Everything Changed With The First World War (WWI)

“Everything changed with the First World War. The Middle East was reorganized, redefined, and the seeds were planted for a century of bloodshed” (Engel, 2016)
The concept of the nations-states in Al Jazira (The Arabian Peninsula) is dominantly a post-World War I (WWI) phenomenon. The beginning of statehood in the Arabian region could be traced back to Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798. Though his occupation ended within three years, it laid the foundation of Egyptian independence from the Ottoman empire, and started a European competition to occupy and overthrow the Ottomans. It is with the decline of the Ottoman empire, that the region became a victim of European imperial powers, and it soon witnessed the formation of independent states in its region
The British and the French agreement lead to the formation of states that came to be known as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan and Palestine, while the Turkish areas of the empire became the state of Turkey (Halliday, 2005). These borders were drawn with neither topography nor demography in mind, since imperial powers had no intensions in understanding the cultures, religions, races, and identities that existed in the region. With newly drawn borders, the process of state building was started under strict imperial measures. Borders separated large populations of similar people, leading to revolts and revolutions that are ongoing even today. For instance, approximately 25 million Kurds were divided between four new states: Iran, Iraq Turkey, and Syria (Scheinmann, 2013). Matters were further complicated with the Balfour declaration that gave birth to the Zionist Jewish land of Israel (Rogan, 2013). The region’s lack of collective diplomatic wisdom turned out to be the biggest weakness while handling the Palestine crisis which made it relatively easier for Britain to create the state of Israel (Rogan,