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Kuwait is a sovereign state in Western Asia located at the head of the Persian Gulf. The geographical region of Kuwait has been occupied by humans since antiquity, particularly due to its strategic location at the head of the Persian Gulf. In the pre oil era, Kuwait was a regional trade port. In the modern era, Kuwait is best known for the Gulf War (1990–1991).

In 1521, Kuwait was under Portuguese control. In the late 16th century, the Portuguese built a defensive settlement in Kuwait. In the early to mid 1700s, Kuwait City was a small fishing village. Administratively, it was a sheikhdom, ruled by local sheikhs from Bani Khalid clan. Sometime in the mid 1700s, the Bani Utbah settled in Kuwait. Sometime after the death of the Bani Khalid's leader Barrak Bin Urair and the fall of the Bani Khalid Emirate, the Utub were able to wrest control of Kuwait as a result of successive matrimonial alliances.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century, Kuwait gradually became a principal commercial center for the transit of goods between India, Muscat, Baghdad, Persia, and Arabia. By the late 1700s, Kuwait had already established itself as a trading route from the Persian Gulf to Aleppo. As a result, Kuwait's maritime commerce boomed. The East India Company was diverted to Kuwait in 1792. The East India Company secured the sea routes between Kuwait, India and the east coasts of Africa. The flight of many of Basra's leading merchants to Kuwait continued to play a significant role in Basra's commercial stagnation well into the 1850s. Kuwait became prosperous due to Basra's instability in the late 18th century. In the late 18th century, Kuwait partly functioned as a haven for Basra's merchants fleeing Ottoman government persecution. In 1776, Sabah I died and was succeeded by his youngest son, Abdullah. Shortly before Sabah's death, in 1766, the al Khalifa and, soon after, the al Jalahima, left Kuwait en masse for Zubara in Qatar. Domestically, the al Khalifa and al Jalahima had been among the top contenders for power. Their emigration left the Sabahs in undisputed control, and by the end of Abdullah I's long rule (1776–1814), Sabah rule was secure, and the political hierarchy in Kuwait was well established, the merchants deferring to direct orders from the Shaikh. By the 19th century, not only was the ruling Sabah much stronger than a desert Shaikh but also capable of naming his son successor. This influence was not just internal but enabled the al Sabah to conduct foreign diplomacy. They soon established good relations with the British East India Company in 1775. Kuwaiti ship vessels were renowned throughout the Indian Ocean. Its sailors developed a positive reputation in the Persian Gulf. In the 19th century, Kuwait became significant in the horse trade, horses were regularly shipped by the way of sailing boats from Kuwait. The Ottomans were bankrupt and when the European banks took control of the Ottoman budget in 1881, additional income was required from Kuwait. Midhat Pasha, the governor of Iraq, demanded that Kuwait submit financially to Ottoman rule. The al Sabah found diplomatic allies in the British Foreign Office. However, under Abdullah II Al Sabah, Kuwait pursued a general pro Ottoman foreign policy, formally taking the title of Ottoman provincial governor, this relationship with the Ottoman Empire did result in Ottoman interference with Kuwaiti laws and selection or rulers. The population was cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse, including Arabs, Persians, Africans, Jews, and Armenians. 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. The elite were long settled, urban, Sunni families, the majority of which claim descent from the original 30 Bani Utubi families. Kuwait had been under Ottoman administration since 1871 and in 1875 was included in the Basra Vilayet. Although the sheikhdom now fell under the Empire’s jurisdiction, no Ottoman official was stationed in Kuwait. Influence over Kuwait was crucial to British foreign policy in the Persian Gulf with regard to commerce and strategic interests concerning India. In the Anglo Ottoman Convention of 1913, the British concurred with the Ottoman Empire in defining Kuwait as an autonomous kaza of the Ottoman Empire and that the Shaikhs of Kuwait were not independent leaders, but rather qaimmaqams (provincial sub governors) of the Ottoman government. The convention ruled that Sheikh Mubarak had authority over an area extending out to a radius of 80 km, from the capital. This region was marked by a red circle and included the islands of Auhah, Bubiyan, Failaka, Kubbar, Mashian, and Warbah. A green circle designated an area extending out an additional 100 km, in radius, within which the qaimmaqam was authorized to collect tribute and taxes from the natives. World War I disrupted elements of Kuwait's politics, society, economy and trans regional networks.

On 6 November 1914, British offensive action began with the naval bombardment of the old fort at Fao in Iraq, located at the point where the Shatt al Arab meets the Persian Gulf. At the Fao Landing, the British Indian Expeditionary Force D (IEF D), comprising the 6th (Poona) Division led by Lieutenant General Arthur Barrett with Sir Percy Cox as Political Officer, was opposed by 350 Ottoman troops and 4 guns. After a sharp engagement, the fort was overrun. By mid November the Poona Division was fully ashore and began moving towards the city of Basra. The same month, the ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Mubarak Al Sabah, contributed to the Allied war effort by sending forces to attack Ottoman troops at Umm Qasr, Safwan, Bubiyan, and Basra. In exchange the British government recognised Kuwait as an "independent government under British protection." There is no report on the exact size and nature of Mubarak's attack, though Ottoman forces did retreat from those positions weeks later. Mubarak soon removed the Ottoman symbol from the Kuwaiti flag and replaced it with "Kuwait" written in Arabic script. He refused to rent any storage facilities to the Germans.

The Kuwait Najd War erupted in the aftermath of World War I, when the Ottoman Empire was defeated and the British invalidated the Anglo Ottoman Convention. The power vacuum, left by the fall of the Ottomans, sharpened the conflict between Kuwait and Najd (Ikhwan). The war resulted in sporadic border clashes throughout 1919–20. However, Kuwait immensely declined in regional economic importance, At its height, Kuwait's pearling industry led the world's luxury market, regularly sending out between 750 and 800 ship vessels to meet the European elite's need for luxuries pearls. A force of 4,000 Saudi Ikhwan, led by Faisal Al Dawish, attacked the Kuwait Red Fort at Al Jahra, defended by 2,000 Kuwaiti men. The Kuwaitis were largely outnumbered by the Ikhwan of Najd.

When Percy Cox was informed of the border clashes in Kuwait, he sent a letter to Mohammerah Sheikh Khazʽal Ibn Jabir offering the Kuwaiti throne to either him or one of his heirs, knowing that Khaz'al would be a wiser ruler than the Al Sabah family. Khaz'al, who considered the Al Sabah as his own family, replied "Do you expect me to allow the stepping down of Al Mubarak from the throne of Kuwait? Do you think I can accept this?" He then asked: blockquote| even so, do you think that you have come to me with something new? Al Mubarak's position as ruler of Kuwait means that I am the true ruler of Kuwait. So there is no difference between myself and them, for they are like the dearest of my children and you are aware of this. Had someone else come to me with this offer, I would have complained about them to you. So how do you come to me with this offer when you are well aware that myself and Al Mubarak are one soul and one house, what affects them affects me, whether good or evil. The goal of the Saudi economic and military attacks on Kuwait was to annex as much of Kuwait's territory as possible. the Uqair Protocol of 1922 which defined the boundaries between Iraq, Kuwait and Nejd. In April 1923, Shaikh Ahmad al Sabah wrote the British Political Agent in Kuwait, Major John More, "I still do not know what the border between Iraq and Kuwait is, I shall be glad if you will kindly give me this information." More, upon learning that al Sabah claimed the outer green line of the Anglo Ottoman Convention (4 April), would relay the information to Sir Percy. On 19 April, Sir Percy stated that the British government recognized the outer line of the convention as the border between Iraq and Kuwait. This decision limited Iraq's access to the Persian Gulf at 58 km of mostly marshy and swampy coastline. As this would make it difficult for Iraq to become a naval power (the territory did not include any deepwater harbours), the Iraqi King Faisal I (whom the British installed as a puppet king in Iraq) did not agree to the plan. However, as his country was under British mandate, he had little say in the matter. Iraq and Kuwait would formally ratify the border in August. The border was re recognized in 1932. Attempts by Faisal I to build an Iraqi railway to Kuwait and port facilities on the Gulf were rejected by Britain. These and other similar British colonial policies made Kuwait a focus of the Arab national movement in Iraq, and a symbol of Iraqi humiliation at the hands of the British. After the Uqair conference, Kuwait was still subjected to a Saudi economic blockade and intermittent Saudi raiding. Al Sabah family rule remained limited until well into the 1930s because the merchants, owing to their financial power, were the primary sources of income in Kuwait. Before Mary Bruins Allison visited Kuwait in 1934, Kuwait had already lost its prominence in long distance trade. The British economic blockade heavily damaged Kuwait's economy. One tradition has it that political power went to the Sabahs as part of an explicit agreement; merchant families focused on the trade while the House of Sabah and other notable Kuwaiti families provided protection of city housed within Kuwait's wall.

Throughout the 1930s, Kuwaiti people opposed the British imposed separation of Kuwait from Iraq. This movement coalesced into the Free Kuwaiti Movement in 1938, which was established by Kuwaiti youths who were opposed to British influence in the region. The movement submitted a petition to the Iraqi government demanding that it support the reunification of Kuwait and Iraq.

On 23 January 1991, Iraq dumped of crude oil into the Persian Gulf,#tag:Ref|Note: The cited supporting source It was reported as a deliberate natural resources attack to keep US Marines from coming ashore (Missouri and Wisconsin had shelled Failaka Island during the war to reinforce the idea that there would be an amphibious assault attempt). About 30–40% of this came from allied raids on Iraqi coastal targets. The land based Kuwait oil spill surpassed the Lakeview Gusher, which spilled nine million barrels in 1910, as the largest oil spill in recorded history.

The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by the Iraqi military setting fire to 700 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 after conquering the country but being driven out by coalition forces. The fires started in January and February 1991, and the last one was extinguished by November. The resulting fires burned uncontrollably because of the dangers of sending in firefighting crews. Land mines had been placed in areas around the oil wells, and a military cleaning of the areas was necessary before the fires could be put out. Somewhere around of oil were lost each day. Eventually, privately contracted crews extinguished the fires, at a total cost of US$1.5 billion to Kuwait. By that time, however, the fires had burned for approximately 10 months, causing widespread pollution in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti Oil Minister estimated between twenty five and fifty million barrels of unburned oil from damaged facilities pooled to create approximately 300 oil lakes, that contaminated around 40 million tons of sand and earth. The mixture of desert sand, unignited oil spilled and soot generated by the burning oil wells formed layers of hard "tarcrete", which covered nearly five percent of Kuwait's land mass. Cleaning efforts were led by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the Arab Oil Co., who tested a number of technologies including the use of petroleum degrading bacteria on the oil lakes.

The Nayirah testimony was a false testimony given before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus in October 1990 by a 15 year old girl who was publicly identified by only her first name, Nayirah. The testimony was widely publicized in the American media and was cited numerous times by United States senators and President George H. W. Bush in their rationale to back Kuwait in the Gulf War. In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was Al Ṣabaḥ (نيرة الصباح) and that she was the daughter of Saud bin Nasir Al Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign, which was run by the American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. Following this, al Sabah's testimony has come to be regarded as a classic example of modern atrocity propaganda. In her emotional testimony, Nayirah claimed that after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital, take the incubators, and leave the babies to die. Her story was initially corroborated by Amnesty International, a British NGO, which published several independent reports about the killings and testimony from evacuees. Following the liberation of Kuwait, reporters were given access to the country. An ABC report found that "patients, including premature babies, did die, when many of Kuwait's nurses and doctors fled" but Iraqi troops "almost certainly had not stolen hospital incubators and left hundreds of Kuwaiti babies to die." Amnesty International reacted by issuing a correction, with executive director John Healey subsequently accusing the Bush administration of "opportunistic manipulation of the international human rights movement".

Significant demographic changes occurred in Kuwait as a result of the Gulf War. During the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, food shortages, medical care difficulties, financial shortages, fear of arrest and mistreatment at roadblocks by Iraqis). After the Gulf War in 1991, nearly 200,000 Palestinians fled Kuwait, partly due to economic burdens, regulations on residence and fear of abuse by Kuwaiti security forces. Prior to the Gulf War, Palestinians numbered 400,000 of Kuwait's population of 2.2 million. The Palestinians who fled Kuwait were mostly Jordanian citizens. In 2012, relations resumed and 80,000 Palestinians resided in Kuwait.

Immediately after liberation in 1991, the United Nations, under Security Council Resolution 687, demarcated the Iraq Kuwait boundary on the basis of the 1932 and the 1963 agreements between the two states. In November 1994, Iraq formally accepted the UN demarcated border with Kuwait, which had been further spelled out in Security Council Resolutions 773 (1992) and 833 (1993). Criticism of the Al Sabah family in Kuwait became more pronounced following the country's return to sovereignty in 1991.

From 2006 onwards, Kuwait has suffered from chronic political deadlocks and longstanding periods of cabinet reshuffles and dissolutions. On 23 January 2006, the assembly unanimously voted in favor of Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah abdicating in favor of Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed, citing his illness with a form of dementia. Instead of naming a successor from the Salem branch as per convention, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed named his half brother Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmed as crown prince and his nephew Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed as prime minister. By October 2011, 16 Kuwaiti politicians were alleged to have received payments of $350m in return for their support of government policy. In December 2013, allies of Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad claimed to possess tapes purportedly showing that Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah and Jassem Al Kharafi were discussing plans to topple the Kuwaiti government. In March 2014, David S. Cohen, then Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, accused Kuwait of funding terrorism. From 2014 to 2015, Kuwait was frequently described as the world's biggest source of terrorism funding, particularly for ISIS and Al Qaeda. In March 2015, Kuwait's public prosecutor dropped all investigations into the alleged coup plot and Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad read a public apology on Kuwait state television renouncing the coup allegations. Since then, "numerous associates of his have been targeted and detained by the Kuwaiti authorities on various charges,"

On 26 June 2015, a suicide bombing took place at a Shia Muslim mosque in Kuwait. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack. Twenty seven people were killed and 227 people were wounded. In the aftermath, a lawsuit was filed accusing the Kuwaiti government of negligence and direct responsibility for the terror attack. In December 2015, Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad was convicted of "disrespect to the public prosecutor and attributing a remark to the country's ruler without a special permission from the emir's court," issuing a suspended six month prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti Dinar. In January 2016, the Kuwaiti appeals court overturned the prior ruling and cleared Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad of all charges. In November 2018, Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad, along with four other defendants, were charged in Switzerland with forgery related to the fake coup video. Shortly thereafter, Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad temporarily stepped aside from his role at the International Olympic Committee, pending an ethics committee hearing into the allegations. In June 2019, government official Fahad Al Rajaan and his spouse were given life sentences in absentia by the Kuwait criminal court; personal property was confiscated, and they were ordered to repay $82 million, as well as being fined "twice that amount. In November 2019, former deputy prime minister and minister of interior Sheikh Khaled Al Jarrah Al Sabah was dismissed from office after minister of defense Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah filed a complaint with the Kuwaiti Attorney General alleging embezzlement of 240 million Kuwaiti dinars ($794.5 million) of Kuwait government funds had taken place during Khaled's tenure as minister of defense. The COVID 19 pandemic has exacerbated Kuwait's economic crisis. Kuwait's economy faced a budget deficit of $46 billion in 2020. In July 2020, the US Department of Justice filed an asset forfeiture claim against The Mountain Beverly Hills and other real property in the United States, alleging a group of three Kuwaiti officials, including Sheikh Khaled Al Jarrah, set up unauthorized accounts in the name of the country's Military Attache Office in London, known as the 'Army Fund.' They allegedly funded the accounts with over $100m of Kuwaiti public money and used it for their own purposes. In September 2020, Kuwait's Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah became the 16th Emir of Kuwait and the successor to Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, who died at the age of 91. In October 2020, Sheikh Mishal Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah was appointed as the Crown Prince. Since January 2021, Kuwait has been experiencing its worst political crisis in many decades. Kuwait is also facing a looming debt crisis according to various media sources. Kuwait is widely considered the region's most oil dependent country with the least amount of economic diversification. Kuwait has the weakest infrastructure in the entire GCC region. On April 13, 2021, a Kuwaiti court ordered the detention of former prime minister Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Hamad Al Sabah on corruption charges related to the 'Army Fund.' He is the first former Kuwaiti prime minister to face pre trial detention over graft charges. The crimes allegedly took place during Jaber Al Sabah's 2001–11 term as defense minister. In September 2021, the Swiss court convicted Sheikh Ahmed Al Fahad of forgery along with the four other defendants. He denied wrongdoing and plans to appeal.