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From Saladin to Saddam: the British connection
From Iraq: war and peace online
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Iraq and the UK have been linked since the time of the Crusades.
At the end of the nineteenth century, when oil was discovered, Britain
controlled 65 per cent of Iraq’s trade. People in Iraq are
very aware of their connections to the UK and the role we have played
in the past; people in the UK are perhaps less aware of our long
relationship with Iraq.
4000–2000 BC The cradle of civilisation
The fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is known
as Mesopotamia. Writing, the wheel, and the plough are invented.
700–1200 AD Islamic/Arab culture flourishes
The first university is established; algebra is invented.
1095–1291 The Crusaders
The British come with the Crusaders to fight the Muslims led by
Saladin, who comes from Tikrit in Iraq.
1200 The Mongols
In 1258 Genghis Khan reduces Baghdad to rubble and 80,000 men, women
and children are killed.
1500–1917 The Ottoman Turks
Under Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Turks drive out the
Mongols and rule Iraq for three centuries.
1917 The British take Baghdad
With the help of an Arab revolt against the German-backed Ottomans.
The Middle East is shared between France and Britain – despite
earlier promises of independence, Britain claims Baghdad and Basra
and crowns King Faisal 1 as a puppet-king in 1921.
1920 Independence crushed
Churchill advocates the use of ‘poison gas’ against
‘uncivilised tribes’ and whole villages are razed, suspected
ringleaders shot without trial and phosphorus bombs used.
1932 Independence won
After the king dies in 1933, there are a series of attempted coups.
In 1940 Prime Minister Rashid al-Gilani forms an alliance with the
Germans against the British. British troops take Baghdad. Churchill
cables congratulations and says the ‘the immediate task is
to get a friendly government set up in Baghdad’.
1943 The Ba’ath party is formed in Damascus,
Syria
Its politics are based on the idea of pan-Arabism: that individual
states were ‘regions’ of a bigger Arab ‘nation’.
1956 Suez
Iraq sides with Egypt over its nationalisation of the Suez Canal
and breaks diplomatic ties with Britain and the USA. Three subsequent
coups see the king and two prime ministers killed. Saddam Hussein
is involved in one.
1979 Saddam Hussein comes to power
He takes Iraq into a war with Iran in which over a million people
die. The US, UK, Soviet Union and others assist and arm Iraq, believing
that Iran’s brand of Shi’a Islam is dangerous, and that
‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. The war ends in
1988.
1988 Iraq attacks the Kurds
Iraq unleashes poison gas attacks on the Kurds in the north of the
country, one of which, at Halabja, leaves 5,000 dead. Iraq’s
allies say nothing.
1990 The Gulf War
Iraq invades Kuwait. An alliance of 33 nations launches a six-week
attack in which 250,000 people die and much of Iraq’s infrastructure
is destroyed. Uprisings by the Shi’a in the south of the country
and the Kurds in the north, who think they have US support, are
suppressed. Thousands die and refugees stream out of the country
while the West looks on. The Kurds are given a UN ‘safe haven’.
In 1992 the Marsh Arabs are driven out of their land and many are
killed.
The 1990s Aftermath – sanctions
The UN imposes sanctions on central and southern Iraq, plus a system
of weapons inspections suspended in 1998. In 1995 it imposes an
‘Oil for food’ programme. The US and UK unilaterally
declare parts of Iraq ‘no-fly zones’ for the protection
of the citizens there. They continue to bomb what they say are military
targets and attack Baghdad in 1998. Many civilians are killed.
2003 War
In January 2003, the weapons inspectors go back. They are ordered
to leave after less than three months. Failing to get a UN Security
Council resolution to go to war, the USA and Britain launch an attack
on Iraq on 20th March 2003.
From Iraq: war and peace online
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