How Did World War 1 Affect The Middle East

The end of World War I had a powerful impact on the world. This was because the War not only changed how war was fought with the use of technology such as poisonous gases, tanks and machine guns. The War also changed the power structure of Europe due to the collapse of the British Empire because of debt, The Bolsheviks overthrowing Czar Nicholas of Russia thus ending the Russian Empire, the end of the Ottoman Empire and the Sykes-Picot Treaty which redrew the borders of the Middle East and has resulted in animosities that continue still today. In this paper I will look at nationalism in the Middle East following World War I.
Middle East Prior to the Start of World War I
When Middle Eastern nationalism first appeared in the Middle East it was
a reaction to the situation occurring in the Ottoman Empire. This was because the Ottoman Emperors like the people of the Arabic lands they possessed practiced Islam. This was a connection that all of the Ottoman lands in the Fertile Crescent embraced. The Arabic speaking Muslims in the area were extremely proud of their genealogies and the history of the people and their lands. This was the same for a number of other countries in the area, but the religion of Islam connected them despite their differences.
When the Ottoman Empire started to come to an end in the nineteenth century the connection between the Islamic countries began to weaken. The internal and external struggle in the Empire between the many European countries that were itching for the demise of the Empire and the Christians, who were not happy with being ruled by Muslims. The Ottoman Empire attempted reforms but to no avail and they lost most of their lands in Europe, North Africa and Egypt. The only regions left to the Ottoman’s were the Fertile Crescent, Arabia and the Anatolia areas. The loss of so much of the Ottoman power caused a large amount of discontent in the people of the region. This content would become known as the Arab Awakening.
The Arabic speaking Christians sought to make Arabic the language of the Christian missionaries, education, the written word and theatre.
There were also a number of conflicts amount the Muslim elites in regards to who the Ottoman Empire would promote in the government. This resulted in many of the major cities in the Ottoman Empire desiring to have more control over their regions affairs. The Arab Muslims sought to restore Islam to its former glory by creating a nation of Muslim Arabs. This awakening would be defeated by “its apologetic defense of traditions and religion”. During this period the Turkish speaking countries of the Ottoman Empire wanted to create for themselves a new identity as Turks. They wanted to have a country based on what they had seen in Europe and as the Ottoman Empire began to fall the Ottoman government pushed the Turkish language on its people. Although it was never made the official language this did cause discontent amongst the Arabic speaking people, who were afraid that they would have to give up their national identity and language. Meanwhile, the number of Jewish people arriving into the Ottoman Empire was alarming to many of the residents. The Empire itself had hoped that the new Jewish immigrants would be able to help the Empire, since they had in the past. The issue this time was that the Jewish people were not just coming and refugees or immigrants. They were coming with the desire to create their own country. This caused the people of
the Fertile Crescent and the surrounding area to fear that they would lose the lands of their ancestors to the Jews. Despite everything the people who were pushing for Arabism were not seeking Arab independence from the Ottoman Empire. They sought to handle the issues they had with the government locally. This would all change as a result of the first World War.
Nationalism in the Middle East After World War 1
The Ottoman Empire’s choice to fight the war on the side of the Central Powers led to their military defeat. When the War was over the allied countries tried to dominate the former Ottoman Empire by redrawing the Empire’s boundary lines to suit their needs. This was unsuccessful in the Anatolian area of the Empire where General Mustafa Kemal, who would later be known as Ataturk was leading the Turkish nationalist movement by resisting European domination of the area. Kremel ended the Ottoman Empire and created the new country of Turkey in 1923.
In the Fertile Crescent region things were a lot different as both Great Britain and France elected to divide the region up amongst themselves in the Sykes-Picot Agreement rather than allowing the people to govern their own land. The aforementioned European governments wanted to stake their claim to the regions wealth by imposing their government and culture upon the Middle East as a way to subjugate them to their own ideals. It was felt that subjugating the area to the will of Europe would make their plans for colonization much easier. The need for Europe to colonize the Fertile Crescent was the result of the oil that had been discovered in the area during the first World War. The League of Nations issued mandates giving Syria which had initially included Lebanon to France and the territories of Iraq and Palestine, which included Jordan and the not yet created country of Israel to Great Britain. As the Middle East was being divided up by members of the Allied Nations a nationalist movement was growing in the Arab world. This movement was continually put down by both the French and British governments. The mandate for Palestine permitted a large scale exodus of Jewish immigrants into the area in order to more easily facilitate the creation of the country of Israel. Also an attempt to establish an Arab government in Damascus was squashed by the French.
After the war the sons of the Sharif, the Emirs Faysal and Abdullah, who were supporters of the Arab Nationalism movement were able to make contact with the city of Damascus and recruited a number of Arab soldiers who had disserted the Ottoman army. In 1918 Faysal led his supporters into Damascus and formed an” Arab government” He then went to Versailles in 1919 asking that Arabic speaking people in Asia be recognized as an independent state and that ““no steps be taken inconsistent with the prospect of an eventual union of these areas under one sovereign government.”. In 1920 Faysal was declared king of the United Kingdom of Syria by the General Syrian Congress and an Iraqi Congress declared Irag independent and appointed Emir Abdullah king. The French government responded to this by driving Faysal out of Damascus. At the same time Britain began turning Palestine into Israel by supported expansive immigration and settlement efforts by the Jewish people. The first round of violence between Jews and Arabs in Palestine broke out in 1920 and continues to today.
Britain appointed Faysal King of Iraq and expanded some of Iraq’s borders. The British also created an emirate of Transjordan out of Palestine mandate and banned the land from Jewish immigration before giving it to Abdullah to rule. The Arab nationalist were unhappy with Both Britain and France because the land was not divided as they had wanted and Palestine and Syria had been denied their independence. The newly formed countries in the Fertile Crescent area of Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Transjordan had no history as the boundaries of each of these new countries was based on oil or strategic positioning.
Many of the people living in the Fertile Crescent did not identify themselves as being Arabs, but rather by their religious sect or genealogy.
In order to counter this the Arab nationalist decided to create a doctrine that made it impossible for the people not to identify as Arabs. They had decided to disregard the French form of governance and to create a government that was based on the German Volk, which was a government that was above human desires. They felt that they nation would only be restored to its former greatness if the country was unified. This unity would come at any cost even their freedom. In the 1930’s this doctrine had escalated into the idea of the nation as obedient soldiers who were willing to adhere to the motto of “obedience, sacrifice and solidarity”. As a result of the region’s growing militarism the newly independent country of Iraq became a military dictatorship in 1936 and in 1941 they went to war against Britain and
lost.
The concept and belief in the Arab nationalism movement grew immensely after the 1930’s when it became an idea that was indoctrinated into children at young ages. Beyond the schoolroom the push for Arab nationalism was everywhere, in the press, politics and on television. Eventually, Iraq’s adherence to Arab nationalism became a problem when the decided to go into Israel in 1948. Israel won the war and increased its lands. The actions of Iraq and the other Arab states were criticized by many and led to the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan in 1951 because of his willingness to deal with Israel. A revolutionary republic was established in Egypt in 1952, in 1958 a popular republic was established in Iraq after a bloody coup. Even desire for Arab nationalism eventually transformed into the region wanting to establish Islamic nationalism in the 1970’s. The quest for Islamic dominance continues today as the various sects of Islam fight for power in the Middle East