Jordan is facing imminent changes. For the past two years, King Abdullah of Jordan has been struggling to keep his throne. With the Arab Spring sweeping over Middle-Eastern regimes, many Jordanians are questioning the integrity and validity of King Abdullah’s rule.
Jordan’s Origins
The control over Jordan (Transjordan) was given to Emir Abdullah, a Bedouin ally to the British during WWI (at a “tea party” with Winston Churchill in 1918), in order to prevent his forces from attacking the French army that captured Damascus from his brother.

He became King Abdullah I, grandfather of Hussein, King Abdullah’s father. Originally from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where he held the position of deputy for Mecca in the Turkish parliament, he was not a native to the Transjordan. He built his tribal army into what was known as the Arab Legion (using massive British training and support), which he used to impose his rule on the local Palestinian population (they were named Palestinian by the British so as not to alienate them during WWI as a result of the British Balfour Declaration, which recognized the Zionist movement’s claims to the land).