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I RAQ ’ S H ISTORY TO 1990 45

into a unified country with loyalty to a central government, but the many diverse groups in Iraq and the political power of the Sunni Muslim minority would limit success. The Kurdish people of northern Iraq also opposed the monar- chy. The 1920 treaty that established Iraq and other countries initially called for a Kurdish state in the mountainous region known as Kurdistan, which included parts of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. However, the new governments of these areas decided against establishing a Kurdish state. In Iraq, it was deter- mined that the Kurds should have some control over the govern- ment of their northern province. For the Kurds, however, this was not enough: they revolted against the British-supported monarchy from 1922 to 1924 and again in 1932. Both times their attempts to separate were crushed. As the capital of the monarchy, Baghdad became the center of power. Land became the reward for those who found favor with the king. Iraqis who gained influential government positions used their authority to reward family members or friends. And the monarchy remained subordinate to Great Britain, which exercised extensive control over Iraq’s internal affairs as well as its foreign relations. O IL AND THE M ONARCHY During the 1920s, oil became an important element in the develop- ment of Iraq. Before World War I, the Ottoman Turks had agreed to allow the Turkish Petroleum Company—a group of British, Dutch, French, and American investors—to search for oil in Mesopotamia. After the Iraqi monarchy was formed, the Western powers pres- sured King Faisal to give up Iraq’s right to the country’s oil in exchange for annual royalty payments. In 1927 oil was discovered in northeast Iraq near Kirkuk. The Iraqi government agreed to give the oil company (renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company) exclusive rights to explore for oil in all of