The history of modern Saudi Arabia begins in the year 1902 when Abdul Aziz Al-Sa'ud and a band of his
     followers captured the city of Riyadh, returning it to the control of his family.

     Abdul Aziz was born about 1880 and spent the early years of his life with his father in exile in Kuwait. After the
     capture of Riyadh, he spent the next twelve years consolidating his conquests in the area around Riyadh and the
     eastern part of the country from where the Turks were expelled.

     The Arab tribes had never liked the Turks and they were only too willing to listen to a new ruler whose ambitions
     were aided considerably by the troubles of the Ottoman Empire.

     On 22 September 1933, the lands under the control of Abdul Aziz were renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
     and in 1936 a treaty was signed with Yemen marking the southern borders of the Kingdom.

     The main preoccupations of Abdul Aziz were the consolidation of his power and the restoration of law and order
     to all parts of his recently-created kingdom. To these ends, he developed a system whereby every sheikh was
     responsible for his own tribe under the authority of the king who was empowered to intervene to impose law and
     order. It was clearly understood that internal anarchy within the Kingdom could quickly lead to foreign
     intervention. And all were agreed that this was unacceptable.