Jordan (Arabic: الأردنّ al-'Urdunn ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (originally the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan), is a country in Western Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba. Jordan shares borders with Syria to the north, Iraq to the northeast, Saudi Arabia to the east and south, the Gulf of Aqaba to the southwest, and Israel to the west. It shares control of the Dead Sea with Israel. Much of Jordan is covered by desert, particularly the Arabian Desert. However, the north-western area of Jordan, with the Jordan River, is regarded as part of the Ancient Fertile Crescent. The capital city of Amman is in the northwestern part of the country, not far from the Jordan River.
During its history, Jordan has seen numerous civilizations, including such ancient eastern ones as the Canaanite and later other Semitic peoples such as the Edomites, and the Moabites. Other civilizations possessing political sovereignty and influence in Jordan were: Akkadian, Israelite, Assyrian, Judean, Babylonian, and Persian empires. Jordan was for a time part of Pharaonic Egypt, the Hasmonean Dynasty of the Maccabees, and also spawned the native Nabatean civilization which left rich archaeological remains at Petra. Cultures from the west also left their mark, such as the Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Turkish empires. Since the seventh century the area has been under Muslim and Arab cultures, with the exception of a brief period when the west of the area formed part of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and a short time under British rule.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with representative government. The reigning monarch is the head of state, the chief executive and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The king exercises his executive authority through the prime ministers and the Council of Ministers, or cabinet. The cabinet, meanwhile, is responsible before the democratically elected House of Deputies which, along with the House of Notables (Senate), constitutes the legislative branch of the government. The judicial branch is an independent branch of the government.
Jordan is a modern Arab nation with a predominantly middle class population that lacks the vast wealth of some of its neighbors. Jordan's population is 92% Sunni Muslim with a small Christian minority. Jordanian society is predominantly urbanized and very ethnically diverse. Jordan is classified as an emerging market by the CIA fact book. Jordan is a pro-Western regime that has very close relations with the West especially with the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Jordan became a major non-NATO ally in 1996. Jordan is one of only two Arab nations, the other being Egypt, that has diplomatic relations with Israel. It is a founding member of the Arab League and the CAEU, a member of the OIC, the WTO, the AFESD, the Arab Parliament, the AIDMO, the AMF, the IMF, the International Criminal Court, the UNHRC, the GAFTA, the ESCWA, the ENP and the United Nations. Jordan is also currently undergoing close integration with the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Jordan expects to receive "advanced status" with the EU by 2011.
History
Main article: History of JordanAncient Times
According to the Book of Numbers, the area now know has Jordan had been part of Israel since the time of Moses. Known in the bible as Transjordan, it was separated from Palestine only in 1921. It was part of the Kingdom of Israel, and then, following a brief period of Jewish absence, the Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Herodian Kingdom.
After the fall of Judea in 70 A.D., the Roman occupiers renamed Judea Palestina. During the absence of a Jewish presence, a number of semi-independent city-states developed in Transjordan under the umbrella of the Decapolis including: Gerasa (Jerash), Philadelphia (Amman), Raphana (Abila), Dion (Capitolias), Gadara (Umm Qays), and Pella (Irbid).
Later, Transjordan became part of the Arabic Islamic Empire across its different Caliphates stages including Rashidun Empire, Umayyad Empire and Abbasid Empire. After the decline of the Abbasid, Transjordan was ruled by several conflicting powers including the Mongols, the Crusaders, the Ayyubids and the Mamluks until it became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1516.
Modern Jordan
With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the League of Nations and the occupying powers chose to redraw the borders of the Middle East. The ensuing decisions, most notably the Sykes–Picot Agreement gave birth to the French Mandate of Syria and British Mandate of Palestine. According to the agreement, Palestine was to be restored as the Jewish National Home (what later became the State of Israel). More than 76% of the British Mandate of Palestine was east of the Jordan river and was known as "Transjordan". In 1921, the British issued a White Paper which prohibited Jews from settling east of the Jordan River and severed the East Bank from the Jewish National Home.
The country was under British occupation until after World War II. In 1946, the British requested that the United Nations approve an end to British Mandate rule in Transjordan. Following this approval, the Transjordanian Parliament proclaimed King Abdullah as the first ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Abdullah I continued to rule until a Palestinian Arab assassinated him in 1951 as he was departing from the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan captured the area of Cisjordan called Judea and Samaria by the Jews and renamed it the West Bank, which it continued to control in accordance with the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Abdullah thereupon took the title King of Jordan, and he officially changed the country's name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in April 1949. The following year he annexed the West Bank, but only two countries recognized this annexation: Britain and Pakistan.
Jordan and Iraq united in 1958 to form the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan under the Hashemite crowns in Amman and Baghdad. A coup later that year would end the union with the execution of the Hashemite crown in Baghdad. The United Arab Republic consisting of Egypt, Syria, and Yemen quickly moved to antagonize Jordan's young King Hussein with Soviet support. King Hussein asked for British and American assistance. The RAF and the USAF was sent to patrol Jordanian airspace and British troops were deployed in Amman. The UAR backed off but then turned to Lebanon. The Americans would later be deployed in Beirut to support Lebanon's pro-Western government.
In 1965, there was an exchange of land between Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Jordan gave up a large area of inland desert in return for a small piece of sea-shore near Aqaba.
Jordan signed a military pact with Egypt in May 1967, and following an Israeli air attack on Egypt in June 1967, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq continued the Six Day War against Israel. During the war, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In 1988, Jordan renounced all claims to the territory now occupied by Israel but its 1994 treaty with Israel allowed for a continuing Jordanian role in Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem. The severance of administrative ties with the West Bank halted the Jordanian government's paying of civil servants and public sector employees' salaries in the West Bank.
The period following the 1967 war saw an upsurge in the activity and numbers of Arab Palestinian paramilitary elements ( fedayeen ) within the state of Jordan. These distinct, armed militias were becoming a "state within a state", threatening Jordan's rule of law. King Hussein's armed forces targeted the fedayeen, and open fighting erupted in June 1970. The battle in which Palestinian fighters from various Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) groups were expelled from Jordan is commonly known as Black September.
The heaviest fighting occurred in northern Jordan and Amman. In the ensuing heavy fighting, a Syrian tank force invaded northern Jordan to back the fedayeen fighters, but subsequently retreated. King Hussein urgently asked the United States, Great Britain and Israel to intervene against Syria. Consequently, Israel performed mock air strikes on the Syrian column at the Americans' request. Soon after, Syrian President Nureddin al-Atassi, ordered a hasty retreat from Jordanian soil. By September 22, Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo arranged a cease-fire beginning the following day. However, sporadic violence continued until Jordanian forces, led by Habis Al-Majali, with the help of Iraqi forces, won a decisive victory over the fedayeen on July 1971, expelling them, and ultimately the PLO's Yasser Arafat, from Jordan.
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