How European Colonialism Changed The Middle East In The 1800s And 1900's

The wars of the Middle East over the past one hundred year are very complicated. When the Ottoman Empire chooses the losing side in WWI, then France and Britain started drawing new borders to the region as a result of the Sykes Picot agreement. After WWII, the United States intervened its force to change the governments of countries in the Middle East. Now, the same behaviors have been continued by the major powers in the world for their own interests, as stated by Jeffrey D. Sachs, the special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations on the Millennium development

The role of the Middle East has been very crucial to the United States, especially after WWII. The U.S. had three strategic goals in the Middle East and consistently followed them throughout various events that unfolded in the region. First, with the emergence of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the U.S., policymakers began to recognize the importance of the Middle East as a strategic area in containing Soviet influence. This also coincides with the U.S. becoming increasingly wary of Arab nationalism and the threat it posed to U.S. influence. Secondly, the emergence of the new Israeli state in 1948 further deepened U.S. policy and involvement in the region while also creating friction between the U.S. and Arab states which were

Middle East had familiarized itself with farming, which in turn made it possible for people to advance in agriculture which gave them large amounts of food. They were able to spend less time gathering the food as it was farmed close to their homes. Another important aspect is that planting the wheat and barley was very simple, all it took was to spread the seed around the field. New Guineans learned about farming as well but they were not as fortunate as Middle East to have plants that grew from seeds, instead they had to dig an individual hole for each plant and then plant each plant separate. Once again they were not as efficient as Middle East. Middle East started to develop large communities and build cities and had great advantages. They were economically stable and had build militaries first for self defense and later to be used to conquer and expand. For thousands of years Middle East was booming but it all came to a stop. They had over used their land and water resources and followed by a drought they were forced to migrate and find a new place. They migrated towards west and east and stayed in the same latitudinal region, therefore the

The first positive impact European Imperialism had on the world is education. Before European colonization and the introduction of Western education, traditional educational systems still existed in Africa The average African child was taught basic survival skills necessary to survive in the traditional society. They were taught how to fish, trade and crafts, etc. (Education Western Africa.) Although already knew

Syria and Lebanon are two dramatically different states with a deeply intertwined history. They were both born out of French interventionism following World War 1, and have experienced complex and strained relations ever since. The two nations have both experienced prodigious political turmoil since gaining their independence, with both suffering from civil wars and conflict with their mutual neighbor, Israel. The war and turmoil that has plagued these two countries can be traced back to various competing national interests, as well as a struggle for regional power. The various religious groups in the area have historically formed transnational advocacy networks with the intent of influencing regional politics. These groups have proved to of been a major factor in the history of both nations.

Large busy markets, snake charmers, carpet vendors, and veiled women all invoke ideas of West Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia, but all these ideas come from Oriental fantasies from the nineteenth century. Edward Said the author of Orientalism said that “Orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar (Europe, West, "us") and the strange (the Orient, the East, "them").” The nineteenth century was a period of imperialism and tourism that led many western artists to visit West Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Orientalist paintings depicted two major effects, many artists often portrayed something “exotic,” which was racialized, feminized, and from a sexualized culture from a faraway land. Another effect that artists mainly like Jean-Léon Gérôme often showed was an authentic glimpse of a location and its inhabitants. Nochlin mentioned that many of Gérôme’s paintings worked to persuade their audiences by carefully representing a "preexisting Oriental reality.”

The Middle East was under the control of the Ottoman Empire for many centuries. It was declining but still in control until World War 1. World War 1 impacted the modern Middle East a tremendous amount. Who controlled the Middle East changed because of oil, resources, and the relationships between Israelis and Palestinians also changed drastically.

During the mid 1900’s Britain and France had to give up mandates which allowed Middle Eastern countries to gain their independance.

At the start of the 18th century, Middle Eastern countries witnessed their Eastern neighbors being overtaken by Western Europe and were faced with a choice: to pick apart or to be picked apart. It was from this dilemma that defensive developmentalism emerged in the Middle East. Empires such as the Ottomans, Persia, Tunisia, and Egypt began the process of centralizing their authority in order to assert effective control over their populations. The chief goal of defensive developmentalism for these empires was to assert their autonomy, whether that be autonomy from the Ottomans in the case of Egypt and Tunisia, or from outside imperialists in the Ottoman Empire and Persia. In order to accomplish these goals, defensive developmentalists undertook extensive reforms to establish their empires as relevant worldwide powers.

Imperialism began in the 1870s, European states established vast empires mainly in Africa, but also in Asia and the Middle East. Imperialism can be used as an act of expanding used as an act of developing a country’s empire through the use of force, colonization, or coercion. This method can be used to benefit one or both sides of the process. By means of benefiting one side would be considered as being a world bully because the nation is trying to expand or develop with the help of others without doing the other nation any good. As a result of advancing both nations can give a nation the name of a world leader with it helping both sides, everyone is developing in a way to help not just themselves, but others as well. America used imperialism for the good or bad as long as they got something out of it in some way. Many in the U.S. thought that country must be able to compete and saw the opportunity to take its own colonies before European countries got them all. Colonial powers often struggled with each other over the best potential features. These motives tend to believe its purpose is gaining additional wealth, power, and control. America used this approach as an intimidator to get economic growth, expand their political power, spread of the culture’s religion, and build military and naval bases.

territory with Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon each trying to gain the upper hand on

This economic modernization in the Middle East, could only be a short term success which does not guarantee the successful and stable economic development of oil rich states and the region as a whole in the long term. The Middle East, despite its vast reserves of oil, is still considered a developing region due to the high reliance on oil revenues and rather weak production sector of the economy as well as due to some political factors such as lack of democracy, corruption, reluctance to the reforms and other issues. There are various reasons as to why the Middle East is still considered a developing region despite its oil wealth. Natural resource revenues have also been linked to slow economic growth rates, inequality, and poverty. One culprit may be "Dutch disease," which was discussed earlier. Other factors may include the volatility associated with commodity prices, which can have especially negative impacts on weak-state economies; and the underdevelopment of agricultural and manufacturing sectors during boom periods in resource-based economies. And even when oil abundance produces high growth, it often benefits only a few corrupt elites rather than translating into higher living standards for most of the population. Corruption is one of the economic deficiencies which can weaken economic growth and development; thus it is considered as an important impediment to economic growth and political stability, particularly in developing countries. The dependence on a

Different regions in the Middle East have different experienced different levels of colonialism. Prior to the First World War some regions of the Ottoman Empire were already under the influence of European countries (Owen 2006, p. 23). Between the first and second world wars most of the empire was formally divided between, and under the control of, Britain and France (Owen 2006, p. 25) and even after the second world war European influence lingered. Cole and Kandiyoti describe these periods as 'informal imperialism

Middle East was seen as the central junction for the communication of the British global empire. The British were clearly the dominant powerhouse of the late 30's throughout much of Europe and the Middle East. The shortest sea connection between Britain and India was through the Suez Canal, while the air and land routes connected Africa and Egypt to Palestine and the Middle East. This area was also a major source of oil. Oil was to become one of the most useful chemicals needed by the economy of a country both in peace and most importantly for war. The British commitment to a Jewish National Home in Palestine, agreed upon in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, created a series of conflicts

Many of the states were early signatories to BITs, agreements prepared by capital exporting states. In the early 1980s, the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) which was formed in 1956, published three draft BITs, which provided different models of investment liberalization and protection.(41) In 1980, the United treaties Agreement for the Investment of Arab Capital was signed in the Arab States creating an Arab Investment Court and its first decision was given in the case of Tanmiah v. Tunisia, 12 October 2004. In addition, the European Economic Community (EEC) and some African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states concluded the Lom? III and Lom? IV Conventions, both of which had sections addressing investment.(42) In 2007, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) embraced an Investment Agreement for the COMESA Common Investment Area. (43) In 1987, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) created the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments (ASEAN Investment Agreement) applicable to ASEAN investors. The ASEAN Investment Agreement was considered in Yaung Chi Oo Trading Pte. Ltd. v. Myanmar. The ASEAN Investment Agreement was amended by the Jakarta Protocol in 1996. In 1998, the Framework Agreement on the ASEAN Investment Area (Framework Agreement) was concluded.