THE MIDDLE EAST AND NATIONAL LIBERATION: 1830's-2000

  1. The Arabic World before 1914.
    1. The Golden Age of the Arabic World. See Centennia, 1000
    2. The Crusades, 1096-1291
    3. Under the Ottoman Empire after 1517
      1. Tribal societies largely left alone under Orthodox Islamic rule of Turks.
      2. The "the Sick Man of Europe" by 1800. Centennia, 1800
      3. British and French influence in the Arab World
      4. German influence with the Turks
  2. The British "invent" the "Middle East" 1914-1918
    1. Arab Nationalism
    2. Wartime developments
      1. The Treaties:
        1. The Treaty of London, 1915.Read: Article 9.
        2. Read:The Sykes-Pico Agreement. Paragraphs 1 & 2.
        3. FYI:"Lawrence of Arabia"
    3. The Issue of Palastine.
      1. The Partition of the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Sevres. Click here and read the second to last paragraph of this page. See Centennia, 1920.8
      2. The Jewish Claim: FYI: If you are interested, click here for a link to a history of the following topics from the perspective of the World Zionist Organization.
        1. Zionism -- to rectify the Diaspora.
        2. Four sources of Anti-Semitism
        3. Theodor Herzl and the founding of the World Zionist Movement.
        4. READ:The Balfour Declaration; and see also, F-R, p. 200.
  3. Post-Ottoman Middle East:
    1. The legacy of the quaisi-colonial mandate system:
      1. The Promise was to model the new Arab states in the image of the Mandatory powers.
      2. The corruption of the promise prepared the way for the anti-liberal, radical Islamic and anti-Israeli Middle East of today.
      3. Click here for a map. Read the first four paragraphs of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations
    1. The French Mandates
      1. Lebanon an "invention" of the French" in 1920 out of the Syrian mandate ----- melange of peoples and religious sects---independent in 1943
        1. Relatively peaceful transition --- Christian-Maronite rule
          • Arab revolt on behalf of independence as elsewhere.
          • Quaisi-fascist movement of the Phalange para-military tan-shirts to suppress the Islamic sects protesting French domination and support Maronite-Christian minority domination. See, F-R, pp. 141-142.
        2. After World War II, the Maronites retained control dividing and conquering the sects until civil war broke out in 1975. See Centennia, 1975-1992.
          • PLO carved out refuge in the South ((1976-1978) and held Beirut until 1982.
          • Syria invaded eastern Lebanon in and occupied much of the country until 1992.
          • 1982-1985 Israeli occupation of Lebanon including Beirut.
            • Phalange massacre of Palestinians civilians in refugee camps under Israeli occupation.
            • PLO fled in August 1982 for Tripoli.
            • Internal political crisis created pressure for withdrawal by 1985.
          • Occupation by U.S. and UN forces.
          • 1985-1992 Civil War among Maronite, Druze (Shia), Palestinians ---
            • Ultimately virtually total Syrian occupation,
            • Sovereignty was superficially restored by the end of 1992, but still substantially under Syrian influence.
            • February 2005 ---assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri
      2. Syria --
        1. October 1918 ----- Emir Faisal proclaimed independence ---- King March, 1920 ----- deposed by French and forced to flee
        2. Received a republican constitution modeled after that of France, but France retained real control discrediting the so-called "liberal" elites who dominated the government.
        3. "Arab revolt" of 1930's against the French puppet governments driven by continuing poverty and nationalism.
        4. Arab League formed in April 1945--- put pressure on French to withdraw --- Independence in 1946
        5. Ba'ath Party seizure of power in 1958 drawing heavily on the Leninist concept of vanguard party leading the country to modernization and appeals to nationalism substantially focused by anti-Zionism.
        6. Momentary union with Egypt in the UAR until 1961
        7. Has continued under Ba'ath dictatorship ever since.
          • Hafiz Al-Assad, president/dictator 1970--- police state combined with economic, land and education reform brought propularity
          • National identity focused on pan-Arab unity and anti-Israeli policy.
          • Bashir Assad succeeded upon his father's death in 2000 and continues a similar, if somewhat more liberal and compliant dictatorship.
    2. The British Mandates
      1. Iraq: Iraq invented by the British, cobbling together the areas of Mosul, Bagdad and Basra with their mutually hostile Kurds, Sunnis and Shias into a unitary state, without consulting those affected who were united only by their loathing of the British.
        1. British 1914 invasion of Basra.
          • (Balfour: "I do not care under what system we keep the oil, but I am quite clear it is all important."
          • Sponsored "Arab rising" to weaken Turkey in World War I. See scenes from Lawrence of Arabia.
          • Hypocrisy of British commander Gen. F. S. Maude: "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators,"
          • January, 1919 occupation of Bagdad.
            • Great Arab insurrection against British July-August 1920.
            • Falluja the center
          • Faisal, driven out of Syria ----named King in 1921 with a British dictated constitution.
            • Virtually unknown ---- dependent on the British RAF --- WMD's.
            • Kurdish rebellions on behalf of independence. 1922-1924, 1930-1931, 1932
            • Faisal in 1933: "There is still no Iraqi people, but unimaginable masses of human beings devoid of any patriotic ideas imbued with religious traditions and absurdities, connected by no common tie, giving ear to evil, prone to anarchy and perpetually ready to rise against any government whatsoever.
        2. Technical independence in 1932 under a British-style constitution,--, but quaisi-colonial control exerted:
          • Foreign Policy -- Tied to Britain through Bagdad regional security pact.
          • Elitist native control. (King Ghazi 1933-1939)
            • Government in hands of minority-Sunni elites in central Iraq, propped up by British troops ---- opposition parties were banned.
            • British and American oil companies ---- pipeline opened to Mediterranean.
            • Most of fertile land was controlled by these same elites.
          • Continuing revolts a driven by poverty and against puppet rule
          • Supression and milIitary rule --- a vigorous program of modernization of infrastructure.
            • 1941 Anti-British, anti-monarchy revolt --- aid promised by Germans
            • Supression and military occupation --- again.
        3. Elitist-dominated constitutional monarchy gained real independence only after World War II (King Faisal II, 1939-1958)
          • Bought off the tribes with land grants and other financial incentives
          • Bagdad Security Pact: U.S.-Britain, Iran, Pakistan-Turkey-Iraq: Anti-Soviet
            • Joined Britain, France and Israel in 1956 war against Nassar who had restricted access to Suez Canal.
            • Internal hostility --- coup by General Kassim in 1958.
          • Rule of General Kassim --- reform-minded, but armed against Israel.
            • Quasi-Soviet-style modernization 1958-1963
              • Size of land plots limited, and surplus confiscated and redistributed.
              • Oil industry increasingly brought under government control and ultimately nationalized in 1972.
              • U.S. interests threatened and-- provoked a conspiracy on behalf of regime change.
            • Feb. 8, 1963 CIA support for the Kurds and the tiny, authoritarian and anti-Communist Ba'ath Party overthrew Kassim (Saadam Hussein was one of the conspirators.)
              • Even more radical interlude til 1968 under Gen. Abdul Salam Arif ---- military dictatorship based on his own tribe rooted in the Falluja region.
              • U.S. aid to Ba'ath in identifying communists and other radicals ----- mass murders.
          • Disgust with Israeli victory in Six Day War in 1967 led to a coup in 1968 by Ahmed Hassan with aid of Sadaam Husein --- continuation of dictatorship.
        4. Sadam Husein since 1979 ---- Leninist concept of vanguard party leading into modernization
          • Levers of control rooted in his own tribe, Bu Nasir, centered around Tikrit.
            • Falluja bought off, but never really trusted into the inner circle.
            • Half the population in some kind of government employ.
            • Cult of personality
            • Terror combined with oil-wealth and a generous welfare society with high standards of education and public health.
          • War with Iran 1980-1988 over long-standing border issues and fear of Shiite influence in South.
            • Use of chemical and biological weapons when Basra was threatened.
            • U.S. provided arms, intelligence and tactical advice --- retaliation against Iran for the hostage crisis of 1980.
            • Kurdish risings supported by Iran--- attacked and supressed with chemical weapons.
            • After 1988 ---rearmament to replenish WMD arsenal, possibly also nuclear.
            • Threatened to use chemical and biological weapons, if Israel attacked Iraq again, as it had in 1982 to a nuclear power plant.
          • 1990 --Huge debt, long-standing territorial claims and the drilling issue prompted the occupation of Kuwait.
            • U.S. had indicated U.S. disintrest in this regional dispute
            • Bush, under pressure from Thatcher, undertook Desert Shield (1990) and Desert Storm (Jan 16, 1991- end of February.
              • U.S. Troops in Saudi Arabia
              • The House of Saud
                • Conservative modernization with oil money.
                • The buy-off of the Wahhabi ---madrasses--- recruiting grounds for Al Quaida
                • U.S. departure 2003 ----- "too late"?
          • Sanctions Regime 1991-2003.
            • Inspections
            • Food for Oil --- a Approximately 1 million civilian deaths.
            • Support for what has become an autonomous Kurdish state ------ Turkey, Iran, Iraq?
            • Sell out of Shia in the south ---- the legacy?
          • The War of 2003. Click here for a leaked British report on the justifications for initiating preemptive war.
            • WMD issue.
            • Link to 9/11/2001
            • Regime change
            • "Liberation and Democracy" ----
            • Sovereignty, July 1, 2004.
            • Elections --- finally --- February 2005
            • An elected government ---- finally, May 2005
            • What's next?
      2. Trans-Jordan -- control exerted through King Hussein --- independent in 1946, but continued British influence
      3. Palestine: 1919-1945. Zionism vs. Arab Nationalism. For an inter-active map of the region from the establishment of the British mandate map through 1967, click here.
        1. Pre-World War I Zionist immigration --- by 1920 population about 90% Arab and 10% Jewish in 1920 ---- kibbutz
        2. FYI:. The Palastinian Mandate 1922. -- The League mandated a formal separation of Palestine from Trans-Jordan and proposed measures upon which a pluralistic, multi-cultural, bi-national state could have been created.
          • The impossible legacy of British World War I policy.
            • Zionist intent.
            • Palestinian fears
          • Great Britain ---- partition efforts
          • The consequences
            • Arab Revolt 1936-1939
            • The Jewish revolt : Haganah, and terrorist groups Irgun and Stern Gang.
            • Three-cornered civil war by 1939 --- British martial law.
    3. The Foundation and Consolidation of the State of Israel, 1945-1967. For an inter-active map of the region from the establishment of the British mandate map through 1967, click here.
      1. 1945 The Arab League mobilizes for a fight to expell the British and end zionist immigration.
      2. The impossible position of the British.
        1. The legacy of the Holocaust
        2. The dilemma on immigration. Exodus
        3. Population shift: 65% Arab, 35% Jewish.
        4. 1.3 million Palestinians
        5. 700,000 Jews owned only about 11% of the land ultimately assigned by the UN to the Jewish state by the UN.
      3. The U.N. decision, 29. November 1947. See Centennia 1947.9 See also map 16.2 in F-R, p. 440. For an inter-active map of the region from the establishment of the British mandate map through 1967, click here. For a NY Times article on the history of this region click here.
      4. Partition, 14. May 1948 and the War of the Arab League. See Centennia 1948.4 For the NY Times article reporting on this declaration, click here.
        1. State of Israel increased the partition by half. See Centennia 1949.0
        2. 900,000 Arabs went into exile.
          • 24 documented massacres of civilians -----about half of total number ultimately forced into exiled were chased out before the Arab attack on Israel.
          • Remaining 400,000 Palastinians constituted about 36% of the population of about 1.1 million
        3. The refugee problem --- 4 million + today.
          • Gaza
          • Jenin in what was then Jordanian-occupied West Bank
          • Development of the PLO by 1964.
          • "The right of return."
        1. Jews displaced by the hundreds of thousands from Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa fled to Israel --- implications for Israeli politics.
      5. 1956. Israel joined in effort by Britain and France to seize the Suez Canal and Sinai from Egypt. See Centennia, 1956.
      6. The evolution of Israel as an island of the West under the financial and political protection of the West..
      7. The inability of the "liberal" Arab states (Egypt 1952, Iraq and Syria in 1958) to defeat Israel discredited liberalism and paved the way for their overthrow.
    4. The Arab-Israeli Conflict 1967-200?
      1. The Six-Day War, 1967. See Centennia 1967.3-1967.4. For interactive NY Times map click here. .
        1. Beginning of Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
        2. UN Resolution 242
        3. Crystalization of Palastinian nationalism ---- and confirmation of terrorism as the means of resolution.
      2. The Yom Kippur War, 1973. See Centennia 1973.7-1974.0
      3. U.S. Soviet brokered cease-fire. See Centennia 1974.1, subsequent border adjustment, See Centennia 1975.9
      4. 1975 UN Resolution 3379
      5. Fall of Labor government May, 1977 - The Rise of Likkud, Menachem Begin and the concept of "Greater Israel."
      6. Sadat, Meier, Carter, Begin and the peace process 1977-1982.
        1. Sadat to Israel, Nov. 1977.
          • The Camp David Accords, Sept. 1978..FYI: Text .
          • Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, 26. March 1979.Phased withdrawal by 1982.3 See Centennia, 1982.3 FYI:Text.
        1. 1982-85 Israeli attack and occupation of Lebanon to drive Arafat and PLO from Beirut.
          • Allied Maronite Christians massacred hundreds of Palestinians with apparent complicity of Israel and Ariel Sharon.
          • Continued low-level border warfare.
      7. The Intifada (1987-?),
      8. Return to Labour 1992-1996: Rabin - Perez coalition and the beginning of negotiations for peace.
        • Oslo (1993) and limited autonomy for Gaza and some agreed-upon settlements in the West Bank occupied territoriesm --- six year calendar for settlement of remaining issues. See map in F-R, p. 444.
        • See and Read: 13. September 1993 White House handshake and timetable for the peace process.
        • Rabin murdered, Fall, 1995 -- succeeded by Perez
      9. Return to Likkud under Netanyahu, 1996-99 ---"Greater Israel," --- Jerusalem and the Settlements problems.
      10. Clinton efforts to broker a peace.
        • The Wye Agreement, Oct 23, 1998. FYI click text.
        • New Labour government under Barak works with Clinton after June 1999.
          • 3. September 1999 --Sharm el Sheik
          • Collapse of detente summer-fall 2000
      11. 2001 --Election of militant Likud government under Ariel Sharon and the re-ignition of the Intifada.
        • Unity of coalition government to militarily supress the intifada and wipe out terrorists.
        • Arafat held in house-arrest December, 2001-May 2002.
      12. 2002
        • Israeli military raids on West Bank settlements --- threats against Gaza
        • Netanyahu threat to Sharon's leadership of Likkud
        • Splits in the PLO
      1. 2003. The Road Map --- deadend?
      2. 2004: Sharon initiative
      3. Arafat dies, November 2004 ---- cautious optimism for Abas
      4. Israeli withdrawal from Gaza scheduled for summer 2005 coupled with new settlements on the West Bank.
    5. Egypt from indirect imperialism to independence:
      1. 1920- Constitutional monarchy on the British model, but dominated by royal family and elites.
      2. 1936 full independence, but requisite alliance with Britain --- military occupation during World War II.) ---
      3. Nassar revolution of 1952 ended the "liberal" era and undertook land land reform, mass education mobilized by a populist appeal based on charismatic appeal.
    1. The Ottoman empire into Turkey
      1. The birth of the Turkish Republic1918-1923. See Centennia 1919.4- 1923.0
        1. The Treaty of Sevres (10. June 1920) never implemented and replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne, 1923
          • Armenia
          • The Kurds
          • The Greek Invasion.
        2. The nationalist revolution led by Mustafa Kemal. Click here and read the last paragraph of this page.
      2. The consolidation of the Republic 1923-1938
        1. Authoritarian Republic
          • Constitution of 1924 invested sovereignty in the nation
          • Reform, 1923-1938
        2. A question of fascism under the RPP?
      3. Towards a pluralistic democracy, 1950---?
        1. Neutral during World War II, transformed into wester (U.S.) ally by the Cold War.
          • Russian territorial demands ----
          • Korean War 1950-1953
          • NATO -- 1952.
        1. From liberal-"fascism" to liberal democracy 1946-1960.
          • Multiple-party system introduced in 1946
          • Era of Menderes, 1950-1960 ----- Industrialist/agri-business domination of Democrat Party (DP)
            • Liberalization of trade restrictions
            • Mechanization of agriculture ----- consolidation of former communal lands redistributed under Attaturk ----rural flight ----
            • Inflation and economic destabization.
        1. Military coup (RPP) in 1960 to stabilize the economy and rework the democracy ---- new period of democratic development 1961-1971
          • New constitution of 1961 created a system more like the U.S.
          • Two party system with RRP modeled after European social-democratic parties and the former Justice Party (J.P) the party of agri-business and industry.
            • Coalition, 1961-1965
            • JP-government until 1970
          • Economic boom ---
            • EEC, 1964
            • The German connection.
          • Increased political freedom combined with the student upheavals of 1968 to produce a splintering of the political spectrum.
            • On the Right, extremist-nationalist and Islamic fundamentalist parties.
            • On the Left, revolutionary Socialist and communist factions.
        1. Military Coup, 1971: suspended the elected government and then tried to direct and control subsequent governments, but the economic problems of the 1970's, oil, inflation combined with increased identity politics, Alevi, Sunnis, Kurds saw increased violence.
        2. Military Coup, 1980 and new constitution 1982.
          • Strong presidential system, appointed prime minister, unicameral parliment, 10 % hurdle to representation.
          • Economic growth under Turgut Özal (1983-1993) with strong export economy to Europe throughout the 80's
        1. The 1990's saw a decline of the old center and the rise of right-left coalition
          • The old RRP failed to make the 10% hurdle in 1995 and disappeared.
          • The old (DP/JP) True Path party dominated government (Demirel-Ciller) 1993-1995;
          • Islamic Prosperity Party of Erbakan formed a government with Ciller as prime minister in but scandal and corruption ended that strange experiment
          • Coalition government with Democratic Left Party Ecevit as prime minister.
          • 1999 election saw a victory for the Left and the rightist national Action Party of Bahcelibut and a new and admired president Ahmet Sezer.
        1. Issues
          • Kurds (Öcelan, 1998)
          • Economic investment in Kurdish homelands ---- hydroelectric dams, irrigation projects
          • EU ----"candidate status" 2000 contingent upon various human rights issues, Cyprus, etc.

       

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