to the Zagros Mountains of Iran. In 1235 BC, Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria took the throne of Babylon, thus becoming the very first native Mesopotamian to rule the state.

During the Bronze Age collapse (1200-900 BC) Babylonia was in a state of chaos, dominated for long periods by Assyria and Elam. The Kassites were driven from power by Assyria and Elam, allowing native south Mesopotamian kings to rule Babylonia for the first time, although often subject to Assyrian or Elamite rulers. However, these East Semitic Akkadian kings, were unable to prevent new waves of West Semitic migrants entering southern Iraq, and during the 11th century BC Arameans and Suteans entered Babylonia from The Levant, and these were followed in the late 10th to early 9th century BC by the migrant Chaldeans who were closely related to the earlier Arameans.

After a period of comparative decline in Assyria, it once more began to expand with the Neo Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC). This was to be the largest and most powerful empire the world had yet seen, and under rulers such as Adad-Nirari II, Ashurnasirpal, Shalmaneser III, Semiramis, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, Iraq became the center of an empire stretching from Persia, Parthia and Elam in the east, to Cyprus and Antioch in the west, and from the Caucasus in the north to Egypt, Nubia and Arabia in the south. The Arabs are first mentioned in written history (circa 850 BC) as a subject people of Shalmaneser III, dwelling in the Arabian Peninsula. The Chaldeans are first mentioned at this time also. It was during this period that an Akkadian influenced form ofEastern Aramaic was introduced by the Assyrians as the lingua franca of their vast empire, and Mesopotamian Aramaic began to supplant Akkadian as the spoken language of the general populace of both Assyria and Babylonia. The descendant dialects of this tongue survive amongst the Assyrians of northern Iraq to this day.

Stone carving showing king ahur- bani- apli killing a lion from the north palace Ninive 645-635 BC.

In the late 7th century BC the Assyrian Empire tore itself apart with a series of brutal civil wars, weakening itself to such a degree that a coalition of its former subjects; the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Parthians, Scythians and Cimmerians, were able to attack Assyria, finally bringing its empire down by 605 BC. The short lived Neo-Babylonian Empire (620-539 BC) succeeded that of Assyria. It failed to attain the size, power or longevity of its predecessor, however it came to dominate The Levant, Canaan, Arabia, Israel and Judah, and to defeat Egypt. Initially, Babylon was ruled by yet another foreign dynasty, that of the Chaldeans, who had migrated to the region in the late 10th or early 9th century BC. Its greatest king, Nebuchadnezzar II rivaled another non native ruler, the ethnically unrelated Amorite king Hammurabi, as the greatest king of Babylon. However by 556 BC the Chaldeans had been deposed from power by the Assyrian born Nabonidus and his son and regent Belshazzar.

In the 6th century BC, Cyrus the Great of neighbouring Persia defeated the Neo-Babylonian Empire at the Battle of Opis and Iraq was subsumed into the Achaemenid Empire for nearly two centuries. The Chaldeans and Chaldea disappeared at around this time, though both Assyria and Babylonia endured and thrived under Achaemenid rule. Little changed under the Persians, having spent three centuries under Assyrian rule, their kings saw themselves as successors to Ashurbanipal, and they retained Assyrian Imperial Aramaic as the language of empire, together with the Assyrian imperial infrastructure, and an Assyrian style of art and architecture.

The Greek-ruled Seleucid Empire (in yellow) with capital in Seleucia on the Tigris, north of Babylon.

In the late 4th century BC, Alexander the Great conquered the region, putting it under Hellenistic Seleucid rule for over two centuries. The Seleucids introduced the Indo-Anatolian and Greek term Syria to the region. This name had for many centuries been the Indo-European word for Assyria and specifically and only meant Assyria, however the Seleucids also applied it to The Levant (Aramea), causing both the Assyria and the Assyrians of Iraq and the Arameans and The Levant to be called Syria and Syrians/Syriacs in the Greco-Roman world.

The Parthians (247 BC – 224 AD) from Persia conquered the region during the reign of Mithridates I of Parthia (r. 171–138 BC). From Syria, the Romans invaded western parts of the region several times, briefly founding Assyria Provincia in Assyria. Christianity began to take hold in Iraq (particularly in Assyria) between the 1st and 3rd centuries, and Assyria became a center of Syriac Christianity, the Church of the East and Syriac literature. A number of indigenous independent Neo-Assyrian states evolved in the north during the Parthian era, such as Adiabene, Assur, Osroene and Hatra. A number of Assyrians from Mesopotamia were conscripted into or joined the Roman Army, and the Aramaic language of Assyria and Mesopotamia has been found as far afield as Hadrians Wall in northern Ancient Britain, with inscriptions written by Assyrian and Aramean soldiers of the Roman Empire.

The Sassanids of Persia under Ardashir I destroyed the Parthian Empire and conquered the region in 224 AD. During the 240s and 250's AD the Sassanids gradually conquered the small Neo Assyrian states, culminating with Assur in 256 AD. The region was thus a province of the Sassanid Empire for over four centuries, and became the frontier and battle ground between the Sassanid Empire and Byzantine Empire, with both empires weakening each other greatly, paving the way for the Arab-Muslim conquest of Persia in the mid-7th century.

Middle Ages

Abbasid-era coin, Baghdad, 1244.

The Arab Islamic conquest in the mid-7th century AD established Islam in Iraq and saw a large influx of Arabs and Kurds. Under the Rashidun Caliphate, the prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, moved his capital to Kufa when he became the fourth caliph. The Umayyad Caliphate ruled the province of Iraq from Damascus in the 7th century. (However, eventually there was a separate, independent Caliphate of Córdoba in Iberia.) The Abbasid Caliphate built the city of Baghdad in the 8th century as its capital, and the city became the leading metropolis of the Arab and Muslim world for five centuries. Baghdad was the largest multicultural city of the Middle Ages, peaking at a population of more than a million, and was the centre of learning during the Islamic Golden Age. The Mongols destroyed the city during the siege of Baghdad in the 13th century.

The sack of Baghdad by the Mongols.

In 1257 Hulagu Khan amassed an unusually large army, a significant portion of the Mongol Empire's forces, for the purpose of conquering Baghdad. When they arrived at the Islamic capital, Hulagu Khan demanded surrender but the last Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim refused. This angered Hulagu, and, consistent with Mongol strategy of discouraging resistance, he besieged Baghdad, sacked the city and massacred many of the inhabitants. Estimates of the number of dead range from 200,000 to a million. The Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's House of Wisdom, which contained countless precious and historical documents. The city has never regained its previous pre-eminence as a major center of culture and influence. Some historians believe that the Mongol invasion destroyed much of the irrigation infrastructure that had sustained Mesopotamia for millennia. Other historians point to soil salination as the culprit in the decline in agriculture.

The mid-14th-century Black Death ravaged much of the Islamic world. The best estimate for the Middle East is a death rate of roughly one-third. In 1401 a warlord of Mongol descent, Tamerlane (Timur Lenk), invaded Iraq. After the capture of Baghdad, 20,000 of its citizens were massacred. Timur ordered that every soldier should return with at least two severed human heads to show him (many warriors were so scared they killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign just to ensure they had heads to present to Timur). Timur also conducted massacres of the indigenous Assyrian Christian population, hitherto still the majority population in northern Mesopotamia, and it was during this time that the ancient Assyrian city of Assur was finally abandoned.

Ottoman Iraq

During the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the Black Sheep Turkmen ruled the area now known as Iraq. In 1466, the White Sheep Turkmen defeated the Black Sheep and took control. In the 16th century, most of the territory of present-day Iraq came under the control of Ottoman Empire as the eyalet of Baghdad. Throughout most of the period of Ottoman rule (1533–1918) the territory of present-day Iraq was a battle zone between the rival regional empires and tribal alliances. The Safavid dynasty of Iran briefly asserted their hegemony over Iraq in the periods of 1508–1533 and 1622–1638. By the 17th century, the frequent conflicts with the Safavids had sapped the strength of the Ottoman Empire and had weakened its control over its provinces. The nomadic population swelled with the influx of bedouins from Najd, in the Arabian Peninsula. Bedouin raids on settled areas became impossible to curb

English archeologist Austen Henry Layard in the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, 1852

During the years 1747–1831 Iraq was ruled by a Mamluk dynasty of Georgian origin who succeeded in obtaining autonomy from the Ottoman Porte, suppressed tribal revolts, curbed the power of the Janissaries, restored order and introduced a program of modernization of economy and military. In 1831, the Ottomans managed to overthrow the Mamluk regime and imposed their direct control over Iraq. The population of Iraq, estimated at 30 million in 800 AD, was only 5 million at the start of the 20th century.

During World War I, the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. In the Mesopotamian campaign against the Central Powers, British forces invaded the country and initially suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Turkish army during the Siege of Kut (1915–1916). However, subsequent to this the British began to gain the upper hand, and were further aided by the support of local Arabs and [Assyrians. In 1916, the British and French made a plan for the post-war division of Western Asia under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. British forces regrouped and captured Baghdad in 1917, and defeated the Ottomans. An armistice was signed in 1918. During World War I the Ottomans were defeated and driven from much of the area by the United Kingdom during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The British lost 92,000 soldiers in the Mesopotamian campaign. Ottoman losses are unknown but the British captured a total of 45,000 prisoners of war. By the end of 1918 the British had deployed 410,000 men in the area, of which 112,000 were combat troops.

British mandate and independent Iraq

British troops in Baghdad, June 1941.

On 11 November 1920 Iraq became a League of Nations mandate under British control with the name "State of Iraq". The British established the Hashemite king, Faisal I of Iraq, who had been forced out of Syria by the French, as their client ruler. Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices. Faced with spiraling costs and influenced by the public protestations of war hero T. E. Lawrence, notably known as Lawrence of Arabia, in The Times, Britain replaced Arnold Wilson in October 1920 with new Civil Commissioner Sir Percy Cox. Cox managed to quell a rebellion, yet was also responsible for implementing the fateful policy of close cooperation with Iraq's Sunni minority. The institution of slavery was abolished in the 1920s.

Britain granted independence to the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932, on the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases, local militia in the form of Assyrian Levies, and transit rights for their forces. King Ghazi ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal's death in 1933, while undermined by attempted military coups, until his death in 1939. Ghazi was followed by his underage son, Faisal II. 'Abd al-Ilah served as Regent during Faisal's minority. On 1 April 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the Golden Square staged a coup d'état and overthrew the government of 'Abd al-Ilah. During the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War, the United Kingdom (which still maintained air bases in Iraq) invaded Iraq for fear that the Rashid Ali government might cut oil supplies to Western nations because of his links to the Axis powers. The war started on 2 May, and the British, together with loyal Assyrian Levies, defeated the forces of Al-Gaylani, forcing an armistice on 31 May.

A military occupation followed the restoration of the pre-coup government of the Hashemite monarchy. The occupation ended on 26 October 1947, although Britain was to retain military bases in Iraq until 1954, after which the Assyrian militias were disbanded. The rulers during the occupation and the remainder of the Hashemite monarchy were Nuri as-Said, the autocratic Prime Minister, who also ruled from 1930–1932, and 'Abd al-Ilah, the former Regent who now served as an adviser to King Faisal II.

Republic and Ba'athist Iraq

The 14 July Revolution in 1958

In 1958 a coup d'etat known as the 14 July Revolution led to the end of the monarchy. Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim assumed power, but he was overthrown by Colonel Abdul Salam Arif in a February 1963 coup. After his death in 1966 he was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, who was overthrown by the Ba'ath Party in 1968. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr became the first Ba'ath President of Iraq but then the movement gradually came under the control of General Saddam Hussein, who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), then Iraq's supreme executive body, in July 1979.

After the success of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, President Saddam Hussein initially welcomed the overthrow of the President of Iran and sought to establish good relations with Ayatollah Khomeini's new government. However, Khomeini openly called for the spread of the Islamic Revolution to Iraq, arming Shiite and Kurdish rebels against Saddam's regime and sponsoring assassination attempts on senior Iraqi officials. Following months of cross-border raids between the two countries, Saddam declared war on Iran in September 1980, initiating the Iran–Iraq War (or First Persian Gulf War). Iraq withdrew from Iran in 1982, and for the next six years Iran was on the offensive. The war ended in stalemate in 1988 and cost the lives of between half a million and 1.5 million people. In 1981, Israeli aircraft bombed an Iraqi nuclear materials testing reactor at Osirak and was widely criticized at the United Nations. Iraq waged chemical warfare against Iran. In the final stages of Iran–Iraq War, the Ba'athist Iraqi regime led the Al-Anfal Campaign, a genocidal campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds, and led to the killing of 50,000 – 100,000 civilians.

In August 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. This subsequently led to military intervention by United States-led forces in the First Gulf War. The coalition forces proceeded with a bombing campaign targeting military targets and then launched a 100-hour-long ground assault against Iraqi forces in Southern Iraq and those occupying Kuwait. Iraq's armed forces were devastated during the war and shortly after it ended in 1991, Shia and Kurdish Iraqis led several uprisings against Saddam Hussein's regime, but these were successfully repressed using the Iraqi security forces and chemical weapons. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people, including many civilians were killed. During the uprisings the US, UK, France and Turkey, claiming authority under UNSCR 688, established the Iraqi no-fly zones to protect Kurdish and Shiite populations from attacks by the Hussein regime's fixed-wing aircraft (but not helicopters).

Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. Hussein ruled Iraq from 1979 until 2003.

Iraq was ordered to destroy its chemical and biological weapons and the UN attempted to compel Saddam Hussein's government to disarm and agree to a ceasefire by imposing additional sanctions on the country in addition to the initial sanctions imposed following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The Iraqi Government's failure to disarm and agree to a ceasefire resulted in sanctions which remained in place until 2003. Studies dispute the effects of the sanctions on Iraqi civilians. During the late 1990s, the U.N. considered relaxing the Iraq sanctions because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis and attacks on U.S. aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones led to U.S. bombing of Iraq in December 1998.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks the George W. Bush administration began planning the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government and in October 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. In November 2002 the UN Security Council passed UNSCR 1441 and in March 2003 the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq.

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of the Kingdom of Iraq

Kingdom of Iraq
This article is part of series on the politics of Iraq.
Law
Constitution Constitutional Court
King
Sharif I of Iraq
Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi
Parliament
Royal Council of Representatives
Political parties
Islamic Dawa Party • Tribes of Iraq Coalition • Iraqi National Alliance • Assyrian Patriotic Party
Governorates
Anbar • Babylon • Baghdad • Basra • Dhi Qar • Diyala • Dohuk • Erbil • Halabja • Karbala • Kirkuk • Maysan • Muthana • Najaf • Nineveh • Qadisiyyah • Saladin • Sulaymaniyah • Wasit
Foreign relations
List of diplomatic missions in / of Iraq

Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the people of the country voted in 2004 for Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein, a descendent of the Hashemites (ruling dynasty of Iraq until 1958), to take the throne. This restoration of the monarchy was confirmed in the 2005 constitutional referendum. Although he is a Sunni Muslim (which are a minority in Iraq), he was voted on in the promise of being neutral in regards to the Sunni-Shia split and promised to restore "order, prosperity, and stability in Iraq." So in 2005, Iraq officially became a constitutional monarchy, which it remains as to this day.

The legislature is the Royal Council of Representatives, which has 328 seats. There are several coalitions of parties in the council, including the State of Law coalition (the largest), the Iraqi National Alliance (the second largest), and several other smaller ones.

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of the Kingdom of Iraq

The Kingdom of Iraq maintains foreign relations with many of the world's countries, though not all, as there are some countries that Iraq does not have relations with (usually if the said country is located far away and the two have nothing to benefit from establishing diplomatic ties). Iraq's priorities in foreign relations include establishing trade agreements that would benefit both nations, and also to receive support from others for the Iraqi government's war against various terrorist groups. To that end, Iraq also cooperates with nations on the subject of counter-terrorism, and troops of the Royal Iraqi Armed Forces have taken part in joint military drills with security forces of other countries.

Iraq's strongest allies include Jordan, Egypt, Russia, and the United States. With the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, the government of Iraq has supported the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. This has caused several countries to condemn this action, including the United States. However, Iraq continues to support Assad because a stable Syria would greatly help the situation in Iraq itself. Iraq is also in a dispute with the neighboring Democratic Republic of Kurdistan, which occupied and annexed Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1990s. The Kingdom of Iraq does not recognize this and claims that Iraqi Kurdistan (and the other zones that Kurdistan occupied since its intervention in the anti-ISIS conflict) are still part of Iraq.

The country is part of the League of Nations, the Arab League, and several other international organizations.

Human rights

Relations between Iraq and its Kurdish population have been sour in recent history, especially with Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign] against them in the 1980s. After uprisings during the early 90s, many Kurds fled their homeland and no-fly zones were established in northern Iraq to prevent more conflicts. Tensions increased since the occupation of Iraqi Kurdistan by the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan since the 1990s, which the Iraqi government claims is illegal and has been demanding that the Kurds withdraw.

LGBT rights in Iraq remain limited. Although decriminalized, homosexuality remains stigmatized in Iraqi society. Targeting people because of their gender identity or sexual orientation is not uncommon and is usually carried out in the name of family honor. People who dress in emo style are mistakenly associated with homosexuality and may suffer the same fate. A BBC article published in 2009, which includes interviews of homosexual and transgendered Iraqis, suggests that LGBT people were less subject to violence under Hussein's regime.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Governorates of Iraq

Governorates of Iraq.

The Kingdom of Iraq is officially divided into nineteen governorates, however, several of them are under occupation by the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan in the north. In the west, large swaths of territory are under control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group. The government of Iraq remains nominally in control of these areas, and still has governments-in-exile in Baghdad for the governorates that are under control of the Kurdish People's Defence Force. The Royal Iraqi Army has had skirmishes with the Kurdish forces in these regions, though these have stopped since the arrival of ISIS and the Kurdish intervention in northern Iraq against the terrorist group. Since then, Kurdistan occupied more land and is contesting it with the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

The governorates

Governorate	Code	Total area in miles2	Total area in km2	Population 7 January 2011	Capital
Al Anbar Governorate	31	53,476	138,501	1,561,400	Ramadi
Babil Governorate	51	1,976	5,119	1,820,700	Hillah
Baghdad Governorate	10	1,759	4,555	7,055,200	Baghdad
Basra Governorate	61	7,360	19,070	2,532,000	Basra
Dhi Qar Governorate	64	5,000	12,900	1,836,200	Nasiriyah
Diyala Governorate	32	6,828	17,685	1,443,200	Baqubah
Dohuk Governorate	42	2,530	6,553	1,128,700	Dohuk
Erbil Governorate	44	5,820	15,074	1,612,700	Erbil
Karbala Governorate	56	1,944	5,034	1,066,600	Karbala
Kirkuk Governorate	36	3,737	9,679	1,395,600	Kirkuk
Maysan Governorate	62	6,205	16,072	971,400	Amarah
Muthanna Governorate	66	19,980	51,740	719,100	Samawah
Najaf Governorate	54	11,129	28,824	1,285,500	Najaf
Nineveh Governorate	41	14,410	37,323	3,270,400	Mosul
Al Diwaniyah Governorate	58	3,148	8,153	1,134,300	Al Diwaniyah
Saladin Governorate	34	9,556	24,751	1,408,200	Tikrit
Sulaymaniyah Governorate	46	6,573	17,023	1,878,800	Sulaymaniyah
Wasit Governorate	52	6,623	17,153	1,210,600	Kut

Military

Main article: Royal Iraqi Armed Forces

Iraqi Army soldiers during a training exercise.

The security forces of Iraq are the Royal Iraqi Armed Forces, which consist of the Iraqi Army, Navy, and Air Force. Additionally, there is the Royal Guard, which is under the direct control of the King of Iraq (serving as his protectors), and also an Air Defense service within the Air Force. All three branches are commanded by the general staff, and managed by the Ministry of Defense. In total, the Iraqi Armed Forces has around 800,000 active personnel (775,000 army, 10,000 navy and 15,000 air force). The post-2003 Iraqi government has introduced conscription, which requires all males between the ages of 18 and 49 to serve for one year in the Royal Armed Forces.

The modern Iraqi Army has received a lot of assistance from foreign forces, including those of the United States, which have taken most of the work in rebuilding the Iraqi military after the 2003 invasion. The modern Royal Iraqi military suffered from many problems initially, including corruption and mass desertions. However, since 2011, the situation has improved quite a bit, with Iraqi soldiers being more willing to fight and with corruption going down. Iraq has purchased a lot of equipment from the US, as well as other countries, including China, Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia. When the ISIS terrorist group attacked in 2014, the shortcomings of the Iraqi military were shown, as many Iraqi soldiers retreated rather than fight. However, the situation improved since the beginning of the conflict, with the regrouped Iraqi Army making many gains against ISIS (along with assistance from other countries).

Law enforcement

Main article: Law enforcement in Iraq and Iraqi Police

Economy

Main article: Economy of Iraq

File:Iraq GDP per capita 1950-2008.png

GNP per capita in Iraq from 1950 to 2008.

File:2006Iraqi exports.PNG

Global distribution of Iraqi exports in 2006.

Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings. The lack of development in other sectors has resulted in 18%–30% unemployed and a depressed per capita GDP of $4,000. Public sector employment accounted for nearly 60% of full-time employment in 2011. The oil export industry, which dominates the Iraqi economy, generates very little employment. Currently only a modest percentage of women (the highest estimate for 2011 was 22%) participate in the labour force.

Prior to US occupation, Iraq's centrally planned economy prohibited foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses, ran most large industries as state-owned enterprises, and imposed large tariffs to keep out foreign goods. After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority quickly began issuing many binding orders privatizing Iraq's economy and opening it up to foreign investment.

File:Iraqi Kurdish villagers in field near Turkish border.jpg

Agriculture is the main occupation of the people

On November 20, 2004, the Paris Club of creditor nations agreed to write off 80% ($33 billion) of Iraq's $42 billion debt to Club members. Iraq's total external debt was around $120 billion at the time of the 2003 invasion, and had grown another $5 billion by 2004. The debt relief will be implemented in three stages: two of 30% each and one of 20%. In February 2011, Citigroup included Iraq in a group of countries which it described as 'Global Growth Generators', that it argued will enjoy significant economic growth in the future. The official currency in Iraq is the Iraqi dinar. The Coalition Provisional Authority issued new dinar coins and notes, with the notes printed by De La Rue using modern anti-forgery techniques. Jim Cramer's October 20, 2009 endorsement of the Iraqi Dinar on CNBC has further piqued interest in the investment.

Five years after the invasion, an estimated 2.4 million people were internally displaced (with a further two million refugees outside Iraq), four million Iraqis were considered food-insecure (a quarter of children were chronically malnourished) and only a third of Iraqi children had access to safe drinking water. According to the Overseas Development Institute, international NGOs face challenges in carrying out their mission, leaving their assistance "piecemeal and largely conducted undercover, hindered by insecurity, a lack of coordinated funding, limited operational capacity and patchy information". International NGOs have been targeted and during the first 5 years, 94 aid workers were killed, 248 injured, 24 arrested or detained and 89 kidnapped or abducted.

Geography

Iraq lies between latitudes 29° and 38° N, and longitudes 39° and 49° E (a small area lies west of 39°). Spanning 397,674 square kilometers (153,542 square miles; not including Iraqi Kurdistan), it is the 66th-largest country in the world. It is comparable in size to the Californian region of Sierra, and somewhat smaller than Paraguay.

Iraq mainly consists of desert, but near the two major rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) are fertile alluvial plains, as the rivers carry about 60,000,000 m3 (78,477,037 cu yd) of silt annually to the delta. The north of the country is mostly composed of mountains; the highest point being at 3,611 m (11,847 ft) point, unnamed on the map opposite, but known locally as Cheekah Dar (black tent). Iraq has a small coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) along the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab (known as arvandrūd: اروندرود among Iranians) there used to be marshlands, but many were drained in the 1990s.

Climate

Most of Iraq has a hot arid climate with subtropical influence. Summer temperatures average above 40 °C (104 °F) for most of the country and frequently exceed 48 °C (118.4 °F). Winter temperatures infrequently exceed 21 °C (69.8 °F) with maxima roughly 15 to 19 °C (59.0 to 66.2 °F) and night-time lows 2 to 5 °C (35.6 to 41.0 °F). Typically precipitation is low; most places receive less than 250 mm (9.8 in) annually, with maximum rainfall occurring during the winter months. Rainfall during the summer is extremely rare, except in the far north of the country. The northern mountainous regions have cold winters with occasional heavy snows, sometimes causing extensive flooding.

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Iraq

Iraq has a system of roadways, which totaled 44,900 kilometers in 2002. Most of the roads are paved. There are several railways, though they are few and their function has been disrupted in 2014 with the escalation of the Second Iraqi Civil War. Several rail links exist to neighboring countries, including Kurdistan, Syria, Jordan, and Iran (Kuwait has no railways). However, the railways linking with Kurdistan have been closed down since 2014. A there are more than 100 airports in Iraq, with six international airports.

Education

The CIA World Factbook estimates that in 2000 the adult literacy rate was 84% for males and 64% for females, with UN figures suggesting a small fall in literacy of Iraqis aged 15–24 between 2000 and 2008, from 84.8% to 82.4%. The Coalition Provisional Authority undertook a complete reform of Iraq’s education system: Ba'athist ideology was removed from curricula and there were substantial increases in teacher salaries and training programs, which the Hussein regime neglected in the 1990s. In 2003 an estimated 80% of Iraq’s 15,000 school buildings needed rehabilitation and lacked basic sanitary facilities, and most schools lacked libraries and laboratories.

Education is mandatory only through the sixth grade, after which a national examination determines the possibility of continuing into the upper grades. Although a vocational track is available to those who do not pass the exam, few students elect that option because of its poor quality. Boys and girls generally attend separate schools beginning with seventh grade. In 2005 obstacles to further reform were poor security conditions in many areas, a centralized system that lacked accountability for teachers and administrators, and the isolation in which the system functioned for the previous 30 years. Few private schools exist. Prior to the invasion of 2003, some 240,000 persons were enrolled in institutions of higher education. According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, the top-ranking universities in the country are the University of Dohuk (1717th worldwide), the University of Baghdad (3160th) and Babylon University (3946th).