The European Occupation of the Middle East - Literature review Example

?The Middle East has had a long and prosperous history that has spanned millennia since it is considered to be the cradle of the world civilizations as well as the home of all the major world religions. While this may be the case, this region came to see plenty f turmoil immediately after the First World War when the European powers and their allies in the region chose to partition this region under the veil of United Nations mandates. This led to the establishment of European protectorates which became a source of contention within the region and the problems created by the European occupation have continued to plague the Middle East to this day. The European occupation of the Middle East was the source of the social, political, and economic problems that have come to be almost a daily occurrence within the region as the governments which came after independence failed to fix them. The problems which had began with the European occupation continued to increase after independence to such an extent that they led to the Arab Spring between 2011 and 2012. Despite the fact that these countries were given independence, the western powers have continued to exert their influence on the region to such an extent that they have come to inspire the hostility of the Middle Eastern population. During the European occupation of the Middle East, the population in the occupied territories was denied any political freedoms. They could not directly elect their representatives, and where they were allowed to do so, these representatives did not have enough power to effectively represent their people. Many in the Middle East, therefore, agitated for the independence of their countries in order to regain the political freedoms that they had lost. They felt that it was their right to have self determination, and not have their future decided for them by the European colonial powers. When the occupied territories in the Middle East were finally given independence, there was a high expectation among the populace that it was the start of a new age of freedoms (Cleveland 2010, p.408). This however, turned out not to be the case because the governments which came to power tended to be autocratic which worked towards further denying their people their basic freedoms so that they could remain in power. The failure to deliver on their promises at independence led to their lack of legitimacy among the populace and the only way that they could legitimately remain in power was through the use of force. The vast oil reserves that were discovered in the Middle Eastern countries were used by these regimes to gain the necessary financial power to retain their authority (Cleveland 2010, p.514). It is the lack of political freedom in their countries which led the populations of various Middle Eastern nations to recently stage demonstrations against their governments, and it is these demonstrations, and at times military conflict, which came to be termed as the Arab Spring. One of the means through which the European powers established their dominance in the region was the favoring of the Christian population over the Muslim one. Since the European powers were Christian, they chose to strengthen the influence of their fellow Christians in the Middle East as well as to protect them from what they perceived to be a threat from the Muslim population. An example of such acts was the action taken by the French when they separated Lebanon from their Syrian protectorate as a Christian dominated protectorate (Khater 2005, p.265). The Maronite Christians of Lebanon dominated the Lebanese political scene till well after the country was granted independence. This, however, came to change as more Muslims, especially Palestinians escaping the Jewish occupation of their homeland sought refuge in Lebanon. The fact that the Muslim population came to be so large in the country became a source of friction between the Christian and Muslim Arabs as the two sides came to fight for political dominance. The sectarian violence which followed in this country deteriorated to such an extent that it led to the Lebanese civil war, in which many people lost their lives. It can therefore be said that the decisions which the French made in Lebanon, indirectly led to the various conflicts which ended up in civil strife and it came to involve neighboring states as well, such as Syria and Israel (Khalaf 1997, p.127). The sectarian friction in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, is just below the surface, and it tends to flare up from time to time as the various groups strive to achieve political power. One of the most lingering legacies of the European occupation of the Middle East was the creation of the Jewish state of Israel, against the wishes of the Arab population which had settled the region. When the British government chose to honor the Balfour declaration, and create a homeland for the Jewish population in Europe, it did not foresee the problems which would be brought about through conflict. In fact, many of the British politicians who agreed to create a homeland for the Jews did not realize the fact that it would create a humanitarian problem. They instead chose to accede to the agitation of the Jews for a state of their own, partitioning their territory of Palestine to create a homeland for the Jews. What resulted after independence was the coming to the fore of the Israeli-Palestinian problem which has occupied the governments of the Middle East since the creation of Israel (Cleveland 2010, p.448). This led to attempts by the newly independent Arab states to dislodge the Jews from the Palestinian land that they had come to occupy. The wars against Israel that were conducted by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan turned out to be futile but this did put an end to the problem as other means of attacking the Jewish state were devised. Waves of terrorist attacks against Israel, as well as the establishment of liberation groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, have continued to be a source of conflict not only in Palestine, but also in the neighboring countries. The fact that Israel has continued to occupy more Palestinian territory has only led to the exacerbation of the conflict as this is likely to be a source of continued hostility between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East by the victorious allied powers after the First World War spelled an end to Arab and Muslim unity (Cleveland 2010, p.278). The end of this unity meant that there developed sectarian violence in the various Middle Eastern countries, as individuals came to focus more on their religious differences rather than on the need to stay united so that they could deal with their problems together. The violence against each other that has been practiced by Sunni and Shia Muslims has led to a lot of conflict in the Middle East. The fact that many of these sects has lived peacefully side by side for many generations is no longer considered to be important, and the main source of conflict between them being petty religious and political differences. The fight for political dominance between these two groups have led to a disproportionate sharing of political power between them, so that in those countries which are dominated by Sunni Muslims, it is the latter who are dominant politically while Shia Muslims tend to be oppressed and treated as second class citizens in their own countries. An example of a Sunni dominated country which oppresses the Shia population within it is that of Saudi Arabia, where the Shia population is barely tolerated by the ruling Sunni elite. The same also applies in Shia dominated countries such as Iran, which after the 1979 revolution has become a theocratic state that is based on the Shia doctrine of Islam. Many of the autocratic regimes had managed to keep the sectarian violence at bay but with the American invasion of Iraq and subsequent developments such as the Arab Spring, sectarian violence has once again become a reality in the region. The granting of independence to various Middle Eastern states brought to prominence different political views and ideologies. These new ideologies came into conflict as different states adopted different ideologies to suit their local situations. Egypt, for example, adopted socialism under the leadership of Gamal Nasser, and this statesman attempted to influence other countries in the Middle East to adopt this ideology (Cleveland 2010, p.566). Other ideologies which came into prominence in the Middle East were secularism, and monarchy, all of which tended to be autocratic in nature. The fact that the most powerful nations of the Middle East had different competing ideologies meant that they ended up lacking unity during such occurrences as the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is a fact that it all of the Middle Eastern states had been united in their stance against the Jewish state, then the problem would not have continued to persist to this day. This however, was not the case as the leading Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, all espoused different ideologies and this made them to be extremely suspicious of one another. This further widened the rift between the various Middle Eastern states as each of them stopped being conscious of their shared heritage, and instead concentrated in their own internal affairs. In doing so, they came to pursue different foreign policies, especially during the Cold War, where some Middle Eastern countries chose to align themselves with the United States and its allies, while others pursued a policy which favored the Soviet Union (Byrne 2011, p.321). The divisions which started out during the Cold War continued to persist into the 21st century as each state strived to outdo the other. This is especially true of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which tried to outdo each other to prove their leadership of the Middle East. Oil is one of the cornerstones upon which many of the Middle Eastern economies are based since it has become the means through which governments derive their incomes. The Middle East is a major source of oil and natural gas and it has been stated that it holds some of the largest reserves of these resources in the world. These resources have, over the last few decades, been a major source of income for the countries which can be found in this region (Tsafos 2007, p.225). Not only has it enabled their governments have plenty of wealth to fund expansive social welfare systems, but it has also enabled the increase of the standard of living, with standards in some Middle Eastern countries being higher than those in the Western world. It can be noted that since the nineteen seventies, the oil-producing states of the Middle East have endured less self-governing than the other states either in the same region or in other parts of the world. Oil has continuously been an obstacle to the Middle East democracy because the governments involved have seen no need to be accountable to their people. In the Middle East today, those leaders, whose countries have vast oil resources, normally act in response to demands for more political freedom from their citizens by giving new donations, or the reduction of taxes, and this normally works on their people, who cease to question the actions of their rulers. In conclusion, one would agree with the statement that with their gaining of independence, Middle Eastern states exchanged one set of problems for another. As has been discussed above, the fact that the region was occupied by European powers created a situation which would eventually result in conflict. Furthermore, the sectarian divisions among the people of the Middle East became fully manifested after independence when rival sects took over different countries and as a result ended up oppressing those who held different ideologies in their own countries. The belief that the people of the Middle East were going to gain more political freedom was shattered after independence as autocratic regimes came to power and repressed these freedoms even more than the European powers had. It can therefore be said that the best way for the Middle East to stop their current problems is by being as united as they previously were before being occupied. References Byrne, J.J. 2011, "The Middle Eastern Cold War: Unique Dynamics in a Questionable Regional Framework", International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 320-322. Cleveland, W. 2010, A History of the Modern Middle East. Sydney: ReadHowYouWant.com. Khalaf, S. 1997, "The Lebanon War / Lebanon: A Shattered Country, Myths and Realities of the Wars in Lebanon", The Middle East Journal, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 127-130. Khater, A. 2005, "Inventing Lebanon: Nationalism and the State under the Mandate", International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 264-266. Tsafos, N.E. 2007, "The Arab Economic Challenge", The SAIS Review of International Affairs, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 225-229. Read More