Descripción del sitio
This is my best guess at what was most likely originally Kuwait. 'Utub Arabs moved to this area in the mid- to late-18th CE. The 'Utubs were a branch of the 'Anaza Confederation who were expelled because of their acts of brigandage and piracy. By the middle of the 18th CE, the al-Sabah, one of the three tribes that originally moved to Kuwait along with the al-Khalifa and the al-Djalahima, gained stable power over the region and the al-Khalifa migrated to Qatar. Kuwait then began to flourish in the late 18th CE because of events in Basra (see Basra later in presentation). The next 125 years of Kuwait's existence were molded by three major circumstances and their relations. The first circumstance was that Kuwait found itself between powerful Saudi and Ottoman neighbors. Kuwait often talked with the Sublime Porte, or governing body of the Ottoman empire, but rarely had any solid political arrangements. Sometimes the Ottoman government could 'use' Kuwait and it occasionally did. The next circumstance was a revival in British interest. When the British heard that Russians were going to try and build a railway from the Mediterranean to Kuwait City, they suddenly decided to recognize the Kuwait sovereignty so long as Kuwait did not sell, cede, lease, etc., any of its land to a foreign government. The final circumstance was the increased interest of other European powers. This was handled well by the shayk who declined or rebuked other nations attempts to develop in or to Kuwait. Then World War I broke out, and the British became even more interested in Kuwait because of its strategic location against the Ottoman Empire. Britain then agreed to recognized Kuwait as an independently governed nation under British protection (1914). Then came a few turbulent years for Kuwait. It became surrounded by a rival Arab power, al-Sa'ud, its shayk died, and it was blockaded by the British Navy. An embargo placed on Kuwait by al-Sa'ud stifled Kuwait's growth, but was lifted in 1937.