Saudi Arabia: A Brief History

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1. Saudi Arabia: Brief history of Saudi Arabia and its society

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the largest countries in the Middle East. It occupies the Arabian Peninsula in the southwest of Asia. It is bounded by the Arabian Gulf, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates to the East; Yemen and Oman on the South; Red Sea and Gulf of Al-Aqaba to the West; and Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait to the North. Its area is about 2,240,000 square kilometers and has a population of seventeen million people according to the last census performed in 1993. Saudi Arabia is considered a developing country. It has been developing at a relatively fast rate since it was established as modern state in 1932. Its population increases about 3.8% per year. Saudi Arabia remains a very conservative society combining strong traditions with a strict interpretation of Islam (Al- Rasheed pp6). However, the discovery of oil in the Saudi desert territories has made it necessary for the country to quickly modernize in order to fully benefit from the resource. Large oil deposits were discovered in 1938 making Saudi Arabia the first oil-exporting country in the world. Oil revenues resulted in drastic changes in the society, especially during the past 30 years. Oil provided the Saudi state with extraordinary wealth to build the economic and material infrastructure of the country, transforming the state into a rapidly modernizing landscape. These changes have influenced the social and economic aspects of life, including the field of education. (Al-Gahtany, 2001, p.14). Oil wealth has enabled the state to make great achievements in the fields of education, technology, health, and material affluence, benefitting the people of Saudi Arabia (Al- Rasheed p.12). In celebratin...

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