Village Hidden Among Sand
Sunagakure (
?? Sunagakure no Sato?, literally "Village Hidden Among Sand" or "Village Hidden in the Sand") is one of the five great ninja villages, and as such has a Kage, known as the Kazekage, as its leader. With its military forces being scaled down by the Land of Wind's feudal lord, the Fourth Kazekage realized that they had to increase the quality of each ninja to maintain a military force (Gaara is just one result of that).
Sunagakure
As more time passed, the lord started commissioning Konoha with requests he should have been making to Sunagakure. On top of that, he began cutting back on Sunagakure's budget. The Fourth Kazekage realized that if he didn't act quickly, Sunagakure would be in danger of disappearing, so he joined forces with Otogakure in an attempt to destroy Konoha and force the lord to re-establish Sunagakure's military force if he wished for his country to continue existing. With the failure of the attack and the death of the Fourth Kazekage, Sunagakure reallied with Konoha. (And in the "Time Skip" Gaara eventually became the Fifth Kazekage.)