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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.