Irak po páde monarchie (1958 – 1959)
Iraq after the Fall of Monarchy

Summary/Abstract: The military coup – the Revolution of 1958 – that finally overthrew the monarchy and inaugurated a new era in Iraqi history succeeded more because of luck and audacity than as a result of a long planning or extensive organization. The coup was unquestionably a reflection of deep-seated discontent among officers and civilian politicians with the regime’s foreign policy and its slowness to reform. After the overthrow of the monarchy, the revolutionary regime in Iraq under cAbdalkarīm Qāsim was constantly beset by an internal struggle: communists and their supporters on one side and pan-Arab nationalists and Iraqi Bacthists on the other. Street fighting erupted in Baghdad at the slightest provocation. In March 1959, a revolt broke out in Mosul led by anti-communist army officers and pan-Arabists. cAbdalkarīm Qāsim crushed the revolt with massive communist support. He might have been able to keep a balance between the two had he not antagonized nationalist leaders through his execution of nationalist officers opposed to him. Thus the country became divided into two radical camps.

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