A History of Iraq

by Charles Tripp

• ISBN13: 9780521556330
• ISBN10: 0521556333
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The twentieth-century history of Iraq has been a troubled one. Since its establishment by the British in the 1920s, the country has witnessed the rise and fall of successive regimes, culminating in the dictatorship of Saddam Husain. Charles Tripp's book traces Iraq's political history from its nineteenth-century roots in the Ottoman empire, to the development of the state, its transformation from monarchy to republic and the rise of the Ba'th party and the ascendancy of Saddam Husain. This is a story of social conflict, of power struggles between rival clans, of hostility and wars with neighbouring states, as well as of their aftermath, and Iraq's deteriorating relations with the West. While the book is designed for students and general readers, its incisive analysis of the making of a modern state and how it creates its own distinctive political field will be of interest to academic specialists, journalists and foreign policymakers.

Author Biography

Charles Tripp is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Chronology	x
Glossary	xvi
Map 1 Iraq: principal towns	xviii
Map 2 Basra, Kuwait and the Shatt al-`Arab	xix
Map 3 Iraq in the Middle East	xx
Introduction	1	(7)
The Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul	8	(22)
Power in the three provinces	8	(5)
The Ottoman `reconquest' of the three provinces	13	(7)
Sultan Abdulhamid II and the Young Turks	20	(4)
The Committee of Union and Progress and its opponents	24	(6)
The British Mandate	30	(47)
British occupation and reactions	31	(9)
The Iraqi revolt of 1920	40	(5)
The institutional definition of the state	45	(7)
Mandate and treaty	52	(6)
The Mosul question: territory and oil	58	(3)
Different communities, different purposes, different histories	61	(4)
Emerging trends in politics and the economy	65	(12)
The Hashemite monarchy 1932-41	77	(31)
Communal identities and tribal unrest	79	(5)
Social criticism and political conspiracy	84	(4)
The coup d'etat of 1936	88	(6)
Military politics: pan-Arabism and army conspiracies	94	(5)
Iraq in the Second World War	99	(4)
The coup d'etat of 1941 and the British military occupation	103	(5)
The Hashemite monarchy 1941-58	108	(40)
Re-establishing the regime	110	(4)
Thwarted liberalisation	114	(4)
Foreign policies: Arab issues, Palestine and the Portsmouth Treaty	118	(9)
Economic development and party politics	127	(5)
Nuri al-Said: the politics of reform and repression	132	(7)
Nuri al-Said: foreign initiatives and domestic challenges	139	(4)
The coup d'etat of 1958	143	(5)
The republic 1958-68	148	(45)
Abd al-Karim Qasim: dictatorship and disillusion	149	(14)
Iraqi foreign policy under Qasim	163	(4)
The politics of conspiracy and the coup d'etat of February 1963	167	(3)
Bathist control and loss of control in 1963	170	(5)
Abd al-Salam Arif: Nasserist aspirations and Iraqi realities	175	(6)
Patrimonialism and the rule of the clan	181	(4)
Abd al-Rahman Arif: a weakening hold on power	185	(8)
The Bath and the rule of Saddam Husain	193	(87)
Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and the consolidation of power	194	(5)
Kurdish and Shii challenges and relations with Iran	199	(6)
Economic patronage, political control and foreign policy alignments	205	(6)
War in Kurdistan	211	(3)
Oil revenues, foreign policies and the rise of Saddam Husain	214	(9)
Saddam Husain's presidency and the war with Iran in 1980	223	(12)
Defending the regime and Iraq after 1982	235	(3)
A war of attrition 1984-8	238	(5)
Resistance among the Kurds and the Shia	243	(5)
The aftermath of war and the invasion of Kuwait 1988-90	248	(5)
The war for Kuwait and the uprisings of 1991	253	(6)
Iraq under sanctions and the long aftermath of the Gulf war	259	(5)
The resilience of Saddam Husain's regime	264	(7)
Kurdish autonomy and Kurdish politics	271	(4)
The limitations of opposition	275	(5)
Conclusion	280	(5)
Notes	285	(9)
Bibliography	294	(6)
Further reading and research	300	(4)
Index	304