1 Overview Flashcards
Where did the term Middle East come from?
Around 1900.
The Near East (Ottoman + Levant) and the Far East (China, Japan and IndoChina) had been defined.
What do Arabs call the Persian Gulf?
Arabian Gulf
What countries will we include in Middle East and North Africa?
What are the criteria for inclusion?
Arabic language and Muslim majority
What is the one exception?
Israel
Why isn’t Iran included?
language = Farsi
Why isn’t Turkey included?
Turkish language
Who was Muhammad Abduh?
1849-1905
An Islamic Modernist
Where was Abduh born?
Egypt.
He was a product of the Ottoman Empire.
What was his stance?
Muslims don’t know their own religion and are ruled by despots.
What was the Ottoman Empire in 1900?
What eventually broke up the Ottoman Empire?
Nationalism
A dozen states were created out of it in 1923.
Who were the Young Turks?
Arabs who convened in opposition to the Ottoman Sultan rule
What happened after the Young Turks protested in Constantinople?
The Sultan restored the Constitution of 1878.
Constantinople became Istanbul in 1930
When did the first Arab Congress meet?
1913 in Paris
What did they discuss?
Arab autonomy within the Ottoman Empire.
What was the Zionist Conference?
A Jewish nationalist group which first met in Basel in 1897.
Who led the Zionist Conference?
Theodore Herzl
What first led to European involvement in the Middle East?
Napolean’s invasions of Egypt and Syria in 1798-99
What happened next?
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
Who originally owned the Suez Canal?
France 52%. Egypt 44%
How did ownership change in 1875?
Egypt had a financial crisis and sold their share to Britain.
What was the next step in European control?
France invaded Algeria and Tunisia in 1880/1.
What did France invade Algieria?
To stop the Barbery pirates and to appease Napoleonic War veterans.
Who was king of France when they invaded Algeria?
Charles X, the end of the Bourbon restoration
What had Britain done in 1839?
Siezed control of Aden (now in Yemen) to secure lines to India.
What happened in Egypt in 1882?
Britain invaded to secure the Suez Canal.
What was Britain’s next step after Egypt?
They invaded Sudan in 1882 to recover lost Egyptian land.
What did Kuwait do in 1898?
It agreed to become a British Protectorate.
Britain needed secure route to India.
What was the religious make up of the ME & N Africa in 1900?
Majority Muslim + Berber + Armenian + Jews
What was the most remote part of ME & NA?
The Arabian peninsula
When did oil enter the picture?
It was discovered in Iran in 1901.
When was it discovered in an Arab country?
1908 in Iraq.
What was the result of WW1?
4 empires collapsed:
Ottoman, German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian
