Group items tagged

Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south border and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the Arabic, meaning a fortress built near water. The country covers an area of 17,820 square kilometers (6,880 sq mi) and has a population of about 3.5 million. Historically, the region was the site of Characin, a major Parthian port for trade between Mesopotamia and India. The Bani Utbah tribe was the first permanent Arab settlers in the region, and laid the foundation of the modern emirate. By the 19th century Kuwait came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, and after World War I, it emerged as an independent sheikhdom under the protection of the British Empire. Kuwait's large oil fields were discovered in the late 1930s.