1 Overview

Question 1

Where did the term Middle East come from?

Answer 1

Around 1900.
The Near East (Ottoman + Levant) and the Far East (China, Japan and IndoChina) had been defined.

Question 2

What do Arabs call the Persian Gulf?

Answer 2

Arabian Gulf

Question 3

What countries will we include in Middle East and North Africa?

Answer 3

Question 4

What are the criteria for inclusion?

Answer 4

Arabic language and Muslim majority

Question 5

What is the one exception?

Answer 5

Israel

Question 6

Why isn’t Iran included?

Answer 6

language = Farsi

Question 7

Why isn’t Turkey included?

Answer 7

Turkish language

Question 8

Who was Muhammad Abduh?

Answer 8

1849-1905
An Islamic Modernist

Question 9

Where was Abduh born?

Answer 9

Egypt.
He was a product of the Ottoman Empire.

Question 10

What was his stance?

Answer 10

Muslims don’t know their own religion and are ruled by despots.

Question 11

What was the Ottoman Empire in 1900?

Answer 11

Question 12

What eventually broke up the Ottoman Empire?

Answer 12

Nationalism

A dozen states were created out of it in 1923.

Question 13

Who were the Young Turks?

Answer 13

Arabs who convened in opposition to the Ottoman Sultan rule

Question 14

What happened after the Young Turks protested in Constantinople?

Answer 14

The Sultan restored the Constitution of 1878.

Constantinople became Istanbul in 1930

Question 15

When did the first Arab Congress meet?

Answer 15

1913 in Paris

Question 16

What did they discuss?

Answer 16

Arab autonomy within the Ottoman Empire.

Question 17

What was the Zionist Conference?

Answer 17

A Jewish nationalist group which first met in Basel in 1897.

Question 18

Who led the Zionist Conference?

Answer 18

Theodore Herzl

Question 19

What first led to European involvement in the Middle East?

Answer 19

Napolean’s invasions of Egypt and Syria in 1798-99

Question 20

What happened next?

Answer 20

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

Question 21

Who originally owned the Suez Canal?

Answer 21

France 52%. Egypt 44%

Question 22

How did ownership change in 1875?

Answer 22

Egypt had a financial crisis and sold their share to Britain.

Question 23

What was the next step in European control?

Answer 23

France invaded Algeria and Tunisia in 1880/1.

Question 24

What did France invade Algieria?

Answer 24

To stop the Barbery pirates and to appease Napoleonic War veterans.

Question 25

Who was king of France when they invaded Algeria?

Answer 25

Charles X, the end of the Bourbon restoration

Question 26

What had Britain done in 1839?

Answer 26

Siezed control of Aden (now in Yemen) to secure lines to India.

Question 27

What happened in Egypt in 1882?

Answer 27

Britain invaded to secure the Suez Canal.

Question 28

What was Britain’s next step after Egypt?

Answer 28

They invaded Sudan in 1882 to recover lost Egyptian land.

Question 29

What did Kuwait do in 1898?

Answer 29

It agreed to become a British Protectorate.

Britain needed secure route to India.

Question 30

What was the religious make up of the ME & N Africa in 1900?

Answer 30

Majority Muslim + Berber + Armenian + Jews

Question 31

What was the most remote part of ME & NA?

Answer 31

The Arabian peninsula

Question 32

When did oil enter the picture?

Answer 32

It was discovered in Iran in 1901.

Question 33

When was it discovered in an Arab country?

Answer 33

1908 in Iraq.

Question 34

What was the result of WW1?

Answer 34

4 empires collapsed:
Ottoman, German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian