IRAQ AND THE IRAQ OCCUPATION

1
IRAQ AND THE IRAQ OCCUPATION
2
THE LAND BETWEEN THE RIVERS

• Iraq occupies ancient Mesopotamia- a Greek word
  meaning land between the rivers
• The rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates.

3
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

• This area is where the first civilizations arose,
  as long as 5-6000 years ago.
• Here began cultivation of wheat and other crops,
  the first large cities (Ur, Sumer and others) and
  our system of time and astronomy. The beginnings
  of literacy in writing, math and art were here as
  well.
• A succession of civilizations developed,
  including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians,
  Babylonians and Chaldeans. Babylon was one of
  the ancient worlds great cities.

4
ISLAM

• After the Arab conquest in 6 , the new city of
  Baghdad became the center of power and learning
  in the Islamic world
• The Sunni/Shia split occurred here, as
  Mohammeds son-in-law Ali and his nephew Husain
  were assassinated.

5
MODERN IRAQ

• What is now Iraq became a part of the empire of
  the Ottoman Turks until World War I, when the
  land was taken by the British as part of the
  Sykes-Picot Agreement that divided the Turkish
  provinces in the Middle East between Britain and
  France.

6
CREATION OF IRAQ

• Oil had already been discovered in the vicinity
  of Mosul by 1918. The British also had an
  agreement with the ruling family of Kuwait for
  their oil. The British cobbled together three
  former Ottoman provinces to create modern Iraq,
  leaving out Kuwait, which had been part of one of
  those provinces.

7
IRAQ BECOMES INDEPENDENT

• At first, the British thought they could control
  their new country by using Indian troops. A
  king, relative of the Sharif of Mecca, was
  installed.
• However, constant uprisings soon led the British
  to leave Iraq. They bombed frequently and are
  rumored to have used poison gas on rebel Kurdish
  villages. Winston Churchill, whod drawn Iraqs
  boundaries, soon came to see it as a drain on
  Britains resources, referred to it as Messpot,
  and compared it to living on an ungrateful
  volcano.
• Iraq became independent in 1930, but during World
  War II the British had to seize airfields there
  to prevent the Nazis from using them.

8
THE REPUBLIC

• Iraqs king was assassinated in 1957. A
  socialist army general named Abdul Karim Kassem
  took power for ten years, until he was
  assassinated. He established good relations with
  the Soviets and played both sides in the Cold
  War.
• After Kassems assassination, the Baath party
  came to power.

9
THE BAATH PARTY

• Name means Arab renaissance
• Founded by a group of three Arab intellectuals in
  Syria in the 1930s. Expanded to Iraq in the
  1940s.
• Stood for Arab Unity, Freedom (from colonialism)
  and Socialism (not communism)
• Was strictly secular and pan-Arabist (see the
  party insignia)

10
RISE OF SADDAM

• Saddam Hussein was born in the town of Tikrit,
  north of Baghdad. He was a Sunni Muslim, but was
  brutalized by his father as a child.
• He was close to his uncle, who was a Nazi
  sympathizer during World War II.
• Saddam began his rise in the Baath party as a
  thug, participating in a failed assassination
  attempt on Pres. Kassem, later escaping from
  prison.

11
RISE OF SADDAM CONTD.

• When the Baath party came to power in 1968,
  Saddam was at first part of the Revolutionary
  Council
• He came to full power as president in 1979.

12
SADDAM AS LEADER

• Among his first acts, after executing all of his
  potential rivals, was to invade Iran and begin a
  bloody ten-year war.
• WHY?

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)