The Situation in the Middle East in the
20th Century - Turkey, Israel, and Egypt
Middle East - Turkey - p.1
• The 20th Century sees the end of the last LARGE
Muslim empire in the Middle East --- The Ottoman
Empire is in decline and fought on the losing side in
WWI. Britain and France colonized the parts of the
empire that rebelled against the Young Turks.
• The Ottoman Society for Union and Progress, AKA
Young Turks, took over the Ottoman Empire in a
nearly bloodless coup in 1908. They tried hard-handed
methods to keep the empire intact, but failed.
• The Young Turks took their anger out on the minority
Armenian people living on Turkish lands for their WWI
loses to the Russians. Some Armenians, being
Christians, had indeed backed the Russians(because
the Turks had engaged in pogroms in the past against
them). In 1915, a genocide ensues - an estimated one
million Armenians are killed.
Armenian Genocide Victims
ME - Turkey - p.2
• After WWI, Greece and Italy attacked the
regions around Istanbul with intent of
partitioning the remnants of the Ottoman
Empire - similar to what Britain and France
had done.
• However, skilled military commander Mustafa
Kemal, AKA Ataturk beat back the Greeks
and he is considered the father of modern
Turkey.
• Turkey was established as an independent
republic in 1923. Ataturk introduced many
reforms in an attempt to secularize and
modernize Turkey after Western precedents.
Young Turks
Zionism - p.1
• Former Ottoman lands, as previously mentioned, were
divided between France and England. This was a
betrayal because the Arabs were promised
independence if they helped fight against the
Ottomans.
• The French and the British formed mandates out of
Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon - and got a lot of resistance
from them. But what really angered them was the
British promising a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
• Lord Balfour, the British foreign secretary,had
promised prominent Zionist leaders in 1917 that Great
Britain would help promote the establishment of a
Jewish homeland in Palestine after the war. This
became known as the Balfour Declaration. No one
wanted the Arab’s opinion on this.
Sykes-Picot Agreement - 1916
Ottoman Territory taken by the
French and British
Zionism - p.2
• Zionism started in the late 19th century when Jewish
intellectuals, such as Leon Pinsker, argued that
Jewish assimilation into the Christian European
culture was impossible as evidenced by the frequent
Russian and Romanian pogroms(violent assaults on
Jewish communities). The solution - immigrate to
Palestine.
• Western European Jews enjoyed more rights than
those in the East and generally opposed Zionism until
the Dreyfus affair. In 1894,Alfred Dreyfus was a
French military officer falsely accused of passing
secrets to the Germans. French mobs shouting
“Death to the Jews” shocked Austrian journalist
Theodor Herzl, who later went on to found the World
Zionist Organization. The purpose of the WZO was
to promote Jewish migration and settlement of
Palestine until a point that a Jewish state could be
established.
Theodor Herzl - founder of the World
Zionist Organization
Zionism - p.3
• The British eventually saw that their double
betrayal(not allowing Arab independence and
promising their land to Zionists) resulted in increasing
Arab hostility.
• The British stopped encouraging Jewish immigration
which led to the Zionist mistrusting the British and
taking charge of their own security against the
increasingly violent Arab reaction to Jewish settlers.
• World War II and Hitler’s genocidal program against the
Jews intensified the Zionist’s resolve to create a Jewish
state. Great Britain tried to restrict Jewish immigration
to pacify the Arabs. The Zionists went underground and
formed the Haganah, a military force intent on driving
the British from Palestine.
• The British - being attacked by both sides - wanted
nothing more than to cut their losses and leave
Palestine. A 1937 British inquiry suggested a possible
solution - partition Palestine
Creation of Israel
• In 1948 - with rare agreement between the USA an USSR - the
newly formed United Nations agreed to partition Palestine into
Jewish and Arab countries with Jerusalem becoming an
international zone.
• The neighboring Arab states vehemently opposed the United
Nation’s actions and soon both sides were engaged in all-out
warfare. But now - there is a new nation - Israel.
• As a result of their initial loss against the Israelis, there are
hundreds of thousands Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria,
Jordan, Egypt, and other Muslim lands.
• Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat created the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) which has continually fought until
present day against Israel.
• Too many wars to list here, too complex of a situation to present
in a brief fashion - but to sum it up, the Arab-Israeli conflict is a
major flashpoint in the world today. Extremists on both sides
thwart efforts for peace through terrorists acts and
assassinations.
Yasser Arafat - PLO leader
1929-2004
The Partitioning of Palestine
!
BLUE = Jewish lands
!
Orange = Palestinian lands
!
White = International Zone which
Includes Jerusalem
A political cartoon depicting the condition of Palestine after
the rise of Hamas as the voice of the Palestinians.
Egypt - p.1
• In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt. Why? Not for
designs of colonizing Egypt, but as a prelude to
destroying British power in India - a place where
British and French troops fought for in earlier wars for
empires(see 1757 Battle of Plassey)
• Egypt at the time was a vassal of the Ottoman sultans
ruled by the former slaves called Mamluks. The
Mamluk leader, Murad, blew-off Napoleon as an
insignificant menace that could be easily crushed WRONG!
• The Mamluks in their medieval armor and carrying
spears on horseback against French artillery. A short
battle. Later, the French fleet was destroyed by the
British and Egypt was spared European colonization for a while.
• The Muslim world was shocked that the Mamluks
were defeated so badly, they were the Muslim’s most
fearsome fighters - they had fallen behind the West.
Egypt - p.2
• In 1801, a young Mamluk officer of Albanian origins
named Muhammad Ali emerged as the ruler of
Egypt. Impressed by the weapons and discipline of
the French armies, he devoted his time to build-up a
European style army. He did so and used it to harass
their former overlords, the Ottomans.
• Despite his other reforms to modernize Egypt, Ali’s
efforts fell short of transforming Egyptian society. But
the growing of cotton, hemp, indigo, and other crops
to be exported to Europe left Egypt vulnerable to
European designs.
• Muhammad Ali started a dynasty known as the
khedives that ruled Egypt from 1867 to 1952. In
1952, a military coup overthrew the khedives and
Gamel Abdul Nasser came into power.
Egypt - p.3
• The khedives spent much of their earnings through the sale of
cash crops(cotton) on idle pleasures of palace life. Meanwhile,
Egypt is growing cotton for export instead of food - their economy
is based on European demand(and price) for cotton. The
khedives were growing further in debt to French and British
bankers.
• Thus, the bankers pay the khedives for a share in the control of
the Suez Canal that was completed in 1869.
• The Suez Canal - a link between the Mediterranean and Red
Seas; and a link between Europe and its colonial possessions in
Asia and east Africa - transforms Egypt into one of the most
strategic spots on earth.
• The Europeans now control the canal, and Islamic scholars are
grumbling.
• When an Egyptian officer Ahmad Orabi mounts a revolt against
the khedives, the khedives turn to the British for help. The British
crush the revolt and now have an occupying military force.
• Although Britain does not formally colonize Egypt, it becomes
under British control with a puppet khedive regime.
Mahdist Revolt
• The British rule Egypt; the khedives are weak
and corrupt. In the late 1870s, the people of
the Sudan were deeply resentful of British
intervention and Egyptian oppression.
• A leader emerges in one Muhammad
Achmad - who is seen as a promise deliverer,
or Mahdi. He wages a jihad, or holy war,
against the Egyptian heretics and British
infidels. He has several successes and at the
height of his power, dies of typhus.
• In 1896, the British General Kitchener was
sent to put down the revolt; and in 1898 was
successful.
• The British advanced further into Africa;
Islam’s good fortune is in reverse.
Muhammad Achmad
Suez Canal from Space
Map of the Suez Canal
Ship traversing the Suez Canal
Egypt during WW1
• To protect the Suez Canal, Great Britain
instituted martial law in Egypt. Martial law
usually includes restrictions of the rights of
people to include the ability to make money or
move freely within your own country.
• The British also used Egypt as a staging area
for its troops before they embarked against
Ottoman forces - a drain on the Egyptian
economy.
• Forced labor and confiscations of the
peasants animals make things worse.
• So, food shortages, spiraling inflation, and
starvation in some places made Egypt ripe for
a revolt.
Egypt after WW1
• When a delegation(waf’d in Arabic) of Egyptian
leaders were denied permission to travel to France to
plead their case for self-determination - the leaders
resigned from the government and called for a mass
demonstration.
• The resulting insurrection shocked the British into
hearing the Egyptian demands and created a Wafd
party.
• The Wafd began negotiations with the British for their
withdrawal.
• The Wafd, however, did little to create social change
in Egypt and it was not until the social revolution and
military coup by Nasser in 1952 did any significant
change in Egypt occur.