The Iraq is a country located in the Middle East that currently borders Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Its capital is Baghdad and its political organization is republican parliamentarism. With a territory of more than 400 thousand km² and a population of more than 28 million people, the country has Kurdish and Arabic as its official languages, an average Human Development Index and its official currency is the Dinar.
Source
The region where Iraq is currently located largely coincides with ancient Mesopotamia , the location where the first historical records of writing and the first civilization in the world, Sumer, come from . About five thousand years ago, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers it housed the first known civilization, which left an immense historical legacy for humanity. The inhabitants of the region faced a series of conflicts at that time caused by intense territorial disputes. The region between the rivers offered extremely fertile conditions for life, which aroused the interest of many groups in the place. Thus, its original inhabitants had to live with many invasions by different peoples, who dominated the territory and subjected individuals.
Invasions
The number of ethnic groups that came into conflict in antiquity in disputes over the lands of the Middle East is enormous. The population of the area lived with threats of domination by the Elamites, Amorites , Mitanni, Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians and others. With so much pressure on all sides, what was originally the territory of the Sumerian civilization was gradually fragmenting into various ethnic groups, who were often deadly rivals. In other words, the instability that exists today in the Middle East has very old roots, which go back to the time of the formation of the first civilizations. Of course, it is necessary to consider many other factors that helped to temper the relationship problems with neighboring populations, but many ancient cultures have made the region a place of intense conflict. It was not long before the first European peoples began to invade the region and conquer territory for their empires, as the Greeks and Romans did.
Ottomans
Iraqi territory has been part of one of the largest empires in the world for almost four centuries, the Ottoman . Between 1638 and World War I, current Iraq can only be understood within this context. In the same way that contemporary Iraq is deeply linked to the fragmentation of the Ottoman Empire. Throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the Ottomans held great political and military power in the world, with the ability to confront any other existing empire or country. Its importance on the world political scene was respected and fundamental to obtain some peace in relations with the East. However, the interior of the Ottoman Empire, like any other, was characterized by intense disputes over power, which ended up damaging the stability of the empire itself. The intensification of these conflicts led to several attempts at coups and internal conflicts, contributing to the gradual ruin of the Ottoman Empire. Externally,European countries were getting stronger and participating in a phase of capitalism development that intensified trade disputes in the world. The United Kingdom and Germany, in particular, became major rivals and became especially interested in the region. British and Germans did several important deals with the Ottomans. At the beginning of the 20th century, the international situation became much more delicate, leaving countries prepared for possible armed conflict. The result of the animosities of the time was the First World War, an unprecedented conflict that involved many countries across the planet, even if not directly involved in the fighting. With regard specifically to the East, Turkey participated in the war alongside Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary,which reflected in the sending of troops from the United Kingdom to the Arab country in defense of their interests. The British army marched to Baghdad, dominating not only Iraq, but surrounding territories. With the end of the First World War in 1918, the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new countries and under the control of the winners of the conflict. The United Kingdom dominated the area of present-day Iraq.
20th century
Years later, World War II caused great instability with yet another conflict of enormous proportions. This time, many other countries participated directly in the fighting, recording the greatest human conflict in history. The genocide committed against the Jewish people by Nazi Germany led to the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East, Israel, which would make the region much more complex and unstable. Since then, there have been several conflicts with Israel and Iraq has played a part in some of them.
After serious conflicts and crises in the region, Iraq managed to establish its republic in 1958. With several internal unrest and intense political disputes involving groups with different cultural origins, the republic lasted 21 years and was overthrown through a military coup in 1979. The general Sunni Saddam Hussein came to power in Iraq on July 15 of that year establishing an autocratic power, marked by the execution of hundreds of oppositionists. In his government, Iraq was involved in two Gulf wars. The first against Iran, and the second as an attempt to annex Kuwait to your country. The participation of powerful armies in the war, such as the United States and England, frustrated Hussein’s plan. As a consequence, Iraq recognized Kuwait’s independence and suffered several economic sanctions between 1991 and 2003. A new Gulf War emerged in 2003, led by the United States against the crimes that were supposedly committed by Iraq. It was, in fact, an American strategy to seize the oil reserves of the Arab country. Thus, the government of Saddam Hussein, which was executed, came to an end.
Since then, Iraq has lived with political and social instability and threats from terrorist groups. The constant confrontation between Shias and Sunnis makes it impossible to develop friendly relations in the country