Objective : Cover political and social events that lead to the development of nationalism in the Middle East

Fall of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman empire began to decline in

the 1700s with the lost of Greece and North Africa During WWI the Ottomans sided with the Germans During this time they killed a million Christian Armenians during the Armenian Genocide British and French forces convince Arabs to revolt against the Ottomans At the end of WWI the Ottoman Empire collapsed Turkey was all that was left under Ottoman control

Fall of the Ottoman Empire

British and French forces convince Arabs to revolt

against the Ottomans At the end of WWI the Ottoman Empire collapsed Turkey was all that was left under Ottoman control

Modernization of Turkey
By 1923 the Last Ottoman Sultan was

driven out of turkey Mustafa Kemal became President and transformed Turkey into a modern state Kemal eliminated Arabic elements from the Turkish Language and adopted the Roman alphabet

Modernization of Turkey
Kemal forced people to adopt last names
Kemal outlawed all Muslim customs and traditions Kemal gave equal rights to women including the right

to vote Kemal changes to Turkey were lasting and profound

The Beginning of Modern Iran

A similar process was underway in Persia In 1908 oil was discovered in Persia foreign investors

flooded the country However most of the money was taken by foreigners This led to a Persian nationalist movement

The Beginning of Modern Iran

In 1921 Reza Khan takes over the government and

becomes Shah (King) Khan follows Kemals example and modernizes Persia renames country Iran During WWII the Shah harbors a large number of Nazis in Iran

Arab Nationalism
Arabs are a group of people untied by language Despite promises of independence after WWI

Britain and France end up controlling the Arab

mandates of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria These mandates controlled everything This began the cry for Arab Unity 1932 Saudi Arabia is formed and is very poor 1930s oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia and soon became very wealthy

The Problem of Palestine

Great Britain controlled the mandate of

Palestine after WWI Palestine is ancient home of the Jewish people but few Jews lived there 1917 Britain issues the Balfour Declaration which support the idea of a Jewish homeland British also promised to protect the rights of non-Jewish people in Palestine

The Problem of Palestine

Palestine at the time was 98% Muslim and

they were angry Jewish settlers begin to arrive as Nazi persecution increased Tensions between Jews and Muslims also increased in Palestine Britain tried to restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine in 1939 Britain placed a limit of 75,000 Jews per year by 1944 no more Jews were allowed in Palestine