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4.0 The Creation of the Middle East State System

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    [BLANK_AUDIO]
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    Welcome to lesson four of our course on
    the emergence of the modern Middle East.
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    Today we will talk about the creation of
    the Middle East state system.
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    This Middle East state system was created
    in the aftermath of World War I,
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    after the dissolution of the Ottoman
    Empire, and in the period
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    of ascendance of the Western powers,
    Britain and France, in the Middle
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    East and it is they, who created much of
    the new state system.
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    So we can ask ourselves, what influenced
    the decisions of the great
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    powers when they entered into this
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    creation of the Middle Eastern state
    system?
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    First of all, we should look the fact that
    the British and the
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    French did not have the same perceptions
    of what the Middle East really was.
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    In the eyes of the French, the
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    Middle East was the heterogeneous mosaic
    of minorities.
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    Which, clashed with the British view,
    which tended to see
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    the Middle East as a homogeneous, Arab
    part of the world.
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    This was the Arab world, a world populated
    by the Arab people.
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    In the French view, this was not the case.
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    The Middle East was really a mosaic of
    various religious minorities.
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    And if it's one, if one is to look at the
    Middle East, in
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    retrospect, it would appear that the
    French
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    had a more precise view of the reality.
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    But at the time, in the aftermath of the
    First World
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    War, the decisions were between Britain
    and France, and in making
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    these decisions the British had to take
    into consideration a variety
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    of different points of view as to policy
    in the Middle East.
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    On the one hand, there was the view from
    London, the view from London, we
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    sought compromise with France, sought
    compromise with France
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    because of France's importance in the
    European context.
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    France was a critical ally of the British
    against
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    Germany, and even though the war was
    already over, the
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    British were still very concerned with the
    balance of power
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    in Europe, and in that respect, France was
    very important.
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    The view in Cairo, however, was very
    different.
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    From Cairo, the French appeared to be a
    nuisance, and an irritant.
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    In a region which the people in Cairo who
    believed
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    in the emergence of Arab nationalism, that
    it is with Arab
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    nationalism that the British should side,
    and in that respect, unite
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    the Middle East under British influence
    without necessary deference to France.
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    But it was the view from London that
    emerged victorious, and
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    in their considerations about how to go
    about structuring the Middle East.
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    The Middle East had to take Arab
    nationalism into account, it was a force
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    after the First World War that had made
    its mark in the international community,
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    and the great powers, therefore, could not
    simply establish in the Middle East some
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    kind of colonial order as if nothing had
    happened in the First World War.
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    And therefore, there was the invention of
    the mandate compromise.
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    That compromise between colonial interests
    and the
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    need to acquiesce in the
    self-determination of peoples.
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    That is, for the Great Powers to have
    their influence in
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    the region, but to lead the peoples of the
    region to independence.
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    Britain's interest had to be balanced
    against those of France,
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    and here the two perceptions tended to
    clash once again.
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    The British, seeing the region as one
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    strategic theater, that is, the entire
    Arab
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    world as one strategic theater, on the
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    way to the important imperial position of
    India.
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    In the French view, this was not one
    strategic theater.
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    In fact, the Levant, the area of Syria and
    Lebanon,
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    should be seen as separate from France's
    possessions in North Africa.
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    In fact, France wanted as little influence
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    as possible of Arab nationalism in Syria
    and
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    Lebanon, which could influence the
    position of
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    France in Algeria, in North Africa in
    general.
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    And therefore, the French were very
    suspicious of Arab nationalism,
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    very suspicious of the British association
    with the Arab nationalist movement.
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    And the Arab nationalist movement, thanks
    to the Arab revolt, against the Turks in
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    the middle of the First World War,
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    had achieved some form of international
    recognition.
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    The world did recognize that there was an
    Arab nationalism, that
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    there were Arab national rights, and that
    these had to be addressed.
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    So, it was a combination of all these
    complex factors,
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    that eventually determined the state
    structure of the Middle East.
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    Many of the new Arab states that were
    established on
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    the ruins of the Ottoman Empire had never
    existed before.
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    They had not existed as defined political
    entities before 1920.
Title:
4.0 The Creation of the Middle East State System
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Duration:
04:58

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