Session #2: Historical Overview, 1914-1939

Professor Zeev Maoz

Fall 2011

Reading Assignment for Thursday: Saudi King Gives Women Right to Vote

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/25/us-saudi-king-women-

idUSTRE78O10Y20110925?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews.

What is the Middle East?

Historically, the ME was considered a bridge:

• Connecting three continents—Europe, Asia, Africa

• Connecting religions: Origin of big three religions

• Among different cultural groups—Arabs, Jews, Christians, Africans

• Contemporary bridge between producers and consumers of oil

There are two general conceptions of the boundaries of the region:

A compact conception, that excludes most of Saharan Africa from the region A broad conception that includes northern African states as part of the region

Subregions of the Middle East

• North (Saharan) Africa

• Fertile Crescent (Egypt overlaps with Saharan Africa)

• Persian Gulf (Iraq overlaps Fertile Crescent)

North Africa

Fertile Crescent

Persian Gulf

We start our tour of the history of the modern Middle East by describing the geopolitical situation in the region on the eve of World War I

World War I:

British competing pledges: • Hussein-McMahon Correspondence

• Independence to Arabs • Britain guarantees holy places • Britain maintains influence in Iraq and the Gulf

• Sykes-Picot Agreement

• The Balfour Declaration

• Support of a “national home for the Jewish People”

• This should not infringe on the civil and religious rights of “non-Jewish Communities” in Palestine

Implications of the conflicting pledges

• Arab and Palestinian expectations

• French Expectations

• Jewish Expectations

The Interwar Era in the Middle East

• Hashemite consolation prizes:

• Faisal in Iraq

• Division of Palestinian Mandate—Abdullah I Jordan

• Limits on Jewish immigration to Palestine

• Limited autonomy and limited constitutional monarchy in Egypt

• French control in Syria and Lebanon

• British influence in Jordan and Iraq

• The revolution in Turkey

• The Ata Turk Reforms

• The Reza Khan coup in Iran

• The Iranian transformation

• Jewish Immigration patterns

• Palestinian national movement

• The Arab Revolt 1936-39

• The Peel Commission

Reactions to the Peel Commission

Report and the white book

• Palestinian and Arab reaction—Outright rejection

• Jewish reaction—Qualified acceptance

• Arab attempts to push out Britain

• German threat to the Middle East

• British occupation of Syria and Lebanon

• Re-establishment of prewar order

• France in Lebanon and Syria

• Palestinian violence and British decision of a pullout

• UN Commission and the Partition Resolution

• The civil war, Dec. 1947-May 1948

• Aims of parties

• Consequences

• The international war, May-December 1948

• Aims of parties

• Consequences

• Protests against regimes in the Arab World

• Regime changes in Syria

• Assassination of Abdullah of Transjordan

• Free Officers coup in Egypt