Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The Rise of the Baʿth Party
- 2 Party Structure and Organization
- 3 The Baʿth Party Branches
- 4 Security Organizations during the Baʿth Era
- 5 The Baʿth Party and the Army
- 6 The Personality Cult of Saddam Hussein
- 7 Control and Resistance
- 8 Bureaucracy and Civil Life under the Baʿth
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Chart of the Structure of the Baʿth Party Secretariat (maktab amanat sir al-qutr)
- Appendix II Baʿth Party Statistics as of September 2002
- Notes on Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
1 - The Rise of the Baʿth Party
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The Rise of the Baʿth Party
- 2 Party Structure and Organization
- 3 The Baʿth Party Branches
- 4 Security Organizations during the Baʿth Era
- 5 The Baʿth Party and the Army
- 6 The Personality Cult of Saddam Hussein
- 7 Control and Resistance
- 8 Bureaucracy and Civil Life under the Baʿth
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Chart of the Structure of the Baʿth Party Secretariat (maktab amanat sir al-qutr)
- Appendix II Baʿth Party Statistics as of September 2002
- Notes on Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
On July 17, 1968, hizb al-Baʿth al-ʿArabi al-ishtiraki (the Arab Baʿth Socialist Party) launched a successful coup d’état and began its thirty-five-year domination of Iraq. The ascent of the Baʿth Party, five years after its first brief interlude in power, was the result of a combination of historical, economic, and social factors that had led to instability and repeated power vacuums in the decades leading up to July 1968.
Modern Iraq was created from the amalgamation of the three provinces of Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul, which constituted Mesopotamia and had been part of the Ottoman Empire for more than four centuries. When the First World War broke out, the British felt the need to protect their burgeoning oil and political interests in the region and launched a military campaign in Iraq. By 1918 they had come to control the three provinces but soon found out that ruling the country proved significantly more difficult than occupying it. Iraq became a British mandate from 1920 until independence was granted in 1932, and King Faisal was installed as its first monarch in 1921.
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- Information
- Saddam Hussein's Ba'th PartyInside an Authoritarian Regime, pp. 16 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011