WHII.19

=media type="custom" key="29538825" align="right"= =**Identify the major developments in the Middle East before World War II**=
 * **

Topics on the Page

 * 1) ** The end of the Ottoman Empire **
 * 2) ** The Balfour Declaration of 1917 **
 * 3) ** The expulsion of the Greeks from Asia Minor **
 * 4) ** The establishment of a secular Turkish state under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk **
 * 5) ** The establishment of the Kingdom of Transjordan in the eastern part of the Palestine Mandate by the British **
 * 6) ** The growing importance of Middle Eastern oil fields to world politics and the world economy **
 * **See Special Topic Page on Oil in Central Asia**
 * **See Historical Biography Page on Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab Revolt of 1916-18**



//**Focus Question**: How did the regional political landscape of the Middle East shift prior to WWII and what were the local and global implications of these changes?//
Click here for an interactive map of the Middle East in the early 20th century
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Hebrew_timeline.svg/200px-Hebrew_timeline.svg.png link="http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapsofwar.com%2Fimages%2FEMPIRE17.swf?gname=history-exchange"]]The Imperial History of the Middle East **, an interactive timeline covering 5000 years of history with a focus on different empires and rulers.

I. The end of the Ottoman Empire
media type="youtube" key="MawOLbHtnMY" width="560" height="315"

**[[image:Screen Shot 2018-01-03 at 2.30.48 PM.png]]See also AP World History Key Concept 6.2**

 * It's important to remember that the end of the Ottoman Empire didn't begin after World War I, but that the decline of the Ottoman Empire began much earlier, in the very early 1800s.**
 * For centuries, the Ottoman Empire was one of the largest multinational empires in Middle East history. At it's height it ruled modern day Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, western Arabia and Iraq. The ruling class was Turkish Sunni Muslims and their subjects include Shia Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Arab Christians, Jews and other religious minorities.
 * Overtime the Ottoman Empire declined due to economic problems, weak leadership, losses of territory in wars, civil unrest and ethnic violence between religious groups.
 * In the late 1800s the Ottoman Empire began a series of constitutional reform movements meant to appease social unrest over long-standing political inequalities.
 * These reforms, mainly dealing with the punishment of non-Turk criminals, served mainly to alienate those Ottoman Turks who had really liked their past rights, and incite desire for more political changes, as we'll see below.

This video on YouTube helps explain the Crimean War.
 * Conflict between empires also served to drain resources and incite political unrest.**
 * The Crimean War (1853-1856), while cementing an alliance with France and Great Britain, pitted the less-well-off Ottoman Empire against the Russian Empire.


 * By the late 1800s much of the Ottoman Empire's European territory had been lost.
 * In 1876 reformers took over and established a constitution, but the sultan they enthroned, Abdulhamid II, suspended the constitution our of fear of assassination and ruled authoritatively.
 * Both the constitutional reform and the withdrawal of that reform were dangerous to the larger imperial project-- constitutional law is, by the 18th-20th-century definition, the ruling of people **by their own consent.**
 * In reforming the system of government to a constitutional monarchy, the already-weakened Ottoman Empire risked losing many of the diverse peoples and territories they had left.
 * By revoking even the idea of constitutional reform, however, Abdulhamid II alienated not just the ethnic minorities in the area, but the young ethnic Turks as well, who had been large supporters of a constitutional monarchy.
 * Conflicts within the Ottoman Empire were serving to change the landscape of the governed in a way that would help put the final nail in the Ottoman Empire's coffin.
 * Young Turks sought change, and in 1908 they restored the constitution and deposed the sultan in 1909. They envisioned a Turkish state for all Turks. This was the beginning of trouble for the Armenians.
 * The Ottoman Empire sided with Germany in WWI, meanwhile the British responded by siding with Arab nationalists.
 * Governor of Makka declared Egypt independent from Ottoman rule in 1916 and the British soon seized Palestine.
 * The Ottoman Empire made peace with the Allies in 1918.
 * During the war, the Turks committed genocide against the Armenians. Approximately 1 million were killed and a half million were deported. (Otherwise referred to as ethnic cleansing.) (Notes from Spielvogel 2005)

Link to a page on the horrific treatment and de-humanization of women during the Armenian Genocide.


 * The decline of the Ottoman Empire, then, isn't so much brought about by World War I, as the social movements and later emergent international policies which are both the causes and results of World War I serve to finalize what had already been in decline for nearly a century**

II. The Balfour Declaration and its Implications
The [|Balfour Declaration of]1917 stated Britain’s support for creation a Jewish state in Palestine now that the Turks had been expelled from the region. It also said the rights of non-Jewish people should not be undermined. Consequently, many Jews fled to Palestine during the 1930s and in response to widespread religious persecutions in Europe. (Spielvogel, 2005)

Video on the Balfour Declaration. Both complete and short. (quick note on YouTube videos about Israel and Palestine--don't read or show the comments)

The Balfour Declaration:
 * 1) Garnered vast Jewish support for the War effort both in England and in the US, which had the largest populations of Jewish immigrants/residents.
 * 2) Obliged the US and Great Britain to guarantee and protect the newly-minted Israel, as well as its peoples.

In the ensuing conflict between Israel and Palestine, Great Britain would eventually drop out, leaving the US as Israel's sole guarantor, the foundation upon which the Israel/US relationship rests today. media type="youtube" key="1wo2TLlMhiw" width="560" height="315"

III. The expulsion of the Greeks from Asia Minor
At the end of WWI the Ottoman Empire collapsed, but the end of the war did not mean an end of conflict in the area. During the war, the Ottoman Turks had perpetrated a still-denied systematic genocide of the Armenian peoples living in the Ottoman Empire. After the war, nationalism in the area continued to be the spark that helped ignite other, similar conflicts, most particularly the violent expulsion of Orthodox Christian Greeks from Turkey.

A brief timeline:
 * In 1919, only Turkey was left under Ottoman control
 * Greece invaded and seized parts of the Anatolian Peninsula. This was while France and Britain were planning to carve up the Middle East.
 * Colonel Mustafa Kemal resigned from the army and ultimately called for a new Republic of Turkey.
 * By 1923 Kemal’s forces drove the Greeks out, in some places relying on violence and mass murders to force the Greeks to comply. Orthodox Christian landmarks, churches, etc were often desecrated or destroyed during this conflict, which is also known as the **Pontic Genocide.**
 * **Video** on the Pontic Genocide
 * Letters of the Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
 * Kidnapping Armenian Women

IV. The establishment of a secular Turkish state under [|Mustafa Kemal Attaturk], founder of the Republic of Turkey
[|The Turkish Constitution of 1921]

· Social Milestones o November 25, 1925 à Change of headgear and dress o November 30, 1925 à Closure of religious convents and dervish lodges. o June 21, 1934 à Law on Family Names o November 26, 1934 à Abolition of titles and by-names. · Legal Milestones o December 5, 1934 à Full political rights to women, to vote and be elected. o March 1, 1926 à Introduction of the new penal law modeled after the Italian penal code. o October 4, 1926 à Introduction of the new civil code modeled after the Swiss civil code. o February 5, 1937 à The inclusion of the principle of **laïcité** in the constitution.
 * After coming to power in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Attaturk's authoritarian government quickly moved to erase all traces of the Ottoman Empire.
 * Islamic law was banned in Turkish legal courts, a European style republican government was created and Turkish society was forcefully secularized.
 * All religious clothing was banned in public and everyone in society had to be fully Turkish for face government persecution.

**laicité: French term for secularism, more specifically political secularism, separating church and state.** · Educational Milestones o March 3, 1924 à The unification of education o November 1, 1928 à Adoption of the new Turkish alphabet o 1931 à Establishment of Turkish Language Association for regulating the Turkish language o 1932 à Establishment of Turkish Historical Society for research on history o January 1, 1928 à Establishment of Turkish Education Association for supporting children in financial need and contributing to the educational life.
 * Economic Milestones
 * July 24, 1923 à Abolition of the capitulations with the Treaty of Lausanne
 * 1924 à The Weekend Act
 * 1925 à Establishment of model farms
 * 1925 à The International Time and Calendar System
 * 1926 à The Obligation Law
 * 1926 à The Commercial Law
 * 1927 à Establishment of the Turkish State Railways
 * 1933 à The System of Measures
 * 1933 à First Five Year Development Plan
 * 1937 à Second Five Year Development Plan

V. The establishment of the Kingdom of TransJordan in the eastern part of the Palestine Mandate by the British


[|Click here] for a video about how the Middle East was divided by Europe.

Think you know your Middle Eastern mandates? Take this quiz and test your knowledge!

[|Text of the Palestine Mandate, 1922]
 * Palestine was not to become as Jewish as England is English.
 * Transjordan was to serve as land for the resettlement of Arabs once Palestine became a national home for Jews.

Many Jews around Europe responded to this controversial decision. One such was Theodor Herzl who wrote:
 * " The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilized countries—see, for instance, France—so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level. "

There was absolutely no intention of Transjordan becoming an independent state even though it had its own legal system, passports, and currency. (http://www.Palestinefacts.org 2007)

[|This article] details the lasting impacts of the British Mandates and how it is still causing conflict today.

VI. The growing importance of Middle Eastern oil fields to world politics and the world economy.

 * **See Special Topic Page on Oil in Central Asia**

(American 2004)
 * More than half of the world’s oil reserves are in the Middle East.
 * The U.S., especially, and much of the developed world relies on oil for:
 * Transportation (planes, cars, trains, buses, ships)
 * Production of electricity
 * Heating homes and businesses
 * Manufacturing industries (that would collapse without it)


 * The U.S., because of its strong need for and dependence on oil, has long sought a steady flow of cheap oil, and its position in the world is largely based on its ability to do so.
 * The problem with this scenario is that the Saudis are exporting Islamic militancy and the U.S. is essentially indirectly financing it.
 * Many Middle Eastern countries are also importing oil from Saudi Arabia.
 * The money for oil is essentially being funneled to terrorist organizations, meaning that the U.S. is actually on both sides of the “War on Terror.” (Braude 2006)

Click here for Charting the World's Oil to learn more about the world's oil and see maps from PBS's Frontline World.


 * Bibliography**

American, E (2004). The United States Should reduce Its Dependency on Middle East Oil. //The Middle East//, Retrieved March 8, 2007, from http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.helin.uri.edu/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=230&slb=KE&locID=prov75353&srchtp=basic&c=1&ste=17&tbst=ts_basic&tab=1&txb=the+united+states+should+reduce+its+dependency+on+middle+east+oil&docNum=X3010229251&fail=0&bConts=1 [Link requires login]

Braude, J (2006). Saudi Arabia Is Using Oil to Spread Islamic fundamentalism. //Oil//, Retrieved March 8, 2007, from http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.helin.uri.edu/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=230&slb=KE&locID=prov75353&srchtp=basic&c=1&ste=17&tbst=ts_basic&tab=1&txb=saudi+arabia+is+using+oil+to+spread+islamic+fundamentalism&docNum=X3010433231&fail=0&bConts=1 [Link requires login]

Isseroff, A (2003). British Mandate for Palestine. Retrieved March 7, 2007, from The Palestine Mandate of the League of Nations 1922 Web site (link no longer functioning): [|http://www.mideastweb.org.mandate.htm]

Isseroff, A (2005). The Balfour Declaration. Retrieved March 7, 2007, from Middle East Documents Balfour Declaration Web site: http://www.mideastweb.org/mebalfour.htm

palestinefacts.org, (2007). Creation of Transjordan. Retrieved March 7, 2007, from British Mandate Transjordan Web site: http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_transjordan.php

Spielvogel, Jackson J (2005). //Glencoe World History.// Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc