Editing History of Kuwait (section)

====Mubarak the Great====
{{main|Mubarak Al-Sabah}}
[[File:Mubarak Al-Sabah of Kuwait.jpg|thumb|[[Mubarak Al-Sabah]] "the Great" (1837–1915)]] 
Mubarak's seizure of the throne via murder left his brother's former allies as a threat to his rule, especially as his opponents gained the backing of the Ottomans.<ref name="locrule" /> In July, Mubarak invited the British to deploy [[gunboat]]s along the Kuwaiti coast. Britain saw Mubarak's desire for an alliance as an opportunity to counteract German influence in the region and so agreed.<ref name="locrule" /> This led to what is known as the First Kuwaiti Crisis, in which the Ottomans demanded that the British stop interfering with their empire. In the end, the Ottoman Empire backed down, rather than go to war.

In January 1899, Mubarak signed an agreement with the British which pledged that Kuwait would never cede any territory nor receive agents or representatives of any foreign power without the British Government's consent. In essence, this policy gave Britain control of Kuwait's foreign policy.<ref name="locrule"/> The treaty also gave Britain responsibility for Kuwait's national security. In return, Britain agreed to grant an annual subsidy of 15,000 Indian [[rupee]]s (£1,500) to the ruling family. In 1911, Mubarak raised taxes. Therefore, three wealthy business men [[Ibrahim Al-Mudhaf]], [[Helal Al-Mutairi]], and Shamlan Ali bin Saif Al-Roumi (brother of Hussain Ali bin Saif Al-Roumi), led a protest against Mubarak by making [[Bahrain]] their main trade point, which negatively affected the Kuwaiti economy. However, Mubarak went to Bahrain and apologized for raising taxes and the three business men returned to Kuwait. In 1915, Mubarak the Great died and was succeeded by his son [[Jaber II Al-Sabah]], who reigned for just over one year until his death in early 1917. His brother Sheikh Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah succeeded him.

During the reign of Mubarak, Kuwait was dubbed the "[[Marseille]] of the Persian Gulf" because its economic vitality attracted a large variety of people.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncfIAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA272|title=The Persian Gulf in History|page=272 |editor=Lawrence G. Potter |year=2009|isbn=9780230618459|last1=Potter|first1=L.|publisher=Springer }}</ref><ref name=ara>{{cite web|url=http://ed-thelen.org/LordOfArabia.html|title=Lord of Arabia|pages=18–19|editor=[[Harold Courtenay Armstrong|H. C. Armstrong]]|year=1905|quote=Part II Chapter VI}}</ref> The population was cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse, including Arabs, Persians, Africans, [[History of the Jews in Kuwait|Jews]], and [[Armenians in Kuwait#History|Armenians]].<ref name=ara /> Kuwait was known for its [[religious tolerance]].<ref name="pa">{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXgsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|title=Kuwait before Oil: The Dynamics and Morphology of an Arab Port City (Gateways of Asia: Port Cities of Asia in the 13th–20th Centuries)|year=1997|publisher=Routledge |editor=Frank Broeze|isbn=9781136168956}}</ref>

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Kuwait had a well-established elite: wealthy trading families who were linked by marriage and shared economic interests.<ref name=elite>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8di8GN_hKsC&pg=PA37|title=Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar |editor=Jill Crystal |year=1995 |page=37|isbn=9780521466356 |last1=Crystal |first1=Jill |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> The elite were long-settled, urban, Sunni families, the majority of which claim descent from the original 30 Bani Utubi families.<ref name=elite /> The wealthiest families were trade merchants who acquired their wealth from long-distance commerce, shipbuilding and pearling.<ref name=elite /> They were a cosmopolitan elite, they traveled extensively to India, Africa and Europe.<ref name=elite /> The elite educated their sons abroad more than other Gulf Arab elite.<ref name=elite /> Western visitors noted that Kuwait's elite used European office systems, [[typewriters]] and followed [[European culture]] with curiosity.<ref name=elite /> The richest families were involved in general trade.<ref name=elite /> The merchant families of Al-Ghanim and Al-Hamad were estimated to be worth millions before the 1940s.<ref name=elite />