Jordan Chapter 1. Historical Setting
Mosaic of a man in a boat, from the Byzantine Church
of Saint Lots and Saint Prokopius, Khirbat al Muhayyat, ca. 550
JORDAN'S LOCATION AS a buffer zone between the settled region of
the Mediterranean littoral west of the Jordan River and the major
part of the desert to the east contributed significantly to the
country's experience in ancient and more recent times. Until 1921,
however, Jordan had a history as a vaguely defined territory
without a separate political identity. Its earlier history, closely
associated with the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
therefore comes under the histories of the contending empires of
which it often formed a part.
By the time the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the
sixteenth century, the inhabitants of three general geographic
regions had developed distinct loyalties. The villagers and town
dwellers of Palestine, west of the Jordan River, were oriented to
the major cities and ports of the coast. In the north of presentday Jordan, scattered villagers and tribesmen associated themselves
with Syria while the tribesmen of southern Jordan were oriented
toward the Arabian Peninsula. Although most of the populace were
Arab Muslims, the integration of peoples with such differing
backgrounds and regional characteristics hampered the creation of
a cohesive society and state.
In 1921 the Amirate of Transjordan was established under
British patronage on the East Bank by the Hashimite (also seen as
Hashemite) prince Abdullah ibn Hussein Al Hashimi, who had been one
of the principal figures of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman
Empire during World War I. Direct British administration was
established in Palestine, where Britain (in the Balfour Declaration
of 1917) had pledged to implement the founding of a Jewish
homeland.
In 1947 Britain turned the problem of its Palestine Mandate
over to the United Nations (UN). The UN passed a resolution that
provided for the partition of the mandate into an Arab state, a
Jewish state, and an international zone. When on May 14, 1948, the
British relinquished control of the area, the establishment of the
State of Israel was proclaimed. Transjordan's Arab Legion then
joined the forces of other Arab states that had launched attacks on
the new state. The end of the 1948-49 hostilities--the first of
five Arab-Israeli wars--left Transjordan in control of the
West Bank (see Glossary)
and the Old City of Jerusalem. Abdullah changed
the name of the country to Jordan, proclaimed himself king, and in
1950 annexed the West Bank. In the June 1967 War (known to Israelis
as the Six-Day War), Israel seized the West Bank, and reunited
Jerusalem. In late 1989, the area remained under Israeli occupation
(see
fig. 1).
The dominant characteristic of the Hashimite regime has been
its ability to survive under severe political and economic stress.
Major factors contributing to the regime's survival have included
British and United States economic and military aid and the
personal qualities first of King Abdullah and then of his grandson,
Hussein ibn Talal ibn Abdullah ibn Hussein Al Hashimi. King Hussein
has been a skillful politician who has dealt adroitly with foreign
and domestic crises by using caution and by seeking consensus. One
exception to this style of policy making occurred during the 1970-
71 battle against Palestinian resistance fighters, when the king
ordered his mostly beduin-manned army to remove completely the
Palestinian guerrillas, even after neighboring Arab states had
called for a cease-fire.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, regional events severely
tested Jordan's stability. The election of the more hawkish Likud
government in Israel and the expansion of Israeli settlements in
the West Bank lent urgency to Hussein's quest for an Arab-Israeli
territorial settlement. Arab ostracism of Egypt following the 1978
signing of the Camp David Accords and the 1979 Treaty of Peace
Between Egypt and Israel ended Jordan's alliance with the Arab
world's most politically influential and militarily powerful state.
Jordan's vulnerability increased significantly in February 1979,
when Shia radicals overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran.
The Iranian revolutionaries threatened to expunge Western
influences from the region and to overthrow non-Islamic Arab
governments such as that of Jordan. Less than two years later, Iran
and Iraq were embroiled in a costly war that caused a further
shifting of Arab alliances; Jordan and the Arab states of the
Persian Gulf sided with Iraq, while Syria supported Iran. SyrianJordanian relations deteriorated and nearly erupted in military
conflict during the 1981 Arab summit conference in Amman, when
Syrian president Hafiz al Assad accused Hussein of aiding the
antigovernment Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Finally, the downward
slide of world oil prices that began in 1981 drained Jordan's
economy of the large quantities of Arab petrodollars that had
stirred economic development throughout the 1970s.
The turmoil besetting the Arab states in the 1980s presented
Jordan with both risks and opportunities. With the traditional Arab
powers either devitalized or, in the case of Egypt, isolated,
Jordan was able to assume a more prominent role in Arab politics.
Moreover, as the influence of Jordan's Arab neighbors waned,
Hussein pursued a more flexible regional policy.
The weakness of the Arab states, however, enabled the Begin
government in Israel to pursue a more aggressive foreign policy and
to accelerate the pace of settlements in the occupied territories.
Thus, between 1981 and 1982, the Arab states reacted apathetically
to Israel's attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, its annexation of
the Golan Heights, and its June 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Israeli
aggressiveness and Arab passivity combined to raise fears in Jordan
that Israel might annex the occupied territories and drive the
Palestinians into Jordan. These fears were fueled by frequent
references by Israel's hawkish Minister of Agriculture Ariel Sharon
to Jordan as a Palestinian state.
Data as of December 1989
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