Baghdad was a modernizing city, with wide boulevards and grassy traffic circles.
Public pools were becoming more common throughout the city.
And girls were encouraged to go to school, where they studied and played games like volleyball.
There was an aspiring middle class, which shared combined western and local norms.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdA national police force was also formed.
In the south of Iraq, the port city of Basra was hailed as a Middle Eastern Venice.
Basra was a bustling global hub as it exported goods out into the Persian Gulf.
In the marshes in southern Iraq, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the "Marsh Arabs" continued their centuries-old way of life.
Many of the marshes were drained by Saddam Hussein after the 1991 uprisings in Iraq.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdKurds in northern Iraq also retained their unique culture ...
Below is the original British Pathe video: