What was the capital of the Iraqi Republic?

The Iraqi Republic was ruled from Baghdad.

Middle East · The modern states

Iraqi Republic

Republic · 1958 – present, incl. Ba'athist Iraq 1968–2003; on map 1960–2005

Type: Republic (military rule 1958–1968; one-party Ba'athist dictatorship 1968–2003; parliamentary republic since 2005)
Existed: 1958 – present, incl. Ba'athist Iraq 1968–2003; on map 1960–2005
Shown on the map: 1960–2005
Capital: Baghdad
Peak area: ~458,000 km² (Iraq's 438,317 km² plus Kuwait ~17,800 km² during the 1990–91 annexation)
Region: Middle East

Origins & rise

The Iraqi Republic was born in blood on 14 July 1958, when Free Officers under Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif overthrew the Hashemite monarchy, killing King Faisal II, Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah and Premier Nuri al-Said, dissolving the Arab Federation with Jordan, and leaving the Baghdad Pact (1959). The modern state itself had been created after the First World War from the Ottoman vilayets of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul under a British mandate, with independence in 1932 — but 1958 ended the British-linked order for good.

History & key rulers

Qasim ruled until February 1963, when Ba'athist officers (with Nasserist allies) overthrew and executed him in the Ramadan Revolution; a counter-coup that November installed Abdul Salam Arif, succeeded on his death in 1966 by his brother Abdul Rahman Arif. The bloodless 17 July 1968 Revolution brought the Ba'ath Party — "Unity, Freedom, Socialism" — to durable power under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, with Saddam Hussein building the security apparatus and becoming de facto ruler by the mid-1970s. The regime nationalized the Iraq Petroleum Company (1972), signed a friendship treaty with the USSR, and used oil wealth for rapid modernization; the 1975 Algiers Agreement with Iran ended the Kurdish war on Iraqi terms. Saddam took formal power in 1979, purging the party publicly. He invaded Iran in September 1980, launching an eight-year war that ended in stalemate in 1988 after perhaps a million casualties — including the al-Anfal campaign and chemical attacks on Kurds at Halabja. Bankrupted, Saddam accused Kuwait of slant-drilling the Rumaila field and overproducing oil, and invaded on 2 August 1990, annexing it as Iraq's "19th province." A US-led, 42-nation UN coalition expelled Iraq in February 1991; Shia and Kurdish uprisings were crushed, and sanctions and no-fly zones strangled the 1990s. After 9/11 the Bush administration alleged weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda links; the US-led invasion of March–April 2003 toppled Saddam (executed 30 December 2006), and the Coalition Provisional Authority's de-Ba'athification dissolved the old state. A new parliamentary, federal constitution followed in 2005 — where the map series ends this entry — though insurgency and the Islamic State war (2014–2017) still lay ahead.

Government, religion & culture

Under the Ba'ath, Iraq was a unitary one-party presidential republic under totalitarian control: the Revolutionary Command Council, party Regional Command, and Saddam's person fused state, party and leader; the 1970 "interim" constitution declared a "sovereign people's democratic republic," officially secular with Islam as state religion. Iraq's society — Shia Arab majority, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and smaller Turkmen, Assyrian and other communities — was ruled by a Sunni-dominated apparatus, later tinted by Saddam's 1993 "Faith Campaign." Saddamist ideology fused pan-Arabism with Mesopotamian antiquity, claiming Babylonians and Assyrians as Arab ancestors.

Peak & territory

Iraq's area is 438,317 km²; the metadata peak of ~458k corresponds to the brief 1990–91 annexation of Kuwait (~17,800 km²). Iraq borders Turkey, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, with just 58 km of Gulf coastline.

Decline & legacy

Ba'athist Iraq collapsed in 2003; the republic that succeeded it is a fragile, Shia-led parliamentary federation — independent Iraq's longest single state form remains the 1958-founded republic, whose republican identity (flag, army, institutions) outlasted every regime that claimed it.

Common questions

What was the Iraqi Republic?: The Iraqi Republic was born in blood on 14 July 1958, when Free Officers under Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif overthrew the Hashemite monarchy, killing King Faisal II, Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah and Premier Nuri al-Said, dissolving the Arab Federation with Jordan, and leaving the Baghdad Pact (1959).
When did the Iraqi Republic exist?: The Iraqi Republic existed 1958 – present, incl. Ba'athist Iraq 1968–2003; on map 1960–2005. On this map it is drawn 1960–2005.
What was the capital of the Iraqi Republic?: The Iraqi Republic was ruled from Baghdad.
How large was the Iraqi Republic at its height?: Iraq's area is 438,317 km²; the metadata peak of ~458k corresponds to the brief 1990–91 annexation of Kuwait (~17,800 km²). Iraq borders Turkey, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, with just 58 km of Gulf coastline.
Who ruled the Iraqi Republic?: Qasim ruled until February 1963, when Ba'athist officers (with Nasserist allies) overthrew and executed him in the Ramadan Revolution; a counter-coup that November installed Abdul Salam Arif, succeeded on his death in 1966 by his brother Abdul Rahman Arif.
What is the present status of the Iraqi Republic?: Ba'athist Iraq collapsed in 2003; the republic that succeeded it is a fragile, Shia-led parliamentary federation — independent Iraq's longest single state form remains the 1958-founded republic, whose republican identity (flag, army, institutions) outlasted every regime that claimed it.
How was the Iraqi Republic governed?: Under the Ba'ath, Iraq was a unitary one-party presidential republic under totalitarian control: the Revolutionary Command Council, party Regional Command, and Saddam's person fused state, party and leader; the 1970 "interim" constitution declared a "sovereign people's democratic republic," officially secular with Islam as state religion.

Sources

Every source below was consulted while writing this entry.

Wikipedia, "Ba'athist Iraq" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%27athist_Iraq
Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Iraq" www.britannica.com/place/Iraq

This entry was written from the sources above and last updated 10 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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