ABSTRACT
A key to the puzzle could be found in a comparison of the population estimates of 1952 and the census returns of 1961. Fully to appreciate the importance of the demographic trends we must first bear in mind that as late as 1945 the nearly landlocked amirate of Transjordan, then under British mandate, had encompassed an area of some 34,500 square miles with a population generously estimated at 450,000. The Palestinians thus had numbers, sophistication, motivation, and the support of influential Arab governments they failed to seize the political controls. In part this could be attributed to their lack of political organization and leadership. The absence of both had accounted for the shambles to which the Palestine Arab cause had been reduced after the expiry of the mandate. To surmount the domestic and external threats to Hashimi rule, King Husayn reinstated royal absolutism in April 1957 while keeping the democratic facade.
