The fall of the Ottoman Empire fueled a strong dispute between European powers, forcing the Ottomans to form alliances with some European countries to prevent foreign invasions and occupations.
Middle East | Ottoman Empire
Fall of the Ottoman Empire and Consequences
With the rise of Islam, there was greater acceptance regarding the institution of caliphates and dynasties, despite the religious ramifications present between Sunnis and Shiites and their respective subdivisions. The Ottoman Empire, the last Islamic empire, was at the height of its conquests between the years 1453 and 1683, so that it extended its domain to North Africa, established its naval presence in the Red Sea, gained control of Mesopotamia, achieved naval access in the Persian Gulf and became the major naval force controlling much of the Mediterranean Sea. At the end of the reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent (1520-1566), its population reached 15 million people.
The fall of the Ottoman Empire fueled a strong dispute between European powers, forcing the Ottomans to form alliances with some European countries to prevent foreign invasions and occupations.
Having been the fundamental unifying force of the Islamic world for centuries, the fall of the Ottoman Empire ushered in a period of disorder and lack of leadership in the Middle East. It is worth highlighting another event that had consequences for the region, for example, the extinction of the caliphate after the First World War, which encouraged nationalism in some Arab countries, especially in Turkey. On the other hand, the lack of strong leadership weakened imperial institutions. Therefore, this scenario encouraged European powers, such as France and Great Britain, to occupy the region through long colonization, as they intended to protect their interests in the Suez Canal and other rich territories. As an example, we can cite the year 1882, when Great Britain occupied Egypt with the “justification” of reestablishing order; in 1830, France occupied Algeria and, in 1881, Tunisia; in 1912, Italy took Libya. It is worth mentioning that colonization has specific reasons, which can be:
Ideological and Religious Objectives: after Islamic conquerors occupied the Middle East and part of the European continent in Andalusia and Eastern Europe, there were Christian campaigns to recover some of the territories of Spain and Palestine during the event that became known as “The Crusades” and the “Regain”;
Political and Military Objectives: still constitutes an important factor for wars, the outcome of which for the winner would be to occupy territories and strengthen their military and political capabilities;
Economic Objectives: this is the motivating reason for great powers. Let us remember that the expanding economic potential and demographic growth were determining reasons that drove the colonization campaigns, whose objective was to expand their market capacity and human and natural resources for prosperous industries. This motivation has given rise to other forms of colonization, or “neocolonialism,” in which developed countries, through allied local governments and international systems, continue to control developing countries.
Regarding the types of colonization, we can mention the means that were used to occupy large territories, subject their population and leaders to central authority and exploit their natural and human resources. Are they:
Commercial Colonization (or commercial counters): this type of subjugation was carried out especially by the Phoenicians in the main cities on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea with the aim of extending commercial activity through the sale of industrial products to native populations and the purchase of local products;
Colonization of Settlements: with the purpose of establishing populations from the colonial metropolis within the occupied territories, where they can obtain numerous privileges to the detriment of the local population (it was carried out by the French in Algeria). This type of colonization aims to change the identity of cities and local territories, imposing a new identity;
Plantation Colonies: when the metropolitan population exercised dominance in economic and social activity, while the vast majority of workers were slaves of indigenous populations. In this type of colonization there was support from the military presence to defend the interests of the metropolitan population;
Protectorates: in this case, the protective power assumes the administration of the State's army and diplomacy, while other national institutions are controlled by national citizens. This type of colonization was observed when France exercised dominance in Morocco and Tunisia;
Mandates: to exemplify this type of colonization, just remember the Treaty of Versailles, concluded at the end of the First World War between the main European powers, which divided some of the territories in the Middle East among themselves. France occupied Syria and Lebanon, while Britain took control of Iraq and Palestine. We should also mention the Sykes-Picot Agreement, agreed in 1916 between France and Great Britain, which established the division of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire outside the Arabian Peninsula between the two powers.
Evolution of Colonization
Great Britain
English maritime dominance during the 19th century fostered the development of its colonial empire, which expanded its control thanks to maritime routes, whose important points were located in West Africa, the Cape of South Africa, East Africa and India. Britain also controlled the Straits of Malacca and Hong Kong. In 1869, with the opening of the Suez Canal, another sea route of great importance was added, opening up a range of possibilities and benefits, such as, for example, reducing travel time and costs to India. It is worth mentioning other facilities: he intensified control through the acquisition of Cyprus (1878), military occupation of Egypt (1882) and the establishment of protectorates in Aden (1838) and British Somalia (1884). Another factor that facilitated British rule was its presence in the colonies due to flows of British migrants and the increase in Christian missionary groups, which enabled the spread of British culture in the occupied territories. This attitude was intended to build a safe commercial environment through control of maritime routes and military presence. In 1922, the British Empire already controlled around 458 million people, which represented a quarter of the world's population at that time.
France
With the exception of the occupation of Algeria in 1830, the largest French colonization campaign was carried out under the command of the Second Empire of Napoleon III (1852-1870), but it lost a large part of its first colonies with the advent of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which established the reorganization of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. These events coincided with the Industrial Revolution, which made great investments possible, such as the construction of the Suez Canal in 1859. The French campaign reached different areas of Africa and Asia, while in the Middle East, French control was established in the North of Africa: a protectorate in Tunisia in 1881, a protectorate in Morocco in 1912 and another in Mauritania in 1903. In relation to the Middle East, the great French conquests took place after the First World War, when France gained mandates over the territories of the former Ottoman Empire, what we currently know as Syria and Lebanon. On the eve of the Second World War, France had an empire that comprised an area of more than 12 million square kilometers and a population of 103 million people spread across five continents.
Other influences
Over the last two centuries, the Middle East was colonized by Great Britain and France, the two colonial powers, however, other countries also acted in the region to acquire benefits and gain control of some territories. In 1911, fascist Italy carried out a colonization campaign in Libya, which, at the end of the Second World War, passed into the hands of France and Great Britain, who shared the occupation of the territory until 1950, when Muhammad Idriss El-Snoussi was appointed king of Libya. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, with the support of Great Britain and other Western countries, helped create the State of Israel, bringing several consequences to the region, which will be explained in another article.
Spain occupied Western Sahara, but withdrew in 1975, leaving the territory in conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front. In the second half of the 20th century, Afghanistan was occupied by the Soviets, causing a cruel battle between the Soviet army and the Afghan mujahideen (or Islamic guerrillas) until 1989, one of the reasons why the USSR collapsed. In 2001, due to the terrorist attacks in New York, a campaign to combat terrorism began with the occupation of Western forces led by the United States in Afghanistan. In 2003, a coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq with the justification that the Iraqi government had not given up its chemical and nuclear weapons program.
Consequences
In recent decades, the main conflicts and wars that have occurred, and some that still occur, have certainly affected the territories that were colonized, including those located in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. After years of fighting for independence, a large part of the territories of the former colonies achieved their “sovereignty”, some of which were quite deficient, as the much-desired independence was not accompanied by freedom from the former influence. In other words, the new governments of former colonies tend to maintain the practices of the former colonizers, worth mentioning a few: discrimination against minority classes, disrespect for human rights and disproportionate distribution of the country's resources. We should also mention other challenges:
a) Limits: many nations, more than one hundred, were born during the decolonization process, most of which were not independent or did not exist within the territories of colonial borders. It is easy to see that many of these conflicts have their origins in unresolved territorial issues, that is, the limits inherited from the colonial era;
b) Ethnic Rivalry: the new borders of the territories, created in the post-colonial era, do not fully represent the ethnic groups that settled there, which worsened, for example, the intensity of conflicts in Sudan and Iraq;
c) Unequal Distribution of Resources: leaders favor groups according to ethnic, religious or cultural aspects that cause political instability, interethnic conflicts and rivalries;
d) Formation of non-democratic and absent Governments in large parts of post-colonial territories: human rights in these countries are ignored, unfair and discriminatory policies are still practiced by the new government institutions and the populations suffer from the absence of strong and qualified to manage public issues and, consequently, guarantee good governance.
In the economic sphere, colonization had serious consequences for local economies, as natural resources were extracted and diverted by metropolitan colonialists. There was also the process of deindustrialization in the colonies and slavery to provide raw materials for European industries. Before the colonial period, economic and technical development showed low rates in several countries. In 1820, China and India alone accounted for almost 60% of the global population and almost half of the global economy. However, the post-colonial era and its impacts changed the scenario in which a large portion of the world's population enjoyed a substantial portion of their own resources. Developed countries established an economic order that allowed them to maintain primacy and control over the economies of developing countries, which, in a way, created a new form of colonization through which the distribution of resources was completely modified.
Decolonization Movements
At the end of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson, then president of the United States, wrote a document entitled “The 14 Points” with the aim of sealing a peaceful balance among Europeans and avoiding another war. In this document there was mention of the right to self-determination, that is, the right of the people to decide for their independence and sovereignty and to choose the form of their political system. After the Second World War, this principle was recognized in the United Nations Charter and, together with other principles, played an extremely important role in the decolonization movement.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East there were nationalist decolonization movements created by local elites. Some countries achieved their independence after national and international political pressure, while in other countries independence was achieved after great sacrifices in the political, military and human areas. It is worth mentioning Algeria as an example, where the revolution for independence from French colonization lasted for more than 7 years (1954-1962) and with much bloodshed.
From several perspectives, it can be concluded that the decolonization movements were one of the many consequences of the Second World War. The European powers, the main colonizers, were forced to recognize that they survived the war thanks to American and Russian intervention, therefore, they were unable to continue providing for their colonies for much longer. This fact was already known to its colonies, which were organizing their independence movements. The spotlight of the United Nations General Assembly was focused on the independence movements with the aim of convincing the international community to pressure the colonial powers in order to cease control over their colonies. The United States, remembering its own War of Independence, condemned the colonial system and defended the independence of colonized countries, while the Soviet Union, with the purpose of propagating its ideology, acted indirectly in the independence movements, providing political and logistical assistance.
During the Cold War between the two great powers of the moment – the United States and the Soviet Union – the term “Third World” (group of developing countries) was created in 1952 by Alfred Sauvy, a French demographer, economist and sociologist. Within the Third World group emerged the Non-Aligned Movement, made up of third world leaders (Nehru, Sukarno, Tito and Nasser), which provided crucial assistance to independent movements, including international support. In 1960, the United Nations General Assembly voted on the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Another event was very significant for the Arab countries that were still colonized, namely: the creation of the Arab League in 1945, initially formed by six countries: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The creation of the Arab League helped to increase awareness of an Arab identity, provided a forum to defend the right to self-determination and obtain political and logistical assistance for people fighting for their independence.
Neocolonialism
However, the independence of the countries did not allow sovereign and democratic governments to defend the interests of their people, as the legacy left by the colonial powers in the post-colonial governments granted Western countries the dominance of the “former colonies”. The involvement or “interference” of powerful countries, whether colonial powers or not, in the affairs of vulnerable countries is known as “neocolonialism”. In the Middle East, some governments, which need recognition and legitimacy from their own people, obtain support from developed countries to actually put into practice the agenda of external interests. But you might be wondering:
“Why is the Middle East such a contested region?”
The answer is simple: the Middle East is a large area endowed with many natural resources, mainly oil and natural gas, in addition to its geostrategic position located between three continents. The international economic order, based on institutions created by developed countries themselves, has the essential objective of maintaining their supremacy over these countries, which must provide their natural resources. Some revolutionary rulers even defended the creation of a new economic order, but even so, they were unable to change the old scenario in which their resources are still exploited, which hampers their development aspirations.
Rise Empires: Ottoman
Source:
KAMAL, Ahmad. History of the Middle East, a Research Project of Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA, January 2012.
Author: Vanessa Chamma
Graduated in Arabic Literature and bachelor's in international relations
Researcher and Author
Lines of Research: History, Middle East, Geopolitics.
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