Iraq

The modern country of Iraq corresponds with the ancient region of Mesopotamia - known by many as the cradle of civilization - where the first cities and classical civilizations developed in the fertile region between the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The first of these was the Sumerian civilization that arose in southern Mesopotamia around 4,500 BC. The Sumerians grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, millet, wheat, turnips, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard and raised cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The fertility of the flood plains they farmed and their extensive use of irrigation created surplus food which supported the populations of their cities and a system of government - which stored and distributed food and created a system of laws. In order to administer this the Sumerians developed the earliest known form of writing - cuneiform - much of which survives as they wrote on clay tablets which were dried in the sun and many of which have survived. The Sumerians worshipped many gods and built large mud brick pyramids known as ziggurats as temples. In 2371 BC King Sargon of Akkad established the Assyrian dynasty which conquered the region covered by the modern countries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Israel. The Assyrian Empire collapsed with the fall of it's capital Nineveh (the modern Iraqi town of Mosul)in 612 BC and it was replaced by the Babylonian Empire - Babylon was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world and home to the legendary hanging gardens of Babylon built by King Nebuchadnezzar the second. Mesopotamian dominance of the region ended when the Persian king Cyrus the Great invaded in 539 BC. It remained part of the Persian Empire until Alexander the Greats conquest in 331 BC. It was ruled of the Hellenic descendants of Alexander's army - the Seleucids - until the Persians regained control in around 150 BC and made Mesopotamia part of the Parthian Empire - the only civilisation to halt Roman expansionism. In the 7th Century AD Mesopotamia was incorporated into the vast Muslim Arab empire that covered most of the middle east, north Africa and Spain. In the 8th century the capital of this empire was moved to Baghdad which at a time when Europe was in the dark ages became the greatest centre for science and art since the time of the ancient Greeks. It was here that Astronomy and Algebra (both Arab words) were studied and advanced, and many familiar stories were first told like those of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the forty thieves and the thousand and one Arabian nights. By the twelve century this great empire was in serious decline under pressure from Christian Europe, breakaway Muslim states in north Africa, the Mongols in the east and most of all from it's own rebellious mercenary soldiers - the Mamalukes and the Turks. Following the assasination of the last caliph of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258 there were nearly four centuries of conquest and chaos as Mesopotamia was invaded by Selecids, Turks, Ottomans, Mongols (under Khengis Khan), Turkomen, Tartars and Kurds. In the 16th Century Mesopotamia became part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. In the early 20th Century Arab nationalists including Iraqis began rebelling against their Turkish rulers. With the outbreak of the First World War they fought alongside the Allies against the Turks in the hope of gaining their independence. Many Iraqis supported Britains invasion and occupation of Iraq in 1917 as it ended Turkish rule, however the western Allies had secretly agreed that France and Britain would control the Arab lands and Iraq came under the British mandate. When Iraqi tribesmen rebelled against British rule, the rebellion was put down using aerial bombardment - the first time air power had been used in such a way. In 1932 Iraq was granted independence although Britain still excercised considerable control over the country and had retained Kuwait fot its oil. Template:Stub