History of Qatar

Early history and British protectorate

Little is known of Qatar’s history before the 18th century, when the region’s population consisted largely of Bedouin nomads and there were only a few small fishing villages. Qatar’s modern history begins conventionally in 1766 with the migration to the peninsula of families from Kuwait, notably the Khalifah family. Their settlement at the new town of Al-Zubārah grew into a small pearl-diving and trade center. In 1783 the Khalifah family led the conquest of nearby Bahrain, where they remained the ruling family throughout the 20th century. Following the departure of the Khalifah dynasty from Qatar, the country was ruled by a series of transitory sheikhs, the most famous of whom was Raḥmah ibn Jābir al-Jalāhimah, known particularly for his maritime warring with the Khalifah family and their associates.

Qatar came to the attention of the British in 1867 when a dispute between the Bahraini Khalifah, who continued to hold some claim to Al-Zubārah, and the Qatari residents escalated into a major confrontation, in the course of which Doha was virtually destroyed. Until the attack, Britain had viewed Qatar as a Bahraini dependency. It then signed a separate treaty with Mohammed ibn Thani in 1868, setting the course both for Qatar’s future independence and for the rule of the Thani dynasty, who until the treaty were only one among several important families on the peninsula.

Ottoman forces, which had conquered the nearby Al-Ḥasā province of Saudi Arabia, occupied Qatar in 1871 at the invitation of the ruler’s son, then left following the Saudi reconquest of Al-Ḥasā in 1913. In 1916 Britain signed a treaty with Qatar’s leader that resembled earlier agreements with other Gulf states, giving Britain control over foreign policy in return for British protection.

In 1935 Qatar signed a concession agreement with the Iraq Petroleum Company; four years later oil was discovered. Oil was not recovered on a commercial scale, however, until 1949. The revenues from the oil company, later named Petroleum Development (Qatar) Limited and then the Qatar Petroleum Company, rose dramatically. The distribution of these revenues stirred serious infighting in the Thani dynasty, prompting the British to intervene in the succession of 1949 and eventually precipitating a palace coup in 1972 that brought Sheikh Khalifa ibn Hamad Al Thani to power.

Independence

In 1968 Britain announced plans to withdraw from the Gulf. After negotiations with neighboring sheikhdoms—those of the present United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Bahrain—Qatar declared independence on September 3, 1971. The earlier agreements with Britain were replaced with a treaty of friendship. That same month Qatar became a member of the Arab League and of the United Nations. In 1981 the emirate joined its five Arab Gulf neighbors in establishing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an alliance formed to promote economic cooperation and enhance both internal security and external defense against the threats generated by the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Iran-Iraq War.

Qatari troops participated in the Persian Gulf War of 1990–91, notably in the battle for control of the Saudi border town of Raʾs al-Khafjī on January 30–31. Doha, which served as a base for offensive strikes by French, Canadian, and U.S. aircraft against Iraq and the Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait, remained minimally affected by the conflict.

Renewed arguments over the distribution of oil revenues also caused the 1995 palace coup that brought Sheikh Khalifa’s son, Sheikh Hamad, to power. Although his father had permitted Hamad to take over day-to-day governing some years before, Khalifa contested the coup. Before Hamad fully consolidated his power, he had to weather an attempted countercoup in 1996 and a protracted lawsuit with his father over the rightful ownership of billions of dollars of invested oil revenues, which was finally settled out of court.

During the 1990s Qatar agreed to permit U.S. military forces to place equipment in several sites throughout the country and granted them use of Qatari airstrips during U.S. operations in Afghanistan in 2001. These agreements were formalized in late 2002, and Qatar became the headquarters for American and allied military operations in Iraq the following year.

Emerging regional influence

Rising demand for natural gas propelled the economy to new heights in the first decade of the 21st century and provided funds for Qatar’s efforts to lift itself from relative obscurity to a position of greater prominence in the Middle East. The Qatari government invested heavily in development with a special focus on prestigious cultural projects, including museums and extension campuses for foreign universities. Qatar also sought to cultivate a reputation for openness and political independence; this effort was perhaps exemplified by Qatar’s sponsorship of Al Jazeera, a popular satellite television network known for its largely independent news coverage, which often included criticism of authoritarian Arab governments and U.S. Middle East policy. Notably absent from the network’s broadcasts was any criticism of Qatar, although the country remained an absolute monarchy and continued to host a large U.S. military base.

One hallmark of Qatar’s foreign policy was its cordial ties with a wide range of Middle Eastern countries and groups, which in some cases required balancing between regional rivals such as Iran and Saudi Arabia or between secular governments and Islamist opposition groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. With a reputation for impartiality, Qatar sought out opportunities to bolster its international standing by serving as a mediator in Middle East disputes. These efforts met with mixed success: a 2007 accord brokered by Qatar between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels fell apart within months, but in 2008 Qatar proved instrumental in resolving a factional standoff in Lebanon that had threatened to develop into armed conflict. Despite its lack of formal relations with Israel, Qatar also secured Israel’s agreement in the 2010s to allow the Persian Gulf country to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Gaza Strip, which had been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since it came under Hamas rule in 2007. During the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023, Qatar was a key mediator in securing the release of hostages, the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the arrangements of temporary cease-fire periods.

Meanwhile, the outbreak of popular uprisings against many of the entrenched regimes of the Middle East in 2011 (see Arab Spring) provided new opportunities for Qatar to shape events in the region. In Libya Qatar took an active role in supporting the rebellion against the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi, providing weapons and funds to the rebels and contributing military assets to the NATO-led mission to enforce a no-fly zone. In Syria Qatar played an important part in the Arab League’s attempts to broker a peace agreement between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the opposition. When the agreement failed in 2012, Qatar took the side against Assad, sending weapons and financial aid to the rebels. In Egypt, Qatar continued its long-standing support of the Muslim Brotherhood, providing billions of dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Mohamed Morsi, elected in 2012.