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Jordan began in its earliest form as the Kingdom of Petra founded by the Nabataeans. The Nabataeans were an ancient semantic
people from Arabia. Through history the land that would become Jordan has been conquered many times. It has passed though
the control of the Israelite Kingdom, The Assyrian Empire, The Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, The Seleucids, The Roman
Empire, and The Ottoman Empire. After World War I, western powers divided up the former Ottoman empires territories. The area
east of the Jordan River, called Transjordania, fell under the control of the British as part of the League of Nations. When
the League of Nations ceased in 1946, Transjordania became independent.
The country was ruled by King Abdullah
ibn Hussein until he was assassinated in 1951, after which his son, Hussein ibn Talal, took the throne. King Hussein Ibn Talal
ruled until 1999 when he passed, leaving the throne to his son King Abdullah II.
Recent history in Jordan is
marred by the conflicts between Israel and Palestine. In 1948, when war broke out between Israel and Palestine, The Jordan
army was sent in to occupy the west banks of the Jordan River. Until a change in political policy in 1988, the West Bank was
considered a province of Jordan. Jordan had lost the West Bank in the Six-Day War of 1967, but it wasn’t until 1988
that Jordan relinquished any claim to the land.
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait leading to the Gulf War of
1991, Jordan was faced with a hard decision. Formerly an ally of both the United States and Iraq, Jordan was now forced to
give its support to one over the other. Because Jordan did not whole-heartedly support the U.S. led invasion, and because
they took in Iraq refugee’s, Jordan was hit with many United Nations sanctions that crippled them economically. Slowly,
these sanctions have been relaxed and Jordan has been able to recover economically.
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