Middle East History Questions - Essay Example

Discuss the difficulties faced by the Middle Eastern Empires in adapting to the intellectual, technological, economic, and political challenges presented by the West in the 18th and 19th centuries. America in the 18th the century is characterized with British colonization in the northern region where rural agriculture was established and mercantilism was developed. Slavery was evident among labor forces subjected to hard servitude. The colonies composed of thirteen states started rebelling and gained independence in 1779. The American Revolutionary War was both bloody and costly but the American republican army regained strategic control in all regions and rebuilt the new nation founded with ideological precept of independence, enlightenment and liberalism which became the pillars of Republican worldview (MLNC, 2011). The Constitution of the United States was crafted which uphold civil liberties while separation of powers defined the relations of government, judiciary and legislative bodies. It later developed its financial system and infrastructure. American had a ‘second war for independence’ with British government. The government rigorously sustained its efforts in integrating the federal states and has sustained its economic expansionism in many of its politically controlled nations in eastern part, in Asia and in Hawaii (Norton & Katzman, 2011). The Great awakening assuaged the removal of slavery and paved toward the recognition of women as partners for economic development. Reconstruction era further bolstered the removal of discrimination and paved the way to naturalization of citizens. The 19th century featured United States as an imperial nation which subjugated Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam in a Treaty of Paris. Industrialization and progressive movements as the west accumulated wealth through import and export policies. The nation upholds the primacy of education to develop skilled and intellectual labor forces. Capitalism became its dominant economic philosophy while government focused on mining, agriculture, telecommunication development and global marketing. It further gained power as its financial institution gained more control over nations who availed financial supports and loans at the height of economic depression (Norton & Katzman, 2011; Kinzer, 2011). The west gained the image as the first nation, global power and economic authority thru globalization. It wielded military power in World War I and considered communism as a Red Scare, a threat to American idealism, during the World War II. In this war, with allied nations, America supported partners with resources, food, petroleum and technology (Norton & Katzman, 2011; Kinzer, 2011). In 1920s, America suffered Great Depression which resulted to deflation and increase of unemployment rate. They were however able to restore the system by regulating and reforming the banking system, stock market and its economy. The nation vigorously sustained its geographic presence in many nations either by the deployment of its military forces in strategic regions, or by economic relations thru trade and offshore marketing, by gaining over nautical highways, and import-export relations using treaties and agreements (Tuveson, 1980). The mid part of the 19th century was considered as the cold war period where US and Russia gained the reputation of storing weapons of mass destructions. The era also showed partnership of US and Britain in their interest in West Germany, thus the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. Many decades, thereafter, US waged its anti-terrorism campaign against al-Qaeda network through allied nations. War in Iraq and Afghanistan ensued until the arrest and death of Osama Bin Laden, head of terrorist organization, in Pakistan recently. While America is admittedly dependent on oil from Middle East countries, but eastern nations, most of which are member states of OPEC, have difficulty in adapting the intellectual, technological, economic, and political challenges presented by western nation in those centuries. The Middle East is a declining nation, then dubbed as Safavid Dynasty which ruled in Tabriz, Maragha, Teera, Bagda, Isfahan, Shiraz, Heart and Zarani. It’s geographically part of the Persian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century (Huntington, 1993). The Safavid Dynasty practiced Shi-ism, a religion which embraced governance. Leadership is handed by blood until such a time when conflict erupted within and resulted to the revolt of Sunni believers, most of whom came from Afghanistan. Safavid’s location inspires trading with Mesopotamia and India. There main products were clothes and textiles (Toledano, 2007). The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, were people who have faith in Judaism, originally founded in Palestine also known as Israel. It’s a faith on one God which is embraced by the Jews. Islam, meanwhile, came at Arab when Prophet Mohammed taught the people based on Qur’an. Islam rapidly increased in numbers as decades went by. The Ottoman’s economy is based on trading with with France, England and Syria. They also attempted to explore using military might for economic expansion and alliances (Toledano, 2007). But these empires were not as organized as the West. Despite its economic relation with Europe, West Africa, India and China, they maintained its religion and culture. The union of religion and governance in these states tied them with their customary practices. The Arab and Ottoman also used slaves in its economic activities. Slaves came from Africa, Caucasus, Europe and Central Asia, most of them were black (Toledano, 2007). Slaves worked as servants, soldiers, and laborers. It was only in 1930s when slavery was declared illegal. These days, albeit laws, there are still women trafficked in Middle East countries. Although the history of Middle East seemed to be lacking in details or not abundant in literatures, there is apparent revulsion of eastern people to the growing influence of western culture globally—from the system of economy, to political and cultural liberalism. These threatened the social structures and customary practices of conservative people and they felt that this is offensive to their religion Islam, which dictates their way of life. Moreover, Middle East is dependent on technological knowledge of the west, including the production of weapons. This is where economics rant about the east-west relation: trading of oil with armaments as well as agri-industrial products. As such, the western nations who were entangled and who have competed thru wars with each other gained geographic control and influenced to civilizations they have overran. Often, these are nations without political alignment to western power and are bereft of stability. 2. Discuss the various reactions of the people of the Middle East to western incursion. Which approaches were successful, which failures, and why. Could the people of the Middle East have done anything different to protect themselves from western encroachment? Middle East nations are unhappy with the incursion of western civilization. Americans which grow as an influential powerful nation and a global power provides security in most geographic part of the globe motivated Islamic resurgence and fundamentalism which oppose westernization of their thoughts, values and system. The movement encouraged the birthing of militants who perceived nations from the west as enemy that is weakening its culture using liberalism as envisage with Madonna-idolatry and of greed to control resources. Militants viewed the western nation as a Godless nation which discriminatorily perceived Muslims as terrorists. As capitalists, they viewed western incursion as oppressive to their sovereignty because it’s controlling its economic resources in a neo-imperial politics. Western nations’ dominance caused the weakening and decline of other civilizations, thus subordinating them to the economic and political interests of the west. Ethic and religious divides caused strife as eastern civilization identity, history, values, ancestry and institutions were caught in a colonial quagmire. They however resisted the imposition of western cultural values in a campaign waged under Islamic Resurgence. Although leaders of the nations from the east knew that culture and religion is vital in economic development and cooperation, they nonetheless thought that they have no chance to compete with European and Westerns nations. 3. Describe and analyze the great power competition over Persia before 1907. After considering the Anglo-Russian Entente, discuss its effectiveness in keeping stability to the area. The Ottoman enjoyed their economy by trading with France, England and Syria. They also attempted to explore using military might for economic expansion and alliances. In the 19th century, Ottoman Empire’s sultanate organized professional army to defeat the Janissaries and made some reforms following Western precedents. This was also the period when prior to Anglo-Russian Entente, the Russian and British had Great Game of diplomatic and military rivalry which was referred as “Tournament of Shadows.” The Anglo –Russian Convention was prominently referred as the Convention of Mutual Cordiality, otherwise referred as Anglo-Russian Agreement. Such united France, Great Britain and Russia who were planning to develop relations with Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy. This agreement delineated the colonial borders and the subsequent agreement of Great Britain and Russia not to invade Afghanistan, Persia or Tibet. Great Game actually refer to disputes on access of oil and other resources, or the development of new alliances or military expansion, or simply political quests often done by most Muslim countries who were in competition of a specific quest. This involved two major wars between British and Afghanistan, the latter being hoped as the buffer zones against Russian incursion to India. But that war which lasted for three years until 1842 proved disastrous for British. Another war of same parties in 1878-1880 happened which gave British political control of this nation and made it a vassal under Abdur Rahman Khan’s leadership. British and Russian political contest for geographic control continued until resolved in 1895 through Pamir Boundary Commission. This agreement settled Russian and British colonial power and resource control in Central Eurasia through the Anglo-Russian Convention. The Pamir Boundary Commission settled the boundary in dispute in Afghanistan, Tibet and Persia which resulted to stability within the area as well as development of diplomatic alliances (Simon & Schuster, 1996) 4. Identify 3 to 5 problems faced by the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. Describe the reforms of such people as Mahmet Ali and the Young Turks. To what extent were they successful in solving or alleviating the problems of the Ottoman Empire? To reckon, the triumph of Napoleon over Ottoman Mamluk in Egypt tilt local power and exposed the Muslim region to European power. As British pushed for the withdrawal of French, Mohammad Ali, an Albanian Ottoman officer, succeeded as Egypt’s ruler in 1811 and introduced military reforms which consequently freed him for his Ottoman overlord. Ali led reform in agriculture, infrastructure, industry, and education while developing strategic alliances with landlords. He however, died without being able to radically change the condition of Egypt. Ali’s successor focused their development plans in Egypt and Sudan (Huntington, 1993). In the 19th century, Ottoman Empire’s sultanate organized professional army to defeat the Janissaries and made some reforms following Western precedents. The reform included the crafting of a Constitution in 1876. However, the rise of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid caused despotic rule and nullified the Constitution to restrict civil rights and liberties (Huntington, 1993). A revolt transpired in 1882 against Egyptian government led by Ahmad Orabi while Muhammad Achmad, a Sufi from Sudan, also led the holy war against Egyptians and British resulting to the establishment of Sudan. His successor, Khalifa Abdallahi, was however defeated by British army in 1898 (Huntington, 1993). A coup thereafter transpired in 1908 led by young intellectual Turks who were members of the Ottoman Society for Union Progress and who politically advocated for the restoration of the 1876 Constitution (Simon & Schuster, 1996). The levels of success introduced by these advocates were piecemeal and were limited only at a certain period when they sustained level of influence with their immediate community (Huntington, 1993). 5. Did the people of the Middle East attempt to copy any western influences throughout the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries? If so, which ones, why, and what impact, if any, did they have? Islamic culture failed the democratization in Muslim world. It simply rejected what Fukuyama asserted as the universalization of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government (Huntington, 1993). Thus, there is polarization of global community in a political tag of us-and-them. Such meant huge difference in perspectives, cultures and outlooks e.g. the east relies on collectivity rather than individualism and prefer benevolent authoritarianism than radical liberalism (Huntington, 1993; Simon & Schuster, 1996). The Islamic resurgence reasserted their faith as solution to their problems; not western ideologies. This movement is a holistic movement that put Islam as central to the human, cultural, social, and political movements. Politicians called this Islamic fundamentalism which is criticized as extremist. It reaffirmed the union of government and religion in their state of affairs: laws, banking, social welfare, education, governance and in adhering to conservative lifestyles. The Islamic doctrine bears rejection of powers-that-be, preference to fundamental change, including violent revolution as feature of universal awakening for reform (Huntington, 1993; Simon & Schuster, 1996). This call was heeded by most Muslims worldwide with support from oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia and other nations in the Gulf. On the other hand, Muslims worldwide have tried to reconcile modernization and development with Islam although for some sociologist, these are pattern to western developments. These are manifested in Muslim countries’ desire for urbanization, social mobilization, putting importance to education, recognition of the vital contribution of media, interactivity of communication through technology and the recent desire of Gulf nations to integrate their capital in the foreign market (Huntington, 1993; Simon & Schuster, 1996). Such resurgence may have resolved the issue of Muslim identity, morality and the meaning of their lives. It allowed them to take control of their very selves for growth although on the other end, the setback is that it has permeated Muslim militancy, militarism and migration (Simon & Schuster, 1996). These developments encouraged regionalization of world politics, economic developments and inward shift in the security agenda. References MLNC(2011). Issues and Controversies in American History. MNLC. Ballwin, MO.http://www.mlnc.org/electronic/facts/issuesamerican.html Accesed Jume 11, 2011. Norton, Mary Beth and Katzman, David (2011). A People and a Nation: A history of United States. Seventh Edition. Cengage Learning. http://college.cengage.com/history/us/norton/people_nation/7e/students/studyguide/index.html Accesed July 11, 2011. Kinzer, Stephen (2011). Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. http://www.democracynow.org/2006/4/21/overthrow_americas_century_of_regime_change Accessed: June 11, 2011. Ernest Lee Tuveson (1980). Redeemer nation: the idea of America's millennial role. University of Chicago Press. America. America's Story. Patrick Henry Was Born May 29, 1736. Colonial America.http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_henry_1.html Accessed July 11, 2011. Huntington, Samuel P. (1993), The clash of Civilizations? Foreign Affairs; Summer 1993; 72, 3; ABI/INFORM Global pp22. Simon & Schuster (1996). The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the World Order. , Rockefeller Center, New York. New York. Toledano, Ehud R (2007). As If Silent and Absent: Bonds of Enslavement in the Islamic Middle East. Yale University Press, America. Read More