A Century of Turmoil in the Middle East

On the ancient and mysterious land of the Fertile Crescent, the two world wars were like two massive earthquakes, completely reshaping the course of Middle Eastern history. A Century of Turmoil in the Middle East takes readers across time to witness the grand, arduous journey of this land as it struggles through upheaval and transformation. After World War I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and the great powers crudely carved up the Middle East with a single document, the Sykes-Picot Agreement. British and French colonial rule and the rise of Zionism planted the seeds of conflict in Palestine. The Great Arab Revolt briefly kindled hopes of independence, only to be crushed in the struggle among the great powers. Kemal founded a secular republic in Turkey, while the House of Saud united the Arabian Peninsula. A new political order was painstakingly built upon the ruins. The flames of World War II spread to the Middle East, turning it into an important battleground contested by the Allies and the Axis powers. The pro-German coup in Iraq, the Allied occupation of Iran, and the life-and-death struggle at El Alamein all profoundly influenced the course of the war. Meanwhile, the oil economy began to rise. Saudi oil fields and Iraqi pipelines made the Middle East increasingly important strategically. As war gave way to peace and peace to war, nationalism surged across the region. From Nasser’s revolution in Egypt and the rise of the Ba'ath Party in Syria to Iran’s nationalization of its oil industry, Middle Eastern nations continued searching for paths to independence and development. Yet the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the intensification of sectarian divisions plunged the region into new turmoil.