Download IRAQ - Effingham County Schools

IRAQ
Information from
CIA World Fact Book 2010
The Takbir (Arabic expression meaning
"God is great") in green Arabic script is
centered in the white band
 Type
of government
 parliamentary
democracy
 legal system based on European civil
and Islamic law under the framework
outlined in the Iraqi Constitution
 Religion
 Shia
Muslim 60%-65%
 Sunni Muslim 32%-37%
 Christian or other 3%
 Ethnic
groups
 Arab
75%-80%
 Kurdish 15%-20%
 Other 5%
 Language
 Arabic
 Kurdish
 Capital
city
 Baghdad
 Geography/Climate
 mostly
desert; mild to cool winters
with dry, hot, cloudless summers
 northern mountain regions along
Iranian and Turkish borders
experience cold winters with
occasionally heavy snows that melt
in early spring, sometimes causing
extensive flooding in central and
southern Iraq
 Environmental
 inadequate
Issues
supplies of potable
water
 development of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers system
 air and water pollution
 soil degradation (salination) and
erosion
 desertification
 Economy
 Currency
= dinar
 Mixed economy, mostly market
 Economy is based primarily on the
petroleum market, which is
responsible for about 95 % of all the
earnings that the country makes
 Natural
resources
 petroleum,
natural gas, phosphates,
sulfur
 wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, dates,
cotton; cattle, sheep, poultry
 Major
Industry
 petroleum,
chemicals, textiles, leather,
construction materials, food processing,
fertilizer, metal fabrication/processing

History (founding of country)
Site of a number of ancient Mesopotamian
civilizations, including Sumer, Akkad,
Assyria, and Babylonia
 The region fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia
(6th century B.C.), Alexander the Great (4th
century B.C.), Arabs (7th century), and
later to the Ottoman Turks (16th century).
 It was established as an independent
kingdom in 1921 and became a republic
after the assassination (1958) of Faisal II

The British created the kingdom of Iraq in
1921 and occupied Iraq again during World
War II (1939 - 1945).
 The monarchy was restored following the
war, but a revolution caused its downfall in
1958.
 Following a series of military coups, the
socialist Ba‘ath Party, eventually led by
Saddam Hussein, took control and
established totalitarian rule in 1968.
 The Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and the
Persian Gulf War in 1990-91 caused
extensive death and destruction.
 In 2003, during the Iraq War, the Ba‘ath Party
was driven from power.


GDP
$112 billion
 $7,200 per capita
 25% of population
below poverty level


Population

28,945,569
 Literacy
rate
 total
population: 74.1%
 male: 84.1%
 female: 64.2%
 Life
expectancy
 total
population: 70 years
 male: 69 years
 female: 71 years