ABSTRACT
Britain ceded full independence to the country on March 22, 1946. Abdullah proclaimed himself king shortly thereafter and changed the nation’s name in 1949. In May 1948, Abdullah joined his Arab neighbors in attacking Israel after it declared its independence. He seized the western bank of the Jordan River, land originally designated by the United Nations as part of the Arab state in Palestine. In 1950, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Nearly half a million Palestinians became subject to Jordanian rule, doubling the nation’s population at the time.
