History of the Middle East

1. History of the Middle East

2. The SilkRoad

3. The SilkRoad • All major trade routes go through the Middle East • Whoever controlsthe region charges fees on everything that travelsthrough. • Huge amounts of wealth flow into the Middle East through trade. And Cultural Diffusion begins to take place amongst Eurasia. • Most notable items traded: • Silk • Food (Ex. Rice ending up in Persia) • Spices • Cultures

5. Mesopotamia---The Sumerians • Land between the Tigris and Euphrates river in today’s Iraq, NE Syria, SE Turkey, & SW Iran • First civilization in the world- Sumer (Sumerians) • Had city-states with kings • Agricultural society • Rivers flooded frequently • Writing system= Cuneiform (picture symbols) • Inventions= aqueducts, dams, chariots, sailboats, wheels, checkers • Ziggurat= high temple to worship the gods • Polytheistic- believed in many gods

6. Legacy of Mesopotamia • First to develop a system of writing and a set of written laws

7. Hammurabi’s Empire (1792-1750 B.C.) • King of Babylon • United most of Mesopotamia • Code of Hammurabi (laws carved on stone around the cities; an eye for an eye) • Babylonian Empire collapsed when the Hittites, people from the area of Turkey, invaded

9. Other Groups in the Fertile Crescent Area • Phoenicians-created own writing system • Assyrians-war-like • Assyrian Empire was overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar II

11. Palestine was part of the Arabic empire in the period up to the 1500s.

12. Then Palestine became part of the Ottoman Empire (1500s to 1918)

13. How did the Ottoman Empire begin? • Most powerful empire in the world during the 1500's and 1600's • began about 1300 and lasted until 1922 • slowly declined only after 1700 • Most famous Ottoman leader- Suleyman the Magnificent

14. Ottoman Empire at its strongest

15. In 1918 the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Arab parts were taken over by Britain and France as ‘Protectorates’. This was not what the Arab soldiers who had supported Britain in World War I had expected. They felt betrayed, but worse was to come.

16. The dividing up of the Middle East after World War I.

17. Palestine in 1920

18. The flag of the British Mandate over Palestine

19. The British mandate of Palestine-1923 The area labeled ‘Palestine’ by 1936 had become a war zone with regular clashes between Arab and Jewish settlers. By 1939 however the Arabs were completely repressed by the harsh British military presence. A Jewish military was being encouraged, and the partition of Palestine would seem to be an acceptable solution along the line shown on this map.

20. Once Britain took over control of Palestine, the number of Jewish settlers increased dramatically. They settled in the green areas marked on the map. The Arab felt they were losing their country.

21. World war II • The discovery of Hitler’s death camps profoundly shocked the world and highlighted the case of the Jewish people who had survived. • Many Jewish people began seeking refuge in Palestine. • The Arab states near Palestine were, meanwhile, throwing off colonial rule and getting together to preserve Palestine for the Arabs.

22. Jewish refugees arriving in Palestine

23. A Jewish refugee center- 1947

24. Orange marks Jewish settlers’ land. Yellow marks Arab Palestinian land.

25. The Arab League • The Arab states now combined together to form the “Arab league” • The Arab league consisted of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and it became a formidable Arab force arranged against the Jewish settlers.

26. The Arab league today (in green) and Israel in blue. This huge imbalance between the Jewish settlers in 1947 and their Arab adversaries has changed little.

27. The United Nations Plan of 1947 • The world was sick of war by 1945 and the prospect of another starting in the Middle East cheered no-one up. • The United nations decided to partition Palestine as a way to separate the warring Arabic and Jewish peoples. • Neither the British, nor the United Nations implemented this plan, and the cavalier way in which it was seen to be an outside imposition did not appeal to Jew or Arab. • British limits on immigration also further angered Zionist groups. • The rejection of the plan laid the path for the Arab-Israeli war of 1948

28. The UN Plan for partition 1947

29. The refugee ship ‘Exodus’. Meanwhile Jewish refugees continued to arrive from war-torn Europe. Many arrived with, or without, British permission to land. This was like adding gas to a fire. It would make it burst into flame.

30. Post- WWII Due to the Holocaust, the United Nations started allowing Jews to migrate to Palestine again U.N. agreed to create Israel as a country—1948 Many Muslims (Palestinians) became angry and violence started between the 2 groups Several wars West Bank & Gaza Strip were created for the Palestinians

31. The Palestinians (Arabs) set up a more efficient organization to promote itself in 1964- with the assistance of the Arab League (all the Arab nations). This was the PLO – or Palestinian Liberation Organization, based originally on the West Bank Flag of the PLO-Palestinian Liberation Organization. By Arabs the PLO were seen as freedom fighters. By Jewish settlers the PLO were seen as terrorists. Yasser Arafat- leader of the PLO from 1968 onwards.

32. Hamas-the Arabic Palestinian terror army or Palestinian freedom fighters?

33. 25 foot wall built to separate Israel & Palestinian territories

34. Modern Times Iran-Iraq War (1979-1988) Kurds (1984) Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) Afghanistan under Taliban control & Afghanistan today Iraq (2003-today) Iran--Nukes But this is for another day 