Time line of Iraq

The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is most often referred to as humanity's cradle of civilization. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, and live in cities under an organised government, notably Uruk, from which Iraq was derived. It's nations were major players in Biblical times.

Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf and its territory encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. 2 major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through the center of Iraq and flow into the Shatt al-Arab near the  Persian Gulf. These rivers and canals provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, which is firther enhanced by irrigation.

Iraq's people are mostly Shiite and Sunni Muslims. They are of Semitic, Turkic and Iranic stock and speak Arabic, Persian, Turkoman, English, Turkish and Kurdish to varying degrees. Arabic is the offical and majority language, with Kurdish in second place and recognised as a regional language.

Colonial rule

 * 1534 - 1918 - Region and becomes part of the Ottoman Empires divided up in to 3 to 5 provinces during this period.
 * 1913 - After signing the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, the United Kingdom split the autonomus Kuwait district from Basra Poriovince in into a separate sheikdom under British protection.
 * 1917 - Britain seizes control during WW1 and creates state of Iraq in 1919.
 * 1920 - Britain gets League of Nations approval and a offical mandate over the nation. The Arab nationalist rebellion known as the Great Iraqi Revolution against British rule. Some Kurds launch there own rebellion around Mosul and Kirkuk.
 * 1921 - The Hashemite Prince Faysal, son of Hussein Bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, is crowned Iraq's first king. Iraq established its education system in 1921.
 * 1922-1924 - The Mahmud Barzanji revolts and the creatin of the brief Kingdom of Kurdestan.
 * 1932 - Iraq becomes an independent state and joins the League of Nations.
 * 1935–1936 - The Iraqi Shia revolt.
 * 1935 - The Yazidi sect revolt.
 * 1936-1941 - The first military coup took place in the Kingdom of Iraq, as Bakr Sidqi succeeded in replacing the acting Prime Minister with his associate. Multiple coups followed in a period of political instability, peaking in 1941.
 * 1939-1941 - Iraq is neutral in World War 2.
 * 1941-1947 - Britain re-occupies Iraq until 1945 after a short, pro-Axis Powers coupin 1941. The occupation is ended in 1947 after the defeat of a couple of more minor Pan-Arabist rebellions.
 * 1943 - 1943 Barzani revolt.

Pre-Saddam

 * 1948 -Iraq joins the 1948 Palestine War.
 * 1954 - Britain was to closes it's military bases in Iraq.
 * 1958 - 1958 Iraqi Revolution.
 * 1959 - 1959 Mosul uprising. The 1 year old Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan breaks up.
 * 1958 - The monarchy is overthrown in the 14 July Revolution. It is a military coup led by the socialist/Iraqi nationalist Brigadier Abd-al-Karim Qasim and Nasserite Colonel Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif. Iraq is then declared a republic under military rule.
 * 1958-63 - Iraq says it officially wants a 22% corporate share in the Anglo-American Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) and a 55% share in it's profits.
 * 1960 - The dispute over Rumaila field starts when an Arab League declaration marked the Iraq–Kuwait border 2 miles north of the southernmost tip of the Rumaila field
 * 1961 - Kuwait–Iraq 1961 border skirmish.
 * 1963 - Prime Minister Brig Qasim is ousted in a coup led by the Arab Socialist Baath Party (ASBP). Col Arif becomes president. The USA covertly backs the coup since they though he was a communist and in league with the USSR. Later that year he Baathist government is overthrown by Col Arif and a group of officers. Iraq recognized Kuwait's borders.
 * 1966 - Col Arif is killed in a 'helicopter crash' (probably an act of sabotage by Baathist agents) on 13 April and his elder brother, Major-general Abd-al-Rahman Muhammad Arif, then succeeds him as president.
 * 1967 - Iraq joins the Six-Day War.
 * 1968 - A Baathist led-coup ousts Maj-Gen Arif. The Revolution Command Council (RCC) takes charge with General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr as chairman and country's president.
 * Early 1970s - Education became public and free at all levels and mandatory at the primary level.
 * 1972 - Iraq nationalises the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC).
 * 1973 -Iraq joins their Yom Kippur War. Kuwait–Iraq 1973 Sanita border skirmish.
 * 1974 - Iraq grants a limited autonomy to the often rebellious Kurdish region.

Saddam Hussein era



 * 1979 - Saddam Hussein succeeds Gen Al-Bakr as president and rules through a mix of fear, personality and favoritism. There are a couple of attempts on his life. The Kurds and Shiites rebel in places. He is also concerned by the Shiite Iranian Revolution, since he's a Sunni.
 * 1980 - The pro-Iranian Dawah Party claims responsibility for a grenade and gun attack on Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, at the Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad. Saddam Hussein secures his position as president.
 * 1980-1988 - Iran-Iraq war and 1,000,000 die on both sides. Iranian Arabs rebel, Iraqi Kurds, Iranian Kurds, Turkish Kurds, and Iraqi Shi'ite rebel. Iran wrecks Basra and Iraq gasses some Iranian troops in southern Iraq. Iran repeatedly targeted Kuwaiti oil tankers in 1984 and fired weapons at Kuwaiti security personnel stationed on Bubiyan island in 1988.
 * 1981 - Israel attacks an Iraqi nuclear research center at Tuwaythah near Baghdad in Operation Babylon. The USSR rebuilds it, but makes sure it can't make weapons grade plutonium since they also fear his unpredictable war policy.
 * 1983 - Saddam Hussein beings rebuilding the city of Babylon on top of the old ruins. He is also interested by other ancient sites like Nineveh and Ur. Brig Qasim also like the ancient sites and pre-Arab Iraqi history.
 * 1) 1983-1985 - Kurdish rebellion of 1983.
 * 1988 - Iraq nerve gasses the Kurdish town of Halabjah, killing ~3,200 and 5,000 people and injured ~7,000 to 10,000, ending the Kurdish rebellion in that region. The Halabja chemical attack (Kurdish: Kîmyabarana Helebce کیمیابارانی ھەڵەبجە), also known as the Halabja Massacre or Bloody Friday, was a genocidal massacre against the Kurdish people that took place on March 16, 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War in the Kurdish city of Halabja in Southern Kurdistan. The UK, Australia, Canada, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, Turkey, France and Italy all condemn the gas attack. Saddam's Al Anthal Campaign of genocide against the Kurds continues until they give up and surrender in 1990.
 * 1989 - Iraq alleged that Kuwait was slant-drilling across the international border into Iraq's Rumaila oil field. The field is estimated (as of 2014) to contain 17 billion barrels, which accounts for 12% of Iraq's oil reserves estimated at 143.1 billion barrels.
 * 1990 - Before 1990, Iraq's educational system in Iraq was one of the best in the region in addressing access, gender balance, ethnic balance and social equality. Iraq invades Kuwait, putting it on a collision course with the international community and thus prompting what becomes known as the first Gulf War. A massive US-led military campaign forces Iraq to withdraw in February 1991. A reported 605 to 732 oil wells are torched in Kuwait by the retreating Iraqi forces as destroyed Iraqi tank stand abandoned. Iraq's army was crushed in 1991 Gulf War that followed the invasion of Kuwait. Several Arab nations including Egypt, the UAE, Syria and Saudi Arabia condemn Iraq, and the join in the liberation of Kuwait. The Iraqi government also argued that the Kuwaiti Emir was a highly unpopular figure among the Kuwaiti populace and that the nation was relay part of Iraq.
 * 1991 - UNESCO reports that prior to the first Gulf War in 1991 Iraq had one of the best educational systems in the region. Iraq subjected to a UN run weapons inspection program. Southern Shia and northern Kurdish populations, who were both encouraged by Iraq's defeat in Kuwait and false American promises of help rebel, prompting a brutal crackdown in which thousands die. Iraq is the subjected to sanctions, weapons inspections and 2 no-fly zones.
 * 1993 - American forces launch a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad in retaliation for the alleged attempted assassination of US President George Bush in Kuwait during that April. Iran is concerned over Iraq's geo-political integrity and instability. People like George Galloway and Tony Benn begin to question the morality of the UN operations in Iraq, leading to Saddam becoming a Robin Hood like figure in the UK and parts of the USA.
 * 1995 - The UNSC Resolution 986 allows the partial resumption of Iraq's oil exports to buy food and medicine (the Oil-for-Food Programme).
 * 1995 - Saddam Hussein wins a dubious referendum allowing him to remain president for another seven years.
 * 1996 - After call for aid from the KDP's rebel fighters, Iraqi forces launch offensive into northern no-fly zone and capture Irbil. In response the USA extends northern limit of southern no-fly zone to latitude 33 degrees north, just south of Baghdad. Iraq ends cooperation with UN Special Commission to Oversee the Destruction of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (Unscom).
 * 1998 - After UN staff are evacuated from Baghdad, the US and UK launch a bombing campaign, Operation Desert Fox, to destroy Iraq's suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.
 * 1999 - The Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, spiritual leader of the Shia community, is assassinated in Najaf by allies of the Baath Paarty. The UNSC Resolution 1284 creates the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) to replace Unscom. Iraq rejects the resolution. Over this era, Saddam's brutal regime brought about the deaths of at least 250,000 Iraqis by the time of it's fall.
 * 2001 - 9/11 occurs.
 * 2002- The Niger uranium forgeries are drawn up and disseminated by the Americans, British and Italians as a false claime Iraq was trying to get uranium ore (yellow cake) of of Niger.
 * 2003 - The Dodgy Dossier is drawn up by Tony Blair and the UK secret services in order to create a cause belum for bombing and finally invading Iraq.

Post Saddam
2010 - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is appointed the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq (IS/ISIL/ISIS) on 16 May 2010.
 * 2003 - 2014 A US-led coalition invades, starting years of guerrilla warfare, sectarian bombings and instability. The British Conservative Party uses the bloody fares for political gain and use it as part of a wider campaign to undermine the Labour government of Tony Blair. Sunni militias like Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were created and start fighting against the Coalition forces and the local Shiites. Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal comes to light.
 * 2004-2007 - Shiites like the militias Mahdi Army and Saddam loyalists cause hell and kill many Coalition forces. Kurdistan is de facto independent by now.
 * 2005 - An Austrian journalist revealed that Fritz Edlinger's firm, GÖAB, had received $100,000 from an Iraqi front company as well as donations from Austrian companies soliciting business in Iraq. The first elections since the invasion took place, but they were of dubious integrity.
 * 2006 - Saddam is tried in Iraq by Iraqis and is then found guilty and hung. ISIS first rears it's ugly head in Anbar Province.
 * 2006-2007 - A peak in sectarian and ethic violence between February 2006  and February 2007.
 * 2007 - American Iraq War troop surge occurs.
 * 2010- to date - The Siryan Civil War spills over in to Anbar Province, Baghdad and western Iraqi Kurdistan.
 * 2011 - to date - ISIS rebellion starts in Iraq and Syria. Several bombs go off in Turkey and fighting spills over in to Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Many Iraqis and Syrians die.
 * 2014 - Western Coalition forces pull out of Iraq and abandon it to it's fate.
 * 2015 - to date - The UK, USA, France, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Qatar bomb ISIS sites and forces.

Also see

 * 1) Middle East
 * 2) Minerals and fuel in central Africa
 * 3) Mineral mining, smelting and shipping videos
 * 4) Yom Kippur War
 * 5) Six-Day War
 * 6) Suez Crisis
 * 7) 1948 Palestine war
 * 8) Iranian Revolution
 * 9) Palestine vs Israel
 * 10) 1970s energy crises
 * 11) 1953 Iranian coup d'état
 * 12) Iran-Iraq war

Links

 * 1) https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Iraq
 * 2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14546763
 * 3) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Education_in_Iraq
 * 4) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Iraq_Dossier
 * 5) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Abd_al-Karim_Qasim
 * 6) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Saddam_Hussein
 * 7) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cult_of_personality
 * 8) http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/dont-send-us-back-to-our-deaths-1086498
 * 9) http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/hope-for-iraqi-asylum-seekers-1093657
 * 10) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/19/iraq
 * 11) http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/03/29/a-legacy-of-pride-and-pain/
 * 12) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Iraqi_Kurdistan
 * 13) http://www.britannica.com/place/Kurdistan
 * 14) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Kurdistan
 * 15) http://www.theotheriraq.com/
 * 16) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Kuwait
 * 17) http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/spring06/eisa/war.html
 * 18) http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iraq/index.html
 * 19) http://www.iraqinews.com/tag/kurdistan/
 * 20) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/kurdistan/
 * 21) http://wikitravel.org/en/Iraqi_Kurdistan
 * 22) http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Kurdistan
 * 23) http://www.iraqinews.com/tag/kurdistan/
 * 24) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/kurdistan/
 * 25) http://wikitravel.org/en/Iraqi_Kurdistan
 * 26) http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Kurdistan
 * 27) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Iraq
 * 28) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Invasion_of_Kuwait
 * 29) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Kuwaiti_oil_fires
 * 30) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Invasion_of_Kuwait
 * 31) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rumaila_oil_field
 * 32) http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm
 * 33) https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Halabja_chemical_attack