Introduction
The First Persian Gulf War was triggered in August 1990 when Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait for their oil reserves and ensuring their debts were cancelled. Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein claimed that Kuwait were guilty of slant drilling and over production, of crude oil, which significantly hurt the Iraqi economy as they were reeling from the after-effects of a long war with Iran. Different historians present their own reasons for the start and the First Persian Gulf War and factors behind the involvement of the global coalition to defeat Iraq.
Findings
Geoff Simons mentions his book, Iraq: From Sumer to Post-Saddam, claims that the problems started in July 1990 when Iraq started to complain about Kuwait not respecting their production quota, which in turn decreased the rate of crude oil and affected Saddam’s ability rebuild its economy. Saddam made inroads into OPEC and demanded to set the price of crude oil at $25 per barrel, but Kuwait repudiated on the agreement set at $18 per barrel.
After failing with the diplomatic talks, Saddam started to threaten military action in Kuwait, who was working on building relations with Iran and Syria (Iraq’s main rivals in the Middle East) and failed to respect the production quotas.
Iraq also claimed that Kuwaiti region was historically their territory and it made them the rightful to the oil fields. Stork and Lesch mention that there was a historical perspective to the Iraqi claims as the Kuwaiti region used to be part of the Basra Province in the Ottoman Empire and they saw the Al-Sabah family as invaders. In response, Kuwait consistently fought back against such claims by Saddam Hussein and his government. Therefore, Iraq were infuriated with Kuwait’s over in the Rumaila oil field and continuously brushing off Iraq’s request to lease the border region for drilling.
Finlan in his book, The Gulf War 1991, claimed that the invasion was caused one significant event in 1990. In the book, Finlan mentions that the invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 was triggered after diplomatic talks in Jeddah. Iraq demanded $10 billion for slant drilling and lost revenues from the Rumaila oil field, in response Kuwait only offered $9 billion. Within 12 hours of the invasion was successful and the Iraqi army had overcome the minor resistance build up by the Kuwaiti armed guards. The royal family fled Kuwait and Iraqi army had reached the northern border of Saudi Arabia.
With the threat of Iraq’s growing influence in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia became threatened. As a result the US responded to protect the political ally and started to develop a coalition that was funded by the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and militarily supported by US, Egypt, several other countries all over the world. In a Joint Session of the US Congress, President George Bush claimed that the intervention was necessary as Iraq had broken several international peace treaties in the invasion and had started to assemble at the northern Saudi border. The coalition helped in defeating Iraqi forces and expelled Saddam’s forces from the Kingdom.
Conclusion
The First Persian Gulf War started in August 1990 when Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait and ended when coalition forces led by the US expelled the Iraqi forces and reinstated the monarchy. Different authors and historians present different viewpoints over the reasons for the invasions. Some claim that Iraq’s invasion was based in Kuwait overriding their production quotas and ensuring the price of crude oil was decreased. Another source claims that there was a more deep rooted reason, which based on Iraq’s belief that Kuwait was historically their land invaded by the Al-Sabah royal family. After Iraq successfully invaded Kuwait, they became a threat to Saudi Arabia and US developed a coalition force to fight back and expel Iraq from Kuwait.
Bibliography
Bush, G.H.W. "Address Before a Joint Session of Congress (September 11, 1990)—Miller Center." Miller Center. Last modified September 11, 1990. http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/speech-3425.
Finlan, Alastair. The Gulf War of 1991. New York: Rosen Pub, 2009.
Simons, G. L. Iraq: From Sumer to Post-Saddam. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Stork, Joe, and Ann M. Lesch. "Background to the Crisis: Why War?" Middle East Report, no. 167 (1990), 11-18. doi:10.2307/3012998.
