The Second Persian Gulf War began August 2nd 1990, with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and ended March 3rd 1991 with the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
There are three main reasons why Iraq invaded Kuwait. The main reason was that the small country of Kuwait was filled with oilrigs that Iraq claimed were taking Iraqi oil.
Second, the Iraqi’s believed that Kuwait was a part of Iraq, causing many confrontations between the two countries. Finally, the Iraqi’s were angry about the First Persian Gulf War, in which they were defeated by Iran and it’s allies and received little help from Kuwait, whom the Iraqi’s thought of as an ally.
The war itself began because Saddam Hussein, the leader of the Iraqi government, decided that the rest of the world would not defend Kuwait. So, on August 2nd, 1990 the Iraqi military invaded Kuwait and within days had the small country under control. Soon after this, the United States, along with the rest of the U.N. demanded that Hussein withdraw his forces. When he refused, the U.N. began to deploy troops into Saudi Arabia to plan a military strike on Iraq. On February 23rd the U.N. launched the ground war with over 3,000 tanks and 2,500 aircraft. Soon after, control of Kuwait had been regained and thousands of Iraqi soldiers had given up. Then, on March 3rd, 1991, Iraq accepted the terms of the cease-fire and the war was over.
The effects of the war were many, for example the defeat of Iraq inspired Kurdish and Shiite rebellions within Iraq, weakening it’s already devastated military. Also, the economic and trade sanctions begun during the war continue to the present day, contributing to severe economic hardship in Iraq.