Iraq, a West Asian nation with its capital Baghdad, is historically significant as Mesopotamia, the "cradle of civilization" between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Beginning in the 6th millennium BC, this fertile region saw the rise of early empires like Sumer and Babylonia, pioneering writing and the wheel, while Baghdad later flourished as a global intellectual hub during the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid Caliphate.
After gaining independence from British mandate in 1932, Iraq experienced varying periods of growth and profound instability. Under Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party rule from 1968, the nation endured the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. A U.S.-led invasion in 2003 overthrew Hussein, triggering the Iraq War, followed by a significant conflict against the Islamic State from 2013 to 2017.
Today, Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic, an emerging middle power with vast oil reserves, actively rebuilding amid its rich cultural and ethnic diversity.