Qatar

One of the richest states in the whole region, Qatar is a little appendix in the Arabian Peninsula.

Originally governed as part of Bahrain, the place became a hotspot for comercial activity, being a good place to stop between the Arabic Peninsula and the Indic Ocean. Later it became a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire until the ottomans wanted to turn “protecting” into “conquering”, when they were expelled for good from the area.

In the last parts of 19th century and early 20th century, Qatar approached the British to help them dissociate from the Al Khalifa clan of Bahrain, essentialy turning themselves into a protectorate from one country to another. In 1971 it became an independent state.

Today the country is an absolute monarchy led by Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who deposed his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani in a bloodless coup (he had already been practically running the country before anyway) and has continued the modernization progress started by his father, including women’s suffrage and a new constitution. The country is way more liberal than Saudi Arabia, but less than the UAE.

Qatar is a huge tract of desert, so most of the cities are on the coast. It’s also full of oil, making it the country with the highest GDP per capita in the world.

Football fans may know the country as the future host of the 2022 World Cup, a selection that is widely believed to have been influenced by cash. Fans of sport in general (especially in Asia) may also remember the capital, Doha, as candidate city for the 2020 Olympic Games, and was host of the 2006 Asian Games.

Al Jazeera is also based in Qatar.