When Iraq began to mobilize its troops to invade Kuwait in the latter part of 1990, no one quite knew what they were trying to accomplish. When Iraq's intentions became clear it was obvious that it was trying, among other things, to gain more control in the Persian Gulf and free itself from the financial deficit it attained in the Iran-Iraq War conflict. Iraq achieved neither. Aside from the tremendous debt and heavy casualties Iraq suffered in the Gulf War, it accomplished none of the goals it set out to accomplish. .
Tensions Mount: Causes of the Gulf War.
Conflict between Iraq and Kuwait had been occurring since 1961when Kuwait was granted independence from Great Britain. Iraq continually insisted that it had been governing Kuwait before the British takeover and therefore Kuwait was now part of Iraq. Despite these historically empty claims, Iraq finally recognized Kuwait in 1963. More tensions came later as a result of the Iran-Iraq War. Kuwait assisted Iraq with generous financial loans as well as diplomatic backing. After the war Iraq was $80 billion dollars in debt, and since Iraq emerged victorious it had become the strongest military power in the region. Iraq felt somewhat exempt from the debts that it owed to Kuwait.
Despite the fact that Iraq insisted that Kuwait forgive its debt, Iraq also made several claims regarding the oil supply in Kuwait. One such claim was that Kuwait was making a profit from oil gathered from the Iraq-Kuwait border and was not sharing the profits. Another claim declared that Kuwait was producing more oil than was allowed by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) quotas; this lowered oil prices and caused a huge recession in Iraq's economy since oil was the country's number one export (Brown, Sec II).
Aside from issues that Iraq had with Kuwait, the political situation in Iraq had a lot to do with the explosive situation in Kuwait.