Some of the states were created on a more solid foundation than others, but they were all invented over the last century. The point is that there is nothing natural about any of the Middle Eastern borders. They tried to solve the problem by creating a Jewish state in a place no state had existed for almost 2,000 years and giving Jordan authority over the Palestinian-majority West Bank. The British also promised the Jews a state on the other side of the Jordan-while promising the Arabs there would be no Jewish state. “Trans” was later dropped from the name, and it became simply Jordan. Lacking a name for the region surrounding Amman, the British called it Transjordan and arbitrarily drew border lines in the desert. Sharif Hussein’s younger son, Abdullah, was sent to Amman, a small town on the east bank of the Jordan River. The British had a relationship with the Hashemite patriarch, Sharif Hussein, and they gave his elder son, Faisal I, the kingdom of Iraq. The Sauds sought to reconquer them to establish their dominion over as much of the peninsula as possible. When the Sauds defeated the Rashidis shortly after World War I, two major tribal confederations remained in the peninsula led by Sauds and Hashemites. The British had supported an Arab insurgency against the Ottomans in the Arabian Peninsula. So they carved out the southwestern portion of Syria and named it after the major mountain there, Lebanon. However, they had backed the Maronite Christians in a prior civil war and wanted them to have their own state. The French took the northwest portion and consolidated it into one large state, Syria. It is important to understand how artificial these entities were. They divided the region into five states: Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, and Lebanon. The Europeans believed in the European-style nation-state as devoutly as if it were a religion. But they did not simply divide the prize the area was consolidated in a configuration that had never existed before.Ĭompare the map of the Ottoman provinces with the map the Europeans imposed. The subsequent fragmentation of the empire laid the groundwork for the emergence of the modern Middle East.Īfter World War I, the victorious powers divided the Middle East region under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Ottomans could win battles, but their empire couldn’t survive the war. While the European and Russian empires participated in the industrial revolution, the Ottomans did not.Īnd World War I was an industrial war. The Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I primarily due to a single weakness. The latest and most important from our point of view was the Ottoman Empire. Moments of peace in both the mountains and the lowlands only occurred when one of the mountain nations was militarily and economically victorious and spread its influence south into what is today the Arab world. These conflicts are ancient and repeat themselves. But cultural differences result in conflicts between them. The outcome is that mountain regions around the world-like the Caucasus, Balkans, or Appalachians-tend to protect unique cultures from annihilation. Mountains give the advantage to the defender, and unless a region is strategically critical, the conquerors will leave them alone. Aggressors may control the main roads and mountain passes, but going into every valley is impossible. The mountainous northern region has highly diversified cultures and religions, and the terrain makes it difficult to conquer completely. On the lowlands, it’s relatively easy for conquerors to come and go, transforming the population to reflect their values along the way. The lowlands are mainly desert and relatively underpopulated, which means that aggression was limited to low-level conflicts. The previous two maps show why all attempted conquests have failed to some degree. Each group had the strength to survive but lacked strength to conquer the others. The Ottomans, therefore, left the Middle East in a chaotic jumble of ethnic groups tied to various religions after World War I. The Ottomans dominated this region for centuries.īut unlike Muslim and Christian conquerors, they didn't pursue religious uniformity by force… as long as people pledged their allegiance to the Ottomans. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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