Middle East History Review

What happened to the Ottoman Empire after WWII?

After WWI, the Ottoman Empire was on the losing side, so the British and French divided up land the Ottomans had held

How does the division of the Ottoman Empire still impact the Middle East today?

The British and French left Turkey to the Turks, but split up the rest of the area without regard to religions or ethnic groups. Now, ethnic groups like the Kurds are split apart and want to be one independent nation, and other groups like the Sunni and Shia in Iraq are put together though they don’t get along and fight over power.

Jews lived in what area from the founding of the religion (very approximately 2000BCE) until the Diaspora?

Israel

What was the Jewish Diaspora?

This was a time in Jewish history where they were exiled from the Kingdom of Israel and the later exile of the Jews from the Kingdom of Judah.

Many Jews ended up in Europe from the Diaspora. There they experienced anti- Semitism. What is anti- Semitism?

Hatred, racism and discrimination against Jews.

What was the Holocaust?

A mass murder of millions of Jews by the hands of the Nazi Party.

What was the British Mandate?

It gave Great Britain control over the Israel / Palestine area

What is Zionism?

A movement for the creation of a homeland for Jew in their historical holy land

After WWII, Britain had promised the same area to Jews and Arabs. So, what did Great Britain do?

Great Britain gave the problem of who should control Palestine to the United Nations

What was the UN partition plan?

The UN split the land into two separate homelands – one for the Jews, one for the Palestinians. This partition plan was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs, and on the eve of Israeli independence in 1948, the Arab neighbors of the newly created Israel attacked it. This land has continued to be fought over in numerous wars since. Today, both Israeli and Palestinian groups continue to claim the land and attempts at peace have come and gone without creating a permanent peace.

What was the Persian Gulf conflict of1991?

In the Persian Gulf conflict, 1991: (the first war we fought in Iraq) Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, had invaded Kuwait in order to capture its valuable oil fields. The UN voted to send in troops to free Kuwait. Fearing for its own oil fields, the Saudi king invited UN forces, led by the United States to set up bases in Saudi Arabia to push the Iraqi forces back out of Kuwait, which we did, though we left Hussein in power.

What was the Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001?

Invasion of Iraq, 2003 : After the 9/11 attacks, the US government was very worried about threats from middle eastern sources. Looking at Iraq, we feared two things: that Iraq had ties to al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible and that Iraq was building weapons of mass destruction in violation of a UN sanction. As a result, we invaded the country, overthrew the leader, Saddam Hussein. We found no ties to al-Qaeda or WMDs, but we did free the nation from its dictator. Unfortunately, the different ethnic and religious groups broke out into violence against each other, resulting in thousands of deaths, and the violence is still occurring today.

What was the Invasion of Iraq in 2003?

Invasion of Iraq, 2003 : After the 9/11 attacks, the US government was very worried about threats from middle eastern sources. Looking at Iraq, we feared two things: that Iraq had ties to al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible and that Iraq was building weapons of mass destruction in violation of a UN sanction. As a result, we invaded the country, overthrew the leader, Saddam Hussein. We found no ties to al-Qaeda or WMDs, but we did free the nation from its dictator. Unfortunately, the different ethnic and religious groups broke out into violence against each other, resulting in thousands of deaths, and the violence is still occurring today.