#2022世界杯 #
Hello everyone, I am learning from history.
The quadrennial World Cup has begun again, and this World Cup has set several records for the first time in history, such as:
is the first World Cup to be held in the northern hemisphere winter;
It is the smallest World Cup host country in history;
It is the first World Cup to be held in the territory of a Middle Eastern country;
It is also the first World Cup to be held by a country that has never reached the World Cup finals;
Qatar is also home to the regional headquarters of U.S. Central Command, and Qatar is home to the largest overseas military base in the United States, Udeid Air Base. The stadium of this World Cup is only more than 20 kilometers away from the US military base
It stands to reason that the Qatar World Cup, as the first World Cup in the Middle East, should be supported by countries in the Middle East and Western countries led by the United States.
But it is strange that the Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia in the Middle East do not buy Qatar very much, and even a few years ago, many countries broke out at the same time to break off diplomatic relations and besiege Qatar.
The Western world has been boycotting the Qatar World Cup since Qatar's successful bid.
Even the BBC, a British media outlet, continued the boycott until the opening ceremony.
While fans around the world were enjoying the opening ceremony, instead of broadcasting it, the BBC found a commentator who had been whistling about human rights and corruption in Qatar.
So why is the Qatar World Cup treated like this?
In fact, this has a lot to do with the history of Qatar, and in this issue we will talk about the history of Qatar.
1. Ancient Qatar
In fact, ancient Qatar was lackluster, although humans lived here 6,000 years ago, but most of them lived by diving pearls in the sea, and occasionally part-time pirates.
The land was successively occupied by Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arabs, Persians, etc.
In the seventh century, the Arab Empire arose, and it became part of the Arab Empire.
Later, with the decline of the Arab Empire, Qatar also changed its rulers, and the Portuguese and then the Ottoman Turks ruled the area.
Zheng He also came here when he went to the West.
Although Portugal and Turkey value the status of the Qatar Peninsula, the quality of life of Qatari locals is still very problematic.
The local population has formed many tribes on the peninsula, each with its own chief, and the Al-Thani family from Saudi Arabia is one of the smaller tribal chiefs.
But with the continuous efforts of the Al Thani family, they amassed a great deal of wealth through pearl gathering and pearl trade, standing out among the many small chiefs.
Caption: Qataris collecting pearls
In 1846, Sani bin Mohammed of the Al Thani family established the Emirate of Qatar, and he became the first Emir of the Emirate of Qatar.
But Qatar is located at the throat of the Persian Gulf, and the West certainly does not trust the existence of an independent emirate, and the Emir of Qatar must walk a tightrope between the Ottoman Empire and the British, careful not to annoy either of them.
But in 1882, British troops entered Qatar. In the First World War, Ottoman Turkey became the "sick man of West Asia", was beaten to pieces, and greatly reduced its power; The British directly gained the upper hand in the race for Qatar.
So in 1916, the British officially declared Britain the protectorate of many emirates on the peninsula, and the emirate of Qatar was no exception.
2. Modern Qatar
Historically, Qatar's main income came from the collection and trade of natural pearls, but as we entered the 2020s, Qataris found their income plummeted.
Illustration: Qatari ships collecting pearls
The reason is the Japanese cultured pearl technology thousands of miles away from Qatar.
Cultured pearls are cheap in cost and not inferior in color to natural pearls, which suddenly seized a large number of markets, and Qatar suddenly fell into trouble.
By 1935, Qatar was going to turn to Britain to authorize BP to explore the country to see if it could be saved.
As a result, this exploration led to the exploration of huge oil and gas field resources in 1939.
The Qataris' happiness did not last long when World War II broke out, the British could not afford to exploit oil, and oil companies came to a standstill.
It was only after the victory in World War II that Qatar's oil extraction was on track, reaching 800,000 barrels a year in 1949. By 1958, Qatar produced more than 8 million tons of oil per year, which was also the beginning of a leap forward for Qatar's economy.
Qatar's first oil well, Dukan I, drilled in 1938, was drilled to a depth of 5,685 feet and produced 5,000 barrels per day
At this time, although the British still wanted to control the Middle East, but his strength had long been not allowed, in the battle of the Suez Canal, although Britain and France won Egypt, but completely withdrew from the Middle East under the threat of the United States and the Soviet Union.
In 1961, Qatar joined the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries; In 1971, Qatar became independent from the United Kingdom;
In 1973, Qatar took back a 35% stake from the British; By the end of 1974, Qatar had taken full control of its own oil industry and established the Qatar Petroleum Production Corporation, which was domesticated in 1978.
Qatar and surrounding disputes
After Qatar had money, it was naturally reluctant to accept others, and Qatar began to pursue balance-of-power diplomacy.
Second meeting of the Supreme Council of the Nine-Power Alliance — Qatar and Bahrain plus seven emirates, Doha, October 1968.
Early in 1971, after the British announced the end of the protection treaty, several emirates were preparing to form a joint state, but the UAE finally chose to withdraw and establish its own independent state.
As a result, the six emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, um Al Quwain and Ajman united to form the Arab Union and the Emirate, referred to as the United Arab Emirates;
When Qatar and other countries became independent, some Muslim Brotherhood members in Egypt and other countries returned to Qatar and founded the Qatar Muslim Brotherhood.
Qatar grants not only nationality but also economic and communication (Al Jazeera) support to the members of these organizations.
Pictured: Al Jazeera became famous in the first battle
However, this organization was later attacked in Syria and Egypt for ideological and other reasons, and was even included in terrorist organizations in the Arab region to propagate revolutions and overthrow of royal power.
Qatar has been demanded by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries to expel members of the Muslim Brotherhood and stop inciting the population through Al Jazeera and other countries.
In March 2014, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain announced the withdrawal of their ambassadors to protest Qatar.
Qatar was forced to announce the expulsion of seven Muslim Brotherhood members, promising not to use Al Jazeera to incite the people;
But after that, Qatar still pursued balance-of-power diplomacy, and under the guidance of this foreign policy, Qatar and Iran became closer and closer, maintained friendly relations with Israel, and once expressed their rejection of US military stationing, developed friendly relations with China, and so on.
These words and deeds quickly aroused the opposition of the United States and Arab countries, and the contradictions in the Middle East quickly intensified.
Illustration: Qatar broke off diplomatic relations
You must know that Iran and Saudi Arabia are mortal opponents, and the Americans also regard Iran as an axis of evil, but Qatar and Iran are very close.
So in 2017, a few days after Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, seven countries, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and the Maldives, announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Qatar and recalled diplomatic personnel; Jordan and other countries announced the downgrading of diplomatic relations with Qatar;
Moreover, Saudi Arabia and other countries have directly closed the sea, land and air links with Qatar, and even intend to dig a canal around Qatar to turn Qatar from a peninsula into a real island.
It was not until January 2021 that Saudi Arabia and other countries agreed to restore diplomatic relations with Qatar, that the crisis of severing diplomatic relations, which had lasted for more than three years, finally showed signs of easing.
One of the reasons why Qatar is waving money to bid for the World Cup regardless of cost is to make its voice heard on the international stage.
But since Qatar's World Cup bid, the West has been critical of Qatar.
What does not respect women's rights, does not respect LGBT, abuses workers who build venues, bribes to qualify for bidding, corruption...
These voices accompanied the Qataris almost from the beginning, and several heavyweights spoke of boycotting the Qatar World Cup.
Morgan Freeman at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar
So we saw at the opening ceremony, Qatar specially invited black American actor Morgan Freeman to talk to a Qatari disabled person.
This is also for the whole world to see, didn't you say that I don't respect LGBT? Then I'll get a black man and a disabled person to come and gag you.
Even before the opener, it was said that Qatar had already bought Ecuadorian players with banknotes for the sake of face, and wanted to win 1-0 in the opening match.
But after the opener, Qatar's defeat also plugged rumors.
Qatar became the first host in World Cup history to lose the opening match
It is conceivable that in this World Cup, all kinds of negative news about Qatar will definitely emerge one after another;
And after the World Cup, Qatar's geopolitical form will not improve at once, whether Qatar will become a powder keg in the Middle East, we will have to see again.
Text/Learn from history
Graph/Network
Resources/
Qatar | Memory and Glory of a Pearl" – National Tourism Commission of Karta
A Brief History of the Development of Qatar's Oil and Gas Industry——Journal of Xi'an Shiyou University: Social Science Edition, Issue 2, 2020
Analysis of the Middle East Situation under the Crisis of "Severing Diplomatic Relations" in Qatar——Journal of Harbin University, No. 1, 2019
The Special Relationship of the Muslim Brotherhood in Qatar with the Government and Its Impact – West Asia and Africa, Issue 3, 2019
Analysis of Qatar's Severance of Diplomatic Relations from the Dual Perspectives of Sectarianism and National Interests——Western Journal, No. 9, 2018