Iraq

• 1. Cradle Of Civilisation

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  The fertile plains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers fostered the rise of early cities, civilisations, and empires including Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, and Assyria. This region known as Mesopotamia saw the invention of writing systems, mathematics, navigation, timekeeping, a calendar, astrology, the wheel, the sailboat, and a law code. Within its borders lies the ancient land of Sumer, which emerged between 6000 and 5000 BC during the Neolithic Ubaid period. Sumer is recognised as the world's earliest civilisation, marking the beginning of urban development, written language, and monumental architecture. The Iraq of antiquity was an innovation stronghold, producing early written languages, literary works, and significant advancements in astronomy, mathematics, law, and philosophy. This era of indigenous rule ended in 539 BC when the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great. The city of Babylon became one of the key capitals of the Achaemenid Empire. Ancient Iraq is home to the world's first Jewish diaspora community, which emerged during the Babylonian exile. Enslaved Jews were freed from the Babylonian captivity, though many remained in the land and thus the Jewish community grew in the region.

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• 2. Islamic Golden Age Hub

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  The Arabic name al-`Irāq likely originated during the medieval period following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia in the 7th century. The Sasanian Empire was eventually conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century, bringing Iraq under Islamic rule after the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. With the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate in the mid-8th century, Iraq became the centre of Islamic rule, with Baghdad, founded in 762, serving as the capital. Baghdad flourished during the Islamic Golden Age, becoming a global hub for culture, science, and intellectualism. It was home to institutions such as the House of Wisdom. However, the city's prosperity declined following the Buwayhid and Seljuq invasions in the 10th century and suffered further with the Mongol invasion of 1258. Following Baghdad's destruction by the Mongols, Iraq came under successive empires and, from the 16th century until the 20th century, was governed within the Ottoman system as a defined region known administratively as Ottoman Iraq. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Iraq was a major frontier of the Ottoman, Safavid wars, with Baghdad changing hands several times until the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 confirmed Ottoman control.

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• 3. Modern State Formation

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  Iraq's modern history began in the wake of World War I, as the region emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In 1921, the Cairo Conference decided that Faisal would become the king of Iraq. Upon his coronation on the 23rd of August 1921, he focused on unifying a land formerly divided into three Ottoman provinces, Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. By 1932, Iraq gained formal independence, becoming a member of the League of Nations. A rebellion erupted challenging British authority, leading to the need for a new strategy. On the 4th of April 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the Golden Square staged a coup d'état and installed a pro-German and pro-Italian government. The war started on the 2nd of May, and the British defeated the forces of Al-Gaylani, forcing an armistice on the 31st of May. In 1958, these tensions culminated in a military coup known as the 14th of July Revolution. Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim led this revolt which was strongly anti-imperial and anti-monarchical in nature. King Faisal II, Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Nuri al-Sa'id were killed brutally during this event. The Ba'ath Party took power in 1968, establishing a one-party state under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and later Saddam Hussein.

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• 4. Decades Of Conflict

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  Saddam declared war on Iran in September 1980, initiating the Iran, Iraq War. Taking advantage of the post-Iranian Revolution chaos in Iran, Iraq captured some territories in southwest Iran, but Iran recaptured all of the lost territories within two years. For the next six years Iran was on the offensive. During the war, between 1983 and 1986, Kurds led rebellion against the regime. In retaliation, the government-coordinated Anfal campaign led to the killing of 50,000, 100,000 civilians. The war ended in stalemate in 1988, killing between half a million and 1.5 million people. On the 2nd of August 1990, Iraqi forces invaded and annexed Kuwait as its 19th governorate, starting the Gulf War. This led to military intervention by the US-led alliance. Sanctions were imposed on Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait, which resulted in economic decline. After the end of the war in 1991, Iraqi Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims in northern and southern Iraq led several uprisings against Saddam's regime, but these were repressed. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people, including many civilians, were killed during these uprisings.

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• 5. Post-Invasion Instability

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  On the 20th of March 2003, the US-led coalition invaded Iraq, as part of global war on terror. Within weeks, coalition forces occupied much of Iraq, with the Iraqi Army adopting guerrilla tactics to confront coalition forces. Following the fall of Baghdad in the first week of April, Saddam's regime had completely lost control of Iraq. A statue of Saddam was toppled in Baghdad, symbolising the end of his rule. The Coalition Provisional Authority began disbanding the Ba'ath Army and expelling Ba'athists from the new government. The Shia, Sunni civil war took place from 2006 to 2008. The war in Iraq has resulted in between 151,000 and 1.2 million Iraqis being killed. In 2013, taking advantage of the ensuing chaos and popular discontent against the Iraqi government, Ba'athist and other Sunni militants launched a number of attacks. What followed was a large scale offensive by ISIS in Mosul, which marked the beginning of the rapid territorial expansion of the group. Around 500,000 civilians fled from Mosul. An estimated 5,000 Yazidis were killed in the genocide by ISIS.

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• 6. Desert And Water Scarcity

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  Iraq lies between latitudes 29° and 38° N, and longitudes 39° and 49° E. Rocky deserts cover about 40 percent of Iraq. Another 30 percent is mountainous with bitterly cold winters. Much of Iraq has a hot arid climate with subtropical influence. Summer temperatures average above 40°C for most of the country and frequently exceed 50°C. Typically, precipitation is low; most places receive less than 150mm annually. Iraq is highly vulnerable to climate change. The country is subject to rising temperatures and reduced rainfall, and suffers from increasing water scarcity for a human population that rose tenfold between 1890 and 2010. The country has been in a prolonged drought since 2020 and experienced its second-driest season in the past four decades in 2021. Water flows in the Tigris and Euphrates are down between 30 and 40%. Half of the country's farmland is at risk of desertification. Nearly 40% of Iraq has been overtaken by blowing desert sands that claim tens of thousands of acres of arable land every year.

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• 7. Oil And Economic Dependence

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  Iraq ranks third in the world behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia in the amount of oil reserves. Oil production levels reached 3.4 million barrels per day by December 2012. Only about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared with about 1 million wells in Texas alone. Oil accounts for 99% of Iraq's revenue as estimated by the UN in 2018. As of 2021, the oil sector provided about 92% of foreign exchange earnings. The lack of development in other sectors has resulted in 18%, 30% unemployed and a per capita GDP of $4,812. Public sector employment accounted for nearly 60% of full-time employment in 2011. Currently only a modest percentage of women participate in the labour force. Between 2007 and 2014, sanctions prohibited Iraq from exporting oil until 1996 and Iraq's output declined by 85% in the years following the First Gulf War. In 2008, Al Jazeera reported $13 billion of Iraqi oil revenues in American care was improperly accounted for.

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• 8. Diverse Ethnic Tapestry

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  Iraq's native population is predominantly Arab, but also includes other ethnic groups such as Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Yazidis, Shabaks, Armenians, Mandaeans, Circassians, and Kawliya. A report suggests that in 2015 there were 24 million Arabs, 4.7 million Sunni Kurds, 3 million Iraqi Turkmens, 500,000 Christians, and 500,000 Yazidis. The historic Assyrian Quarter in Baghdad housed 150,000 Armenians in 2003. Most of them fled following the escalation of war, and today only 1,500 Armenians are found in the city. Around 20,000 Marsh Arabs live in southern Iraq. Iraq has a community of 2,500 Chechens and some 20,000 Armenians. In southern Iraq, there is a community of Iraqis of African descent, a legacy of the slavery practised in the Islamic Caliphate beginning before the Zanj Rebellion of the 9th century. Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages of Iraq, while Assyrian, Turkmen and Mandaic are spoken regionally.

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