Republic of

“B
y 6000 B.C., Mesopotamia had been
settled, chiefly by migrants from the
Turkish and Iranian highlands. Sumer
is the ancient name for southern Mesopotamia.
Historians are divided on when the Sumerians
arrived in the area, but they agree that the
population of Sumer was a mixture of linguistic
and ethnic groups that included the earlier
inhabitants of the region. Sumerian culture mixed
foreign and local elements. The Sumerians were
highly innovative people who responded creatively
to the challenges of the changeable Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. Many of the great Sumerian
legacies, such as writing, irrigation, the wheel,
astronomy, and literature, can be seen as adaptive
responses to the great rivers. The precariousness
of existence in southern Mesopotamia also led to
a highly developed sense of religion. Cult centers
such as Eridu, dating back to 5000 B.C., served
became independent in 1932 and the period that followed was
as important centers of pilgrimage and devotion distinguished by a succession of coups, counter-coups and by
even before the rise of Sumer. Many of the most the discovery of massive reserves of oil. On 14 July 1958 the
important Mesopotamian cities emerged in areas monarchy was overthrown in a military coup and Iraq became
surrounding the pre-Sumerian cult centers, thus a republic.
reinforcing the close relationship between religion “In 1979 Saddam Hussein replaced Al-Bakr as president,
and government” (Country Studies, Library of the revolution in Iran took place and relations between the
two countries sank to an all-time low. Saddam, increasingly
Congress 2014).
concerned about the threat of a Shiite revolution in his own
“In AD 637 the Arab armies of Islam swept north from the
country, declared that Iraq wanted a return to exclusive
Arabian Peninsula and occupied Iraq. Their most important
control over the Shatt al-Arab River. Full-scale war broke
centers became Al-Kufa, Baghdad and Mosul. In 749 the first
Abbasid caliph was proclaimed at Al-Kufa and the Abbasids out on 22 September 1980, with Iraqi forces entering Iran
would go on to make Iraq their own. The founding of Baghdad along a 500 km front. The eight years of war that followed
by Al-Mansur saw the city become, by some accounts, the were characterized by human-wave infantry advances and
greatest city in the world. In 1258 Hulagu - a grandson of the the deliberate targeting of urban residential areas by enemy
feared Mongol ruler Genghis Khan - laid waste to Baghdad, artillery, all for little territorial gain. A million lives were lost
and killed the last Abbasid caliph. Political power in the and the economic cost to Iraq alone is estimated at more than
Muslim world shifted elsewhere. By 1638 Iraq had come under US$100 billion” (Lonely Planet, 2014).
Ottoman rule. After a period of relative autonomy, the Ottomans Thanks to John W. Hager, “The British divided up the trig
centralized their rule in the 19th century, where after Iraqi list production in the Middle East early in WW II. I don’t know
resentment against foreign occupation crystalized even as the the exact boundaries but I believe that Turkey, Iraq, Iran, the
Ottomans undertook a massive program of modernization. The Arabian Peninsula and areas east went to the Survey of India
Ottomans held on until 1920, when the arrival of the British (S.I). The rest went to Middle East Land Forces (M.E.L.F.).
saw Iraq come under the power of yet another occupying force, “The principal datum for Iraq was Nahrwan (code NAH)
which was at first welcomed then resented by Iraqis. Iraq observed at Nahrwan S. E. Base in 1929 or 1930. Φo =

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