With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the League of Nations created the French Mandate Syria and British Mandate Palestine. Approximately 80% of the British Mandate of Palestine was east of the Jordan river and was known as "Transjordan". In 1921, the British gave semi-autonomous control of Transjordan to the future Abdullah I of Jordan, from the Hashemite family, who had lost their civil war with the House of Saud for control of Mecca and Medina. Abdullah I was assassinated in 1951 but the Hashemites continued to rule Transjordan under British supervision until after World War II. In 1946, the British requested that the United Nations approve an end to British Mandate rule in Transjordan. Following this approval, the Jordanian Parliament proclaimed King Abdullah the first ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In 1950, Transjordan annexed the West Bank, which had been under its control since the armistice that followed the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

The annexation was recognized only by Great Britain (de facto in the case of East Jerusalem). In 1965, there was an exchange of land between Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Jordan gave up a relatively large area of inland desert in return for a small piece of sea-shore near Aqaba. Jordan signed a mutual defence pact in May 1967 with Egypt, and it participated in the June 1967 war against Israel along with Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. During the war, Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Israel (the western sector having been under Israeli control). In 1988, Jordan renounced all claims to the West Bank but retained an administrative role pending a final settlement, and its 1994 treaty with Israel allowed for a continuing Jordanian role in Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem.

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