How long has Iraq been a country?

Answer 1

This question is difficult to answer because Iraq has been settled for centuries under different names and terms "country" is nebulous.

Iraq has been settled by civilized peoples since roughly 5000 B.C.E., which was when the Sumerian Civilization was founded. However, the first term applied to the region was applied by the Ancient Greeks, who called the general area "Mesopotamia" or the "land between the rivers". The term "Iraq" was an Arab name for the region that appear later, but was used informally for the area.

The first time that somebody picked up a map and drew the outline of Iraq on it and said, "I will name this territory Iraq", then the answer would be 1918 when the British and French were dividing up former Ottoman territories and Iraq was an oil-rich territory that the British wanted. Iraq declared independence as sovereign nation in 1923 when Iraq was given independence from the United Kingdom, but Iraq was finally out of the United Kingdom's sphere of influence and proceeded to make its own policies in 1954 when King Faisal II was assassinated in a car-bombing and the Ba'ath Party took control of Iraq.

Answer 2

Iraq became a country in its modern form in 1932 when it gained independence from British mandate. However, the region that is now Iraq has a long history that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, one of the earliest known civilizations in the world.