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ple, more than 50 percent of the people of Iraq were Arab Shiite
Muslims, about 20 percent were Arab Sunni Muslims, and about
20 percent were Kurdish Sunni Muslims. There were also Kurdish
Shiites and Arab Christians living in the country. In addition to the
historic differences between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims, there
are important ethnic and cultural differences between Arabs and
Kurds, who have their own language and traditions. However,
under the centuries of Ottoman rule, the minority Sunni Arabs had
gained a great amount of land and power; the Shiites had been sub-
I
RAQ
’
S
H
ISTORY TO
1990 43
The decisions of the so-called Big Four leaders (from left: Prime Minister David Lloyd George
of Great Britain, Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau
of France, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States) during the Paris Peace
Conference of 1919 shaped the world—often in unforeseen ways—for decades to come. It
was at Paris that the nation of Iraq was created.