978-1-4222-3442-6

CHRONOLOGY

9000 BCE :

Earliest settlements established in the mountains of northeast Iraq.

ca. 3000 BCE : Sumer flourishes in southern Iraq. ca. 1750 BCE : Hammurabi, who becomes famous for his code of laws, rules in Babylon. 1150 BCE : Assyria conquers Babylon. 612 BCE : The Assyrian Empire, with its capital at Nineveh in central Iraq, is conquered by Babylonian armies under Nebuchadnezzar. 539 BCE : Babylon falls to the Persians under Cyrus the Great. 331 BCE : The armies of Alexander the Great conquer the Persians and take control of Mesopotamia. 126 BCE : Parthians, invaders from northern Persia, conquer Mesopotamia. ca. CE 570: Muhammad, founder of the Islamic faith, is born in Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula. 636: Arabs defeat the Persians and conquer Iraq. 680: Hussein, grandson of Muhammad, is martyred in Karbala. 762: Baghdad is built as the capital of the Arab Muslim empire. 1258: Mongols capture Baghdad. 1453: Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire. 1530: Ottoman armies conquer Baghdad and bring Mesopotamia into the Ottoman Empire. 1914: The Ottomans ally with Germany and Austria-Hungary during the First World War; British forces occupy Basra, in southern Iraq. 1917: British armies occupy Baghdad. 1918: The First World War ends. 1920: League of Nations gives British a mandate to administer Iraq. 1921: A monarchy, ruled by the Hashemite King Faisal I, is established in Iraq. 1927: Oil discovered at Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. 1932: British mandate ends, and Iraq becomes independent. 1933: King Faisal dies; his son Ghazi becomes king. 1939: King Ghazi dies in a car accident; Abdulillah rules Iraq as regent until Ghazi’s infant son Faisal II is old enough to rule.

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