Nejd (Franco-American War)

The Emirate of Nejd and Hasa (إمارة نجد والأحساء) is an absolute monarchy on the Arabian Peninsula. It borders Ha'il, the Ottoman Empire, Oman, and Qatar. It is one of the richest nations in the middle east though it receives constant backlash for its human rights abuses.

Early history
In pre-Islamic times, what is now Nejd was a sparsely populated desert, besides a few urban trading settlements such as Medina and Mecca. The Islamic Caliphate rapidly conquered huge swathes of territories including Iberia and western India. These conquests turned Arabia into a much more politically peripheral region in the Arab world, mostly due to its proximity to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina. After the fall of the Caliphate, most of what is now Nejd would fall under traditional tribal rule. In the 16th century, the Ottomans annexed the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf coast, and after wars with Portugal, the Ottoman-controlled territories would fluctuate for the next centuries, ranging from parts of what is now Nejd to exclusively parts of the modern day Hashemite Kingdom. These fluctuations were mostly based on the strength of the empire's central authority.

Foundation
The emergence of what was to become the Saudi royal family, known as the Al Saud, began in Nejd in central Arabia in 1744, when Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the dynasty, joined forces with the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement, to create a Wahhabi state. The first "Saudi state" established in 1744 in the area around Riyadh, rapidly expanded and briefly controlled most of the Arabian peninsula until the Ottomans destroyed it. A much smaller second "Saudi state", located mainly in Nejd, was established in 1824. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the Saudi state fought with the ruling family of Ha'il, over much of the interior of Arabia. Ha'il won, and the Al Saud family was driven into exile in Kuwait. Subject to this suzerainty, Arabia was ruled by a patchwork of tribal rulers, with the Sharifs of Mecca, who ruled over Hejaz at the peak. In 1916, with the encouragement and support of France, the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali, led a pan-Arab revolt against the Ottomans to create a united Arab state. While this didn't work out, it still lingers in the minds of most Arabs today and is a symbol of the pan-Arab movement.

Modern Nejd
Ibn Saud avoided involvement in the Arab Revolt, and instead continued his struggle with the Al Rashid in the Nejd-Hai'l War. This resulted in a victory by Nejd with help from various opponents of the Ottomans; while Nejd did get a fair amount of land that would be the last they'd ever expand due to the large amount of empires surrounding it. Nejd was one of the poorest countries in the world, reliant on limited agriculture. However, in 1938, oil was discovered on the coast of eastern Nejd. This raised foreign interest in Nejd to an extreme and Nejd got extremely rich extremely quickly. In 1953, Saud of Nejd succeeded on his father's death, however he was deposed by his half-brother, Nejd. By 1976, Saudi Arabia had become the largest oil producer in the world. Much of France's allies had developed close ties with Nejd, giving them huge oil access.