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Kuwait, officially State of Kuwait, independent sheikhdom (1995 est. pop. 1,817,000), 6,177 sq mi (16,000 sq km), NE Arabian peninsula, at the head of the Persian Gulf, bounded by Saudi Arabia (S) and Iraq (N and W). The capital is Kuwait. It is a sandy and barren country. With more than 10% of the world's estimated oil reserves, Kuwait is a leading exporter of petroleum and has used some of the enormous profits for social improvements. In the 1960s the government launched a program of industrial diversification, successfully introducing oil refining and production of natural gas and fertilizers. The population is predominantly Arab and Sunni Muslim, although only half the inhabitants are native-born.
History
Kuwait, settled by Arab tribes in the early 18th cent., has been ruled since its inception by the al-Sabah dynasty. Nominally an Ottoman province, the sheikhdom became a British protectorate in 1897, remaining so until independence in 1961. Oil production began in the 1940s and was controlled by a joint British-American firm until 1974, when Kuwait nationalized most of the operations. Kuwait took part in the Arab oil embargo against nations that supported Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In Aug. 1990, Kuwait was invaded and forcibly annexed by Iraq, an act that led to and was reversed by the Persian Gulf War. The war and widespread looting and intentional destruction by Iraqi troops devastated Kuwait, particularly its oil fields, but by the end of 1992 the country had repaired nearly all the damage and its oil output was at about the prewar level. Large areas of land, however, remained environmentally devastated. In 1992, opposition candidates won a majority of the seats in parliament; the al-Sabah family, however, continued to dominate the government. An Iraqi military buildup near the Kuwait border led the U.S. to send troops to Kuwait in 1994. Parliament was dissolved by the sheikh in May 1999; elections in July gave Islamist and liberal candidates the most seats. An edict (1999) by the sheikh giving Kuwaiti women the right to vote and run for office failed to win parliamentary ratification.
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