New Nations in the Middle EastSOCIAL STUDIES FOR 9 T H EGBTEACHER: MAURICIO TORRES

The Ottoman Losses

Birth of a Turkish State

• World War One did not go with for the Ottomans: – Invaded by European powers

and revolted against by the Arabs, the Ottoman Empire essentially ceased to exist by the time the war was over in 1918.

– An ultra-nationalist Turkish leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, took power in what was now known as Turkey, and declared it a purely Turkish state.

Arab Lands

• The British and French had simultaneously decided to divide up the Arab world between Britain and France. Arbitrary lines were drawn on the map to divide up the Arab world into new states called Transjordan, Syria, Iraq (Mesopotamia), Lebanon, and Palestine.

• Zionist Jews were encouraged to settle in Palestine, creating a new Jewish state – Israel.

• Egypt continued under British domination to become its own nation, separate from the rest of the Arab world.

French Mandates

• Syria and Lebanon became a French protectorate (an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity) under the Treaty of Sèvres.– The French mandate of Syria lasted

until 1943, when two independent countries emerged from the mandate period, Syria and Lebanon.

British Mandate

• The British were awarded three mandated territories: – Mesopotamia: Faisal was installed as King of Iraq

and Transjordan. – Mandatory Palestine was placed under direct

British administration, and the Jewish population was allowed to increase, initially under British protection (Sykes–Picot Agreement). • It conflicted with T.E. Lawrence’s promise of an

Arab state during WWI.

– Most of the Arabian peninsula fell to another British ally, Ibn Saud, who created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

Mandate System Countries

French Mandate

• Syria

• Lebanon

English Mandate

• Iraq (Mesopotamia)

• Palestine/Israel

• Saudi Arabia

Middle East after the OttomansThe map to the right is how the Middle East was reshaped after new countries were carved out of the Ottoman Empire.

New Countries

Country Previously under Established

Syria (State of) French Mandate 1 December 1924

Lebanon (Greater) French Mandate 1 September 1920

Turkey (Republic of) Ottoman Empire 29 October 1923

Iraq English Mandate 3 October 1932

Saudi Arabia (Kingdom was later unified) English Mandate 20 May 1927

Egypt U.K. 28 February 1922

Mandate problems• During the 1920s and '30s Iraq, Syria and

Egypt moved towards independence, although the British and French did not formally depart the region until after World War II.

• But in Palestine, the conflicting forces of Arab nationalism and Zionism created a situation which the British could neither resolve nor extricate themselves from. – The rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany

created a new urgency in the Zionist quest to create a Jewish state in Palestine (Balfour Declaration).