The 17th century seen the
movement of the Bani-Khalid an Arabic tribe from Al-Hasa region to the north of
the Gulf seeking a dry weather, they settled and built a small fort, which
became the name of the new land they settled. (Fort in Arabic is Kut, and the
diminutive of it is Kuwait, so Kuwait means a small fort).In mid 17th
century a drought happened in Najd plateau
which drove clans of the Arabic tribe Anezeh out east towards Qatar,
those clans dubbed collectively as the Utub where they picked up skill as seafarers.
And slowly the Utub moved north into Kuwait, and settled using the sea as there
source of income from trade fishing and also pearl fishing.
In 1722 Bani-Khalid became embroiled in internal
struggles for succession, the Utub exploited the occasion to augment their
local independence. They managed to make Kuwait an important port, linking Iraq
and Syria with India and expanded their commercial fleet to compete with that
of Oman, and started ships building on a big scale especially the water tankers
which brought water from Shat Al-Arab which is the joining of the Tigris and
Euphrates in Basrah south Iraq today, and that was the main obstacle at the
time that is water shortage but they overcame it brilliantly
Amongst the Utub were 3 families
Al-Sabah, Al-Jalahma and Al-Khalifa, the first dominated and eventually ruled
Kuwait to date, Al-Jalahma went to Khorfacan today's UAE and Al-Khalifa went to
Bahrain and ruled up to date.
By 1760 Kuwait was a walled city and
had established its autonomy by Al-Sabah family against the waning Bani-Khalid
whom had their hands full battling the Wahabis who are the followers of
Mohammad Bin Abdul-Wahab that came up with new religious ideas making almost
everybody not following him an infidel that must be killed, they allied with
the newly risen family of Al-Saud also a clan of Anezeh.
By the beginning of the 19th
century Kuwait was enlarged due to the successful trading routes and the old
wall was removed to accommodate the expansion of Kuwait which now has shops of
gunsmiths, weavers, brass makers and so on necessities of the new status. This
expansion started drawing more and more skilled people from neighboring places
and the trade was growing and slowly it became prosperous due to the important
port. All this was going on under the watchful eyes of the Ottomans ruling
nearby Basrah. Who were trying to convince their allies the Bani – Khalid to
use their power to over muscle the Al- Sabah. Especially with the Ottomans
defeating the Wahabis in Al-Hasa, the ruler of Kuwait at the time was Sheikh
Mubarak Al-Sabah (1896-1915)also called Mubarak the great, realized what is
going on and moved swiftly into talks with Britain which in turn could not miss
such a golden opportunity knowing that the Ottomans were a German ally. The
idea of building a rail road from Berlin to the Gulf could not be accepted by
the British. So in January 23rd 1899 Kuwait signed a treaty with
Britain making it a British protectorate which drove the Ottomans away and
vanquished their dreams.
Stanley Mylrea the main architect of
the Arabian mission in Kuwait wrote about Sheikh Mubarak saying "a man of
long vision and great ability, under him was good government, order and
tranquility were the order of the day and of the night. Mubarak's influence
extended far out into the desert. He was a real tribal Sheikh and my memory
still lingers over Mubarak with great admiration"
Kuwait continued to expand with
success until 1936 when oil was found with vast quantities, and with the help
of the British the first shipment of oil was in 1946, and the Kuwaiti –British
continues till today even that Kuwait took its independence in 1961 and
published its constitution in 1962.
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