History History

The Jordan Valley is one of the oldest cradles of civilization. Archaeologists have found flints and tools attesting to a very ancient human presence. The region was then a vast prairie. From 9000 BC onwards, the populations became sedentary and developed agriculture. The climate became warmer. The site of Ain Ghazal, near Amman, was home to 3,000 people. Its inhabitants developed pottery, introduced by the Mesopotamians. Superb anthropomorphic statues dating back 10,000 years are now on display at the Jordan Museum.

Men exploit the Feinan copper mine in the Dana Reserve. The quality of the tools improved and allowed the cultivation of wheat, barley and olives. Goats and sheep were domesticated and people built houses of dried mud with roofs of reed and wood amalgamated with mud. The Canaanites, a tribe from Galilee, extended their influence into the Jordan Valley, creating fortified villages. Trade intensified throughout the region. The south of the country was populated by nomads called Shasous. In 1548 BC, the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt seized part of Jordan and spread its military, cultural and artistic superiority.

Egyptian influence wanes and three small kingdoms are created: Ammon in the northeast, Moab in the center and Edom in the south. The biblical accounts, although not always confirmed by archaeological research, provide information on the major players of the time: Moses who died on Mount Nebo; Saul, the first Israelite king, who prevented the Ammonite invasion in the land of Gilead; Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, who seized Ammon and Moab.

Alexander the Great undertook the conquest of the Persian Empire and founded the largest empire the world has ever known, stretching from Greece to Kabul, from Egypt to Turkey. He founded the cities of Gadara (Umm-Qays) and Abila (Quwayliba). When he died in 323 BC, his empire was divided between his generals. Ptolemy inherited the territories encompassing Egypt, Palestine and Jordan and founded the city of Philadelphia, which would become Amman. Seleucus founded the Seleucid dynasty in Babylon. Wars soon broke out and the Seleucids took over the eastern part of the Jordan Valley. They renamed Gadara into Antioch.

Alexander Jannaeus, king of Judea, undertook the siege of Gadara. Then, he seized Amathonte, a stronghold south of Pella. Theodore, the tyrant of Philadelphia, massacred the Judean troops in return. Alexander Jannaeus then turned to the land of Gilead and Moab. At the time of his death, he owned the entire western side of the mountain of Gilead, which he converted to Jewish law. The Romans took over and the general Pompey seized Gadara. Herod brings his support to push back the Parthians from Syria-Palestine. In return, he became king of Jerusalem and received as a gift the cities of Gadara and Hippos. These fall back into the province of Syria at his death in 4 BC. The Roman administration divided the region into two provinces: Syria, north of the Yarmouk River, and Arabia, which included Gerasa (Jerash), Philadelphia and Petra.

The Roman emperor Trajan unified the region under his flag by bringing down the Nabataean kingdom which he integrated into the province of Arabia. The Roman Empire, then the Byzantine, rebuilt the cities of the Decapolis including Garasa, Philadelphia, Abila, Gadara, Pella and Dion. They developed the communication routes and trade prospered. The arrival of the emperor Constantine in 324 initiated an intense Christianization of the region. The country is covered with churches and sanctuaries.

In 622, the Prophet Muhammad left Mecca for Medina where he taught the benefits of common prayer. The advent of Islam progressed rapidly and a first conflict between Christians and Muslims broke out in 629 at Mauta. In 636, the Byzantines lost the battle of Yarmouk, then Jerusalem. The caliphate that was established followed the contours of the progression of the Muslim faith and the Arab conquests. The Umayyad dynasty reigned unchallenged over a territory stretching from northern Egypt to present-day Pakistan. In Jordan, the Umayyads built the "castles of the desert" and the Citadel Palace in Amman. In 747, a powerful earthquake caused chaos, which the Abbasids took advantage of to take over the empire.

The Abbasids were responsible for the unparalleled influence of Arab and Persian culture. The caliphs encouraged the spread of literature and the arts, philosophy, mathematics and medicine. But Jordanian territory, on the outskirts of the caliphate, was somewhat neglected by this expansion. In the ^9th and ^10th centuries, it was occupied by the Fatimids, a Shiite tribe (loyal to Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law) based in Egypt. For their part, the Turks prevented the passage of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem. In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a mobilization of troops at the Council of Clermont. He promised plenary indulgence (forgiveness of all sins) to those who would plant the cross in the Holy City.

The French nobles heard the call, raised armies and headed for Constantinople. On July 15, 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon brought down Jerusalem and massacred its inhabitants. The Crusaders set up a feudal system and seized the caravan stops. Baldwin of Boulogne, who became king of Jerusalem, intensified the campaigns beyond the Holy Land. He seized Transjordan. The castles of Kerak and Shobak were built to prevent an Arab reconquest.

The Syrian Sultan Nur ed-Din advocates the unification of Muslims. He sent his military leader Saladin to Egypt to support the Fatimid dynasty. With his success, Saladin abolished the Shiite dynasty in 1171 and took the title of sultan, then extended his authority upon the death of Nur ed-Din. He then undertook to drive out the Crusaders and retook Jerusalem, Kerak and a large part of Syria. A certain stability reigned over the region for three centuries, allowing new villages to spring up in Jordan.

The Ottomans seized Constantinople, marking the fall of the Byzantine Empire. In 1517, they took eastern Anatolia, Syria, Palestine and northern Egypt. By the end of the 16th century, their empire included Turkey, southeastern Europe, a wide coastal strip stretching from Egypt to Algeria, the Near East and a coastal strip on both sides of the Red Sea. The empire paid little attention to the fate of Transjordan and only granted it a semblance of development with the construction of a railway line linking Damascus to Medina in 1908.

As war was about to break out in Europe, Ottoman Turkey sided with Germany. In 1915, the troops of Djemal Pasha approached the Suez Canal. The British became aware of the importance of controlling the region. They relied on strong Arab nationalist sentiment to provoke an uprising through Thomas Lawrence, the famous Lawrence of Arabia. With the support of the Sheriff of Mecca, Faisal Ibn Hussein, the British engaged in a battle against the Ottoman Empire. They obtained control of the Suez Canal, then of Aqaba and finally of Syria in 1918. Fayçal Ibn Hussein founded an independent government in Damascus.

The Sykes-Picot Treaty signed in 1916 by the United Kingdom and France, behind the backs of the Arabs, governed the zones of influence between the two countries. Syria and Lebanon went to France, while the British got back Palestine, Jordan and the West Bank. To appease Arab resentment, the British left Iraq to Faisal Ibn Hussein and agreed to make his brother Abdullah the Emir of Transjordan. But the country remained under British protection. In 1923, Abdullah established his capital in Amman, while two years later his brother Ali brought him the districts of Maan and Aqaba. In 1928, Transjordan adopted a constitution and a parliament. The British protectorate ended on March 22, 1946. On May 25, Abdullah took over the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Many survivors of the Holocaust join Palestine, in view of the creation of the State of Israel. Tensions with the Arabs of Palestine continued to grow. The UN proposed to divide Palestine into two separate states and to make Jerusalem an area under international mandate. But the proposal was rejected. Terrorist actions against Palestinian civilians were undertaken by Jewish groups and vice versa. Although the British feared a civil war, they left the region, leaving the two sides face to face.

David Ben Gourion proclaimed the birth of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. The state was immediately recognized by the United States, eager to find an ally in the Middle East, and by the Russians. A coalition of five Arab countries was formed: Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq. The countries sent ill-prepared troops into the new state of Israel, integrating the Palestinian forces there. The Arabs came up against an Israeli army that was better equipped and more numerous in terms of men. The Arab Legion nevertheless succeeded in taking East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As the conflict bogged down at the gates of Jerusalem, the UN obtained a ceasefire. Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel on April 3, 1949. The signing of the peace agreement led 800,000 Jews to settle in Israel, while 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes and lands. King Abdullah pursued a policy of active assimilation of these refugees, systematically granting them Jordanian nationality.

King Abdullah officially annexed the West Bank on April 24, 1950. But this annexation provoked deep discontent on the part of Palestinian nationalists. The king was assassinated on July 20, 1951 in Jerusalem. His eldest son Talal succeeded him, but only for one year. Suffering from mental disorders, he abdicated in favor of his son Hussein, only 17 years old, on August 11, 1952.

The new king of Jordan showed great political skill despite his young age. He drew closer to the United States, while at the same time sparing his relations with neighboring Arab countries. In 1967, Nasser obtained the departure of the UN from the Sinai and Gaza areas. He massed his troops in the area and at the same time signed a mutual defense agreement with King Hussein. Fearing an invasion, Israel took the lead and destroyed the Egyptian air force stationed on the ground on June 5, 1967. This was the Six Day War. Israel inflicted a heavy defeat on Egypt and Jordan and recovered the Sinai, Gaza, the Golan and the West Bank. Jordan lost 10,000 men, a prosperous territory and saw an influx of 300,000 new Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian nationalist sentiment grew stronger. The PLO took up its bases in Jordan and soon armed PLO members were marching through the streets of Jordanian cities, causing clashes with the military. Yasser Arafat called for the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy and in June 1970, an assassination attempt was made on King Hussein. In September, 3 airliners were hijacked by the PLO to Zarqa. On September 16, Hussein instructed his armies to dislodge the terrorists from the Palestinian refugee camps. The operation caused thousands of civilian casualties and the episode became known as "Black September". In support of the Palestinians in Jordan, Syria sent tanks to the border. Hussein asked the Americans for help, but it was the Israelis who carried out the air raids that aborted the Syrian threat. Yasser Arafat found refuge in Lebanon.

The Yom Kippur War broke out between an Egyptian-Syrian coalition and Israel in October 1973. Jordan opted for a position of neutrality and became a privileged interlocutor of the West in the region. Hussein reluctantly signed the Rabat Agreement in 1974, which recognized the PLO as the "sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," thereby abandoning its claim to the West Bank. In 1978, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed in Washington, but Jordan rejected it.

During the conflict between Iraq and Iran, Jordan sided with Iraq in the name of Arab solidarity. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Jordan once again sided with Iraq. This support caused it to lose the financial and oil support of the Western powers. The port of Aqaba was put under blockade, forcing Hussein to officially respect the international embargo imposed on Iraq. At the end of the war, the 500,000 Palestinians and Jordanians who had been working in Kuwait were sent back to Jordan, provoking a new wave of mass immigration.

In September 1993, the Oslo Accords ratified the mutual recognition of Israel and the PLO. Negotiations for a lasting peace between Jordan and Israel followed. An agreement was signed in Wadi Araba on July 25, 1994. The two states established diplomatic ties, opened their sea and land borders to the transit of passengers and goods, and signed cooperation agreements. Despite Rabin's assassination in 1995, peace between the two countries endured, and foreign investment finally flowed into Jordan, bringing economic growth and improved living standards for the country's inhabitants. King Hussein died in 1999, to be succeeded by his son Abdallah.

King Abdullah pursues structural reforms designed to modernize the country. In the 2007 municipal elections, he imposed a 20% quota for women candidates. He appointed a government tasked with overhauling the civil and military pension system and the tax system, developing education and reducing public spending. The global economic crisis of 2009 put the brakes on his ambitions, and the gap between rich and poor widened still further.

In January 2011, demonstrators took to the streets of Amman to protest against the rising price of basic necessities such as flour, oil and gasoline. A few days later, 10,000 people marched in the streets of the capital. The Jordanian elites are panicking as the Arab Spring shakes the region. On June 12, 2011, King Abdullah II addressed his people directly, promising more democracy, dialogue, freedom, reforms and less corruption. But the promises are only partially kept. In June 2018, Jordanians again demonstrated against rising fuel prices and taxes, both of which were taken to secure a €613 million loan from the IMF.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale terrorist attack, firing over 3,000 rockets and penetrating Israeli territory. At the end of a bloody raid lasting several hours, the Palestinian Islamist movement claimed 1,139 victims and 250 hostages. Israel retaliated and invaded the Gaza Strip. Jordan, allied with Egypt, tried to mediate to obtain the release of the hostages, but without success.