Quaestio How did WWI impact the Middle East

Quaestio: How did WWI impact the Middle East, and how are we still affected by it today? Nunc Agenda: When you think of the modern Middle East, do you associate the region with conflict? If so, can you identify any conflicts in particular that come to mind?

• Russians want Constantinople and the Dardanelles • French want the Mediterranean Coast (Levant) • British want area near Egypt to protect their Suez Canal and Southern Mesopotamia for the oil

Arab Revolt!

British sought the support of Arab nationalists to lead a joint revolt against the Ottomans. In return, the Arabs were promised they would be given Arab territories free of Ottoman control.

Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali He and his sons would rule the New Arab State Descendant of Prophet Muhammad TE Lawrence “of Arabia” British Liaison Working with Arab Rebels

Some Arabs saw the Arab Revolt as justified rebellion against the non-Arab and non-religious Turkish government. Others saw it as a betrayal of the rightful Ottoman Calipate

Feisal bin Hussein Sharif’s son

What is Zionism? Nationalist movement for the establishment of a state as a homeland for the Jewish people, preferably in Palestine, where the Jews originated and briefly ruled

British were open to a state for the Jews in Palestine because • Some key Bolshevik Russian leaders were Jewish and they wanted the Russia as an ally • Irish and German Americans hated Britain, so they wanted Chaim Weizmann to influence Wilson’s Zionist Influential Jewish British Biochemist who made advisors to support Britain discoveries that helped • It would be nice to have a the British war effort, state they could control next worked to convinced to the Suez Canal British of Zionism and became first President • Make it like Biblical times! of the State of Israel

Zionist Jewish Settlers in Kibbutz in Palestine Zionist Jews began to move from European countries like Russia and Poland to settle in Palestine and make new lives

Alternate Map proposed by TE Lawrence • Includes area for the Kurds • Includes a state for ethnic Armenians • Includes a state of Palestine

Feisal bin Hussein Sharif’s son

French Division of Syria Lebanon Intended to be a Christian State

Modern Conflicts • ISIS specifically referenced wanted to destroy Sykes-Picot by uniting Iraq and Syria across “false borders” • Current Alawite rule over Sunni majority in Syria led to conflict • Conflicts between Sunni and Shia in Iraq and elsewhere has led to conflict • Israelis and Palestinians dispute who should have control of the country, with violent attacks and wars taking place over the decades • Kurds minorities in several countries, oppression and conflict common • Iraq under Saddam Hussein ethnic cleansing of Kurds • Kurdish terrorist groups attack in Turkey

Modern Conflicts The following map is a 2006 proposed plan to redrawn the borders of the Middle East by Ralph Peters, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel, author, and Fox News commentator. It was original published in the Armed Forces journal in an article titled Blood borders: How a better Middle East would look. Would this be better? Should Western nations try to intervene and convince/force the Middle East into this new arrangement?