Skip to main content

Abd Al-Aziz IV Ibn Saud Biography

Abd Al-Aziz IV Ibn Saud

(Kuwait, 1902-Athens, 1969) King of Saudi Arabia.He was the son of Ibn Saud III, who he succeeded to the Saudi throne in 1953, since he held until 1964.Despite his great influence in the Islamic world, his close relations with Western countries, especially the United States, earned him the enmity of numerous governments of Arab countries.

He was educated in Kuwait, where his father was in exile.In 1933, a year after the constitution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he was proclaimed crown prince.At the head of the Saudi troops he defeated the Yemenis in the 1934 campaign.In 1939 his father Ibn Saud III appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Viceroy of Hedjaz.When his father established the institution of the Council of Ministers in early 1953, for the first time in the history of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud IV became its president.

Ibn Saud

In September the king appointed him head of the military police forces.He ascended to the throne in November 1953 with the support of his brothers, after the death of his father.One of his first decisions was to name his brother Faysal Crown Prince.He continued with the modernization program of the country initiated by his father and created the ministries of Commerce, Education and Health.He made a special effort to strengthen the educational system.

Despite this Western aspect with which he endowed his government, his reign was characterized by an autocratic and personalist power, and the country continued to be plunged into a almost feudal regime.He strengthened the ties of friendship with the West and took a series of measures to facilitate the work of the oil companies.His regime was sustained thanks mainly to the high income obtained from the extraction of oil, which in turn allowed him to amass a considerable personal fortune, which made him the richest man in the world.He adopted a sumptuous way of life, which he maintained until his death.On his transfers he was accompanied by a large harem and an entourage made up of more than 150 people.When the Suez Canal Crisis broke out in 1956, Saud showed his full support for Egypt, breaking relations with France and the United Kingdom, as well as blocking the delivery of oil to both countries.

However, the arrival Money complicated the structure of the administration, which made it impossible for it to be controlled directly by the king as had happened in the kingdom until then.The country was involved in a deep internal crisis, as the king was unable to solve the problems that the country was facing.His mismanagement plunged the country into economic disaster.In 1957 he ended the separate administration for the Hedjaz region.That same year the construction of the new Nasriya Royal Palace was completed, where he established his residence.Also in 1957 he made his first state trip to the United States, a country with which he promised to allow him to continue using the Dharan air base, in exchange for the sending of instructors and war material.

His old friendship with the Egyptian leader Nasser broke down, and he began a series of trips around the world in order to replace Egypt as the main Arab power.His enmity with Egypt led him to prepare a plot against the Egyptian president; in this way, it tried to avoid the creation by Syria and Egypt of the United Arab Republic.The failure of the plot against the Egyptian dignitary made him lose much of his support in the court of Riyadh.

An illness plunged him into practically total blindness, for which he gave his brother Faysal in 1960 the presidency of the council of ministers.The new head of government assumed full control of foreign and domestic policy.He established a more austere administration and publicly lamented his brother's former profligacies, which had led to dangerous inflation.However, to avoid confrontations with the king, he announced that the sovereign continued to retain his authority and that he, as head of government, would continue to be loyal to his brother.Ibn Saud appointed Faysal as Minister of Defense in 1959, a position previously held by the sovereign's own son, Fahed.

Faysal's decision to end The censorship of the press annoyed Ibn Saud, who, fearful of losing his absolute power, returned to assume all powers in 1960.Shortly after regaining power he gave new signs of his absolutism, when he forced the Council of Ministers to accept the concession from the Jidda refinery for one of his sons.Faced with the protests that arose in the court, in June 1960 he called a meeting of the royal family, in which he established the spheres of influence of each member of the family.Shortly after, he accepted his brother's resignation.During 1961 he reaffirmed his power by directly assuming control of domestic politics with his traditional heavy hand.His actions led his brother Talal and several members of the royal family, who had attacked the feudal system, to flee the country.

He tried to reconcile with his brother in October 1962, when he appointed him prime minister.and Minister of Foreign Affairs.His illness forced him to spend much of 1963 abroad to receive various medical treatments.His absence caused internal opposition to increase considerably.One of his last appearances as king was his participation in the Cairo Conference, at the beginning of 1964.Faced with his inability to lead the government, his brother Faysal, who was in favor of a greater modernization of the country, supported by great part of the royal family, took advantage of a new stay abroad for health reasons, gave a coup and overthrew him in March 1964.

Ibn Saud was definitively dethroned in November 1964, when Faysal was proclaimed king of Saudi Arabia by a council of ulama and emirs.The dethroned monarch accepted the invitation of one of his oldest enemies, Egyptian President Nasser, and settled in Cairo.Later, he moved to live in the Greek town of Cavouri, which was in the vicinity of Athens.He died in 1969 from a heart attack.With his death, one of the last absolute monarchs of the East disappeared.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The history of the flags of the world

Maybe you've ever stopped to think where the flags come from, because they have those colors or shapes, because some have drawings and others have stripes.Because there are flags of different countries that are very similar, it may be a coincidence or perhaps they have something in common.To this and other questions we will answer in this article that we have titled The history of the flags of the world. History of the flags of the world | Origin of the Flags The flags are responsible for generating the identity signals of a country , it is the embodiment of a series of values ​​that hold a community together or region that share a series of characteristics, whether geographical, cultural or historical. When several nations have shared a common period in history, it is normal that they also share symbols, examples such as the flags of the Nordic countries or as with New Zealand and Australia. Today all countries are represented by their corresponding flag, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Reinach Biography

Joseph Reinach (Paris, 1856-1921) French journalist.He started in the journalistic profession through the Parisian newspaper La République Française , where from 1877 he began to publish interesting political analyzes that placed him at the epicenter of French public life in the last quarter of the century XIX.He acquired such importance in such a short space of time that in 1881, following the proclamation in France of the Third Republic, President León Gambetta called him to his side to place all his trust in him and appoint him head of his secretariat. At only thirty years old (1886), he became editor-in-chief of La République Française .Once this position was released, he directed a noisy journalistic campaign from the pages of the newspaper against the nationalist and populist politics of Georges Boulanger (the " General Revanche ").With this and other similar matters of maximum national interest, Joseph Reinach continued to rise in French public life and, in 188...
Post a Comment
Read more

Arthur Neville Chamberlain Biography

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (Birmingham, 1869-Heckfield, 1940) British Conservative politician who was Prime Minister between 1937 and 1940.He was the son of Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), leader of the Liberals « unionists' who joined the Conservative Party and one of the country's most influential politicians in the late 19th century; his half-brother Joseph Austen Chamberlain (1863-1937) also devoted himself to politics, becoming president of the House of Commons, minister on multiple occasions and fleeting head of the Conservative Party. Neville Chamberlain Neville Chamberlain, on the other hand, turned into politics belatedly, having gone into business.He was elected mayor of Birmingham in 1915 (his father had already distinguished himself in that position in 1873-1876).His political prestige was forged at the head of the Ministry of Health (1924-1929); the social reform that he introduced in the British health system consolidated the new populist image of the Conse...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Maria Valente Bover Biography

José María Valente Bover (Vinaroz, 1877-Sant Cugat del Vallès, 1954) Spanish theologian and scripturalist.A Jesuit since 1895, he was ordained in 1910.Professor of Sacred Scripture (1911-1950) and specialist in textual criticism of the New Testament, José María Valente Bover is the author of a Theology of Saint Paul and, in collaboration with Francisco Cantera Burgos, of a Spanish version of the Bible (1947).
Post a Comment
Read more

Hernan Cortes Biography

Hernán Cortés (Medellín, Badajoz, 1485-Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville, 1547) Spanish conqueror of Mexico.Few times has history attributed the conquest of a vast territory to the determination and determination of one man; In this reduced list is Hernán Cortés, who always preferred to burn his ships to retreat.With little means, with little more support than his intelligence and his military and diplomatic intuition, he managed in just two years to reduce the splendid Aztec Empire to Spanish rule, populated, according to estimates, by some fifteen million inhabitants. Hernán Cortés It is true that various favorable circumstances accompanied him, and that, driven by ambition and the thirst for honors and riches, he committed abuses and violence, like other conquerors.But, of all of them, Cortés was the most cultured and capable captain, and although this does not serve as a mitigating factor, he was also impelled by a great religious fervor; his moral conscience came to ask him ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Santos Zelaya Biography

José Santos Zelaya (José Santos Zelaya or Celaya; Managua, 1853-New York, 1919) Nicaraguan statesman.After studying in Europe, in 1875 he returned to his country and joined the ranks of the Liberal Party.As a result of the struggles with the conservatives he was exiled in 1884, joining the following year, with the rank of general, the troops of the Guatemalan Barrios. José Santos Zelaya After a new return and exile, in 1887 he settled permanently in Nicaragua.Six years later, he evicted R.Sacasa from the Government and took him over until 1909, thanks to two constitutional reforms that allowed his re-election. During his Government he carried out important social and economic reforms of a liberal nature.At the international level, he unsuccessfully promoted the restoration of the Central American Union and rejected British and American interventionism.Eventually, a conservative revolt led by Chamorro and Estrada and supported by the US overthrew him.He went into exile in Barce...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Maria de la Cruz Prieto Biography

José María de la Cruz Prieto (Concepción, 1799- id ., 1875) Chilean military and politician.He fought in the War of Independence and, as chief of staff, in the war against Peru and Bolivia (1839).Candidate for the presidency in 1851, he revolted when Manuel Montt won the elections, and was defeated in the battle of Loncomilla.
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Boussinesq Biography

Joseph Boussinesq (Saint-André-de-Sangonis, 1842-Paris, 1929) French mathematician.He also studied physics and was a professor of different disciplines in Paris.A member of the Academy of Sciences, his work covered very diverse fields of physics, mathematics and philosophy.His statistical studies on hydrodynamics are especially interesting.His works include Infinitesimal Analysis Course and Analytical Theory of Heat.
Post a Comment
Read more

Frédéric August Bartholdi Biography

Frédéric August Bartholdi (Colmar, 1834-Paris, 1904) French sculptor.He studied architecture in his hometown and later traveled to Paris to study painting; there he came into contact with the painter Ary Scheffer and the sculptors Jean-François Soitoux and Antoine Étex.He soon concentrated his efforts on sculpture, the art for which he would be best known.His works are characterized by monumentality and by large-scale commemorative pieces of historical and patriotic events.He also made works in honor of well-known personalities of the time. Inspired by the Lion of Lucerne , (1819-1821, Lucerne) monument erected in honor of the Swiss Guards of Louis XVI by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), Bartholdi erected the gigantic Lion of Belfort (1880, Belfort).Although it was created for the cemetery in which the soldiers lay, it was placed on top of a hill from where you can see the entire city.The lion, which rises imposingly to repel the enemy's attack, contrasts with the dejected f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Angel Zárraga and Argüelles Biography

Ángel Zárraga y Argüelles (Durango, 1886-Mexico, 1946) Mexican painter and poet.Very soon he began to combine his interest in the visual arts with his innate literary vocation, and the sum of both creative activities made him one of the great figures of Aztec culture of the first half of the 20th century. As a member of the Mexican diplomatic corps, for several years he was stationed in Paris as cultural attaché to the Aztec embassy.In the French capital, Ángel Zárraga y Argüelles had the opportunity to establish contact with the main artistic figures of the moment, to learn about the latest trends and currents in European art and to participate in different groups such as the Society of Decorating Artists of Paris, which provided the opportunity to extend the field of his artistic creations to the noblest spaces of old Europe. Thus, the Mexican painter was commissioned to execute the frescoes that decorate the crypt of the church of Suresnes, the Via Crucis of the church of Meu...
Post a Comment
Read more