The Geography That Drove Saddam Hussein To Invade Kuwait
And how the British played a key role
The borders of the modern Iraqi state were drawn, quite arbitrarily, by the British and the French after the end of World War I. After a series of secret agreements, promises, and claims the Middle East was rearranged in accordance with the Sykes-Picot Agreement. After it all shook out, Iraq was left with just 36 miles of coastline.
The coastline given to Iraq was a swampy marshy mess and barely had any room to conduct meaningful commerce. Worse, the British protectorate of Kuwait just to the south of Iraq had much better coastlines and a much more developed port city. Due to internal politics, Kuwait was kept as its own separate entity from Iraq despite the fact that both areas were directly administered by the British Empire.
This was a slight that would not go unnoticed in the future.
Lousy Geography
Iraq is one step above landlocked. It has 36 miles of coastline that is embedded in a marshy area that is hard to work and develop. The coast is bordered by Kuwait to the south and Iran to the north and east…
