Jordan History

Time Line
Ottomans and stagnation
1516: The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks to include Jordan in their administrative district of Damascus. Jordan would largely be neglected by its new lords. The population would decrease over the following three centuries.
1831: Jordan and Syria is conquered by Egypt.
1840: With the pressure from Britain and Austria, Egypt withdraws from Jordan as well as Syria.
19th century: Jordan receives several waves of immigration, of Syrians, Palestinians, Circassians and Chechens.
1908: Hijaz Railway opens, passing through Jordan. This gave room for some development in the country.

Arab revolt and Transjordan
1917 July: Aqaba is captured by Faisal, son of King Hussein of Hijaz.
1918 September: Faisal conquers Amman and Der'a.
1918 November: Faisal establishes his administration in Damascus.
1920 March: Faisal is forced by the British away from both the lands of Jordan and Syria.
1920 December: Jordan is established under the name of Transjordan, as a British mandate. The land has between 300,000 and 400,000 inhabitants, divided between several tribes.
1921 January: Abdullah, one of the fighters of power in the later Saudi Arabia, takes control of Amman.
1921 July: Abdullah is effectively made ruler of Transjordan, a country with 230,000 inhabitants, of which 200,000 were Muslim Arabs, the rest Christian Arabs and Muslim Circassians.
1923 May 15: Transjordan is recognized an interdependent state under British tutelage (see Anglo-Transjordanian Treaty of 1923).
1925 June: Abdullah takes control of the region of Ma'an and Aqaba, representing the southern part of Jordan.
1926/1927: Druze flee from Syria.

End of mandate and independence
1946 May 22: The British mandate ends.
1964 May 25: Transjordan becomes independent and Abdullah declared king.
1948 Transjordan participates in the First Palestinian War against the establishment of the state of Israel.
1984 April 3: End of fighting, and Jordan is left with the control over the West Bank.
1950: Transjordan annexes the West Bank, and changes the name to Jordan.
1951 July 20: King Abdullah is murdered, succeeded by his mentally ill son, King Talal.

47 years of King Hussein
1952 August 11: Talal is diagnosed mentally ill, and is forced to abdicate in favour of his son, Hussein.
1957: After Jordan had broken ties with Great Britain the year before, all British troops leave Jordan.
1958 February 14: Federation is proclaimed between the two Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan.
1958 August 2: The federation between Iraq and Jordan is dissolved; following the coup against the Iraqi king two weeks earlier.
1960 February: New law gives Jordanian citizenship to all Palestinian refugees; this as a reflection of Jordanian aspirations to annex the West Bank into its territory.
1960's: This is a decade of hard strife with the Palestinians (PLO) over power of Jordan.
1964: Jordan opposes the establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
1967: Six-Day War, where Jordan loses the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Many Palestinian refugees come into Jordan.
1970-1971: The final battle with PLO ends with the expulsion of PLO from Jordan. About 3,000 die from the fighting.
1974 October: Jordan recognizes PLO as the sole representative for the Palestinians.
1988: Jordan gives up all claims on the West Bank, declaring it Palestinian territory.
1991: The ban against certain political parties is abolished. Following the Gulf War, about 500,000 Palestinians and Jordanians come to Jordan. Palestinians chose Jordan for being the only country granting them easy entry and automatic citizenship. This causes great pressure on the economy, and even more on the limited water supplies of the country. Jordan's unemployment rate hits 30% this year. UN estimates put Jordan's loss from the war, from mid-1990 until mid-1991 to US$8 billion.
1992: The economy grows by 11%, apparently impressive, but the immigrants of 1991 represented a population growth of 16%, hence GDP/capital went down 4.5%.
1993: The first parliamentary elections since 1956.
1994 July 25: The long-lasting status of war with Israel ends with a joint declaration between the two countries.
1994 October 26: A formal peace treaty with Israel is signed.

Abdullah II and reforms
1999 February: King Hussein dies and is succeeded by his son, Abdullah.
2002: Riots and clashes in Ma'an. Government troops move in, and disarm the many inhabitants carrying weapons.
2003 June 17: Parliamentary elections, in which more than two-thirds to the 110 sears are won by representatives loyal to the king. The main opposition party, IAF (Islamic Action Front), linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, wins 17 seats. The elections were criticised.
2005 November 9: Bomb actions against three major hotels in Amman, killing 60 plus 3 suicide bombers. All suspected for the actions were Iraqis.
2008 April 16: New regulations on political parties, that involves that 22 of the existing 36 parties no longer complied with requirements. Several parties represented in the parliament had to be dissolved, but the Islamist party was permitted.

تاريخ الأردن