Kuwait is a very rich country due to its oil reserves, although it is several times smaller than the Republic of Croatia (Kuwait is the 7th largest in the world in terms of proven oil reserves, even ahead of Russia, the USA and Libya).
On June 19, 1961, the state of Kuwait achieved its full independence from Great Britain. Namely, Kuwait was until then a British protectorate, ie an autonomous sheikh under the protection of the United Kingdom. When full independence was achieved, the former Kuwaiti Sheikh Abdullah III. Al-Salim Al-Sabah received a new ruling title – emir.
As the first emir of Kuwait, Abdullah III. Al-Salim Al-Sabah did not rule as autocratically as the Arab rulers in the Middle East. Namely, the emir signed the Kuwaiti constitution the following year, which made that state a constitutional monarchy. Unlike absolute monarchies, in which the ruler is not bound by any laws, in constitutional monarchies even a ruler must in principle respect the constitution of his state.
With independence, Kuwait gained its own currency – the Kuwaiti dinar – which replaced the Gulf rupee used until then. The Kuwaiti dinar is today the currency with the highest value in the world. Namely, 1 Kuwaiti dinar is worth almost 20 Croatian kuna (the next is the most valuable Bahraini dinar worth about 15 kuna). It is interesting that banknotes above 20 Kuwaiti dinars are not printed.
Kuwait is a very rich country due to its oil reserves, although it is several times smaller than the Republic of Croatia (Kuwait is the 7th largest in the world in terms of proven oil reserves, even ahead of Russia, the USA and Libya).
