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In 4th century BC, the Ancient Macedonians
colonized the island, Failaka, on today's Kuwait coast under Alexander the
Great and named it "Ikaros".
Recorded history of the State of Kuwait goes
back to the year 1613. Tribes from central Arabia settled in Kuwait in
the 17th-century after experiencing a massive drought in their native land.
Kuwait used to be a major center for spice trading between India and Europe.
By late 18th-century, most of the local people made a living selling pearls.
In 1756, the people elected Sabah I bin Jaber as the first emir of
Kuwait. The current ruling family of Kuwait, al-Sabah, are descendants
of Sabah I.
During the rule of the Al-Sabah, Kuwait
progressively became a center of trade and commerce. It now served as a hub
of trade between India, the horn of Africa, the Nejd, Mesopotamia and the
Levant. Up until the advent of Japanese pearl farming, Kuwait had one of the
largest sea fleets in the Persian Gulf region and a flourishing pearling
industry. Trade consisted mainly of pearls, wood, spices, dates and horses.
As the influence of the Ottoman Empire
increased in the region, Kuwait was assigned the status of a caza of the
Ottomans. After the signing of the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, then
emir of Kuwait, Mubarak Al-Sabah, was diplomatically recognized by both the
Ottomans and British as the ruler of the autonomous caza of the city of
Kuwait and the hinterlands. The 1922 Treaty of Uqair set Kuwait's border with
Saudi Arabia and also established the Saudi-Kuwaiti neutral zone, an area of
about 5,180 km² adjoining Kuwait's southern border. Oil was first
discovered in Kuwait in the 1930s and the government became more proactive in
establishing internationally recognized boundaries. After World War I,
the Ottoman Empire was financially crippled and
the invading British Indian Army invalidated the Anglo-Ottoman Convention,
declaring Kuwait to be an "independent sheikdom under British
protectorate"..
On 19 June 1961, Kuwait became fully
independent following an exchange of notes between the United Kingdom and the
then emir of Kuwait, Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah. The Gulf rupee, issued by
the Reserve Bank of India, was replaced by the Kuwaiti dinar. The discovery
of large oil fields, such as the Burgan field, triggered a large influx of
foreign investments into Kuwait. The massive growth of the petroleum industry
transformed Kuwait into one of the richest countries in the Arabian Peninsula
and by 1952; the country became the largest exporter of oil in the Persian
Gulf region. This massive growth attracted many foreign workers, especially
from Egypt and India. Kuwait settled its boundary disputes with Saudi Arabia
and agreed on sharing equally the neutral zone's petroleum reserves,
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Onshore and offshore. After a brief stand-off
over boundary issues, Iraq formally recognized Kuwait's independence and its
borders in October 1963. During the 1970s, the Kuwaiti government
nationalized the Kuwait Oil Company, ending its partnership with Gulf Oil and
British Petroleum. In 1982, Kuwait experienced a major economic crisis after
the Souk Al-Manakh stock market crash and decrease in oil price. However, the
crisis was short-lived as Kuwait's oil production increased steadily to fill
the gap caused by decrease in Iraq's and Iran's oil production levels following
the events of the Iran–Iraq War. In 1983, a series of six bomb
explosions took place in Kuwait killing five people. The attack was carried
out by Shiite Dawa Party to retaliate Kuwait's financial support to Iraq
during its war with Iran.
Kuwait had heavily funded Iraq's eight
year-long war with Iran. After the war ended, Kuwait declined an Iraqi
request to forgive its US$65 billion debt. An economic warfare between the
two countries followed after Kuwait increased its oil production by 40
percent. Tensions between the two countries increased further after Iraq
alleged that Kuwait was slant-drilling oil from its share of the Rumaila
field.
On 2 August 1990, Iraqi forces invaded and
annexed Kuwait. Saddam Hussein, then President of Iraq, deposed the emir of
Kuwait, Jaber Al-Sabah, and installed Ali Hassan al-Majid as the new governor
of Kuwait. After a series of failed diplomatic negotiations, the United
States-led coalition of thirty-four nations fought the Persian Gulf War to
remove the Iraqi forces from Kuwait. On February 26, 1991, the coalition
succeeded in driving out the Iraqi forces, restoring the Kuwaiti emir to
power. Kuwait paid the coalition forces US$17 billion for their war efforts.
During their retreat, the Iraqi armed forces
carried out a scorched earth policy by damaging 737 oil wells in Kuwait, of
which approximately 600 were set on fire. It was estimated that by the time
Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation, about 5 to 6 million barrels
(950,000 m3) of oil was being burned in a single day because of these fires.
Oil and soot accumulation had affected the entire Persian Gulf region and
large oil lakes were created holding approximately 25 to 50 million barrels
(7,900,000 m3) of oil and covering 5% of Kuwait's lan d area. In total, about
11 million barrels (1,700,000 m3) of oil was released into the Persian Gulf
and an additional 2% of Kuwait's 96 billion barrels (1.53×1010 m3) of
crude oil reserves were burned by the time the oil fires were brought under
control. The fires took more than nine months to extinguish fully and it took
Kuwait more than 2 years and US$50 billion in infrastructure reconstruction
to reach pre-invasion oil output. Kuwait has since largely recovered from the
socio-economic, environmental, and public health effects of the Persian Gulf
War.
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