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| 1933, Aug. 4 |
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| Outbreak of the Assyrian Rebellion. The Assyrians (Nestorian Christians) wanted to establish an autonomous zone in northern Iraq and had even presented their case to the League of Nations. A large number of them had fled to Syria, where French authorities refused to let them settle. While they were recrossing the border, fighting broke out between the refugees and a unit of the Iraqi army. Violence spread to other districts, and hundreds of Assyrians lost their lives. Public sentiment strongly backed the army. | 1 |
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| 1933–39 |
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| KING GHAZI. He succeeded his father on Sept. 7, 1933, and became popular for his Arab nationalism and reputed hatred of the British. Nevertheless, he carried little political weight. | 2 |
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| 1934, July 14 |
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| Opening of the oil pipeline from Mosul to Tripoli in Lebanon. A second line to Haifa was put into operation on Jan. 14, 1935. From this time forward, pipelines were crucial to the Iraqi oil industry as its chief outlet to the world market. | 3 |
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| 1935–36 |
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| Tribal revolts in southern Iraq, which the army successfully suppressed. For the first time, the government had effective control over the tribes in the region. | 4 |
| One of the repercussions of the revolts was widespread discontent among the military leadership with civilian rule. According to rumor, prominent opposition politicians had encouraged the tribes to revolt. At the same time, the army feared that it was becoming a tool of the government for stamping out political opposition. Some officers began to think that, in view of civilian incompetence and treachery, direct military rule would be better for both the army and the country. | 5 |
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| 1936 |
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| Creation of the Industrial and Agricultural Bank of Iraq. Most of the economic projects undertaken by the Iraqi government in the 1920s and 1930s benefited agriculture. This bias toward agrarian development was no accident in a regime that relied heavily on the support of rural notables and tribal sheiks, especially in southern Iraq. | 6 |
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| Oct. 29 |
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| An army coup, the first of many in Iraqi history, overthrew the civilian government of Yasin al-Hashimi. The chief plotters were the disgruntled politician Hikmat Sulayman and the army chief of staff, Bakr Sidqi. | 7 |
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