The Near and Middle East (1828–1971 CE)

Empires in Decline, Nations in Transition, and Oil in Ascendancy

Geography & Environmental Context

The Near and Middle East includes three fixed subregions:

• The Near East — Israel, Egypt, Sudan, western Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, southwestern Turkey, and southwestern Cyprus.

• The Middle East — Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, eastern Jordan, eastern Saudi Arabia, and northern Oman.

• Southeast Arabia — southern Oman, eastern Yemen, and the island of Socotra.

This vast region links the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Caspian Basin, bridging Africa, Europe, and Asia. It is dominated by deserts and highlands, punctuated by fertile river valleys (the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates) and strategic straits — the Suez Canal, the Bab el-Mandeb, and the Strait of Hormuz — that define global trade and geopolitics.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

Aridity remained the defining condition. The 19th century brought episodes of famine and epidemic following droughts in Egypt, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula. Irrigation schemes and canal building, such as the Suez Canal (opened 1869) and the Assiut Barrage (1902), transformed riverine agriculture. Petroleum exploration and urban expansion in the 20th century accelerated desertification and water demand. Monsoon moisture sustained oases in Oman and Yemen, while seasonal Nile floods continued until the Aswan High Dam (1960–70) reshaped the river’s ecology.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Agrarian bases persisted in the Nile Valley, the Fertile Crescent, and the Iranian Plateau, producing wheat, cotton, dates, and fruits.

• Nomadic and pastoral tribes in Arabia, the Levant, and Sudan maintained camel and sheep herding, adapting to modern markets.

• Urbanization surged in Cairo, Istanbul, Tehran, Baghdad, Beirut, and Jeddah, intensified by European trade and oil wealth.

• Port cities—Aden, Basra, Kuwait City, Manama, and Doha—grew into nodes of global commerce.

Technology & Material Culture

European imperial penetration introduced telegraphs, railways (notably the Hejaz Railway, 1908), and modern weaponry. In the 20th century, oil extraction and refining brought pipelines, tankers, and industrial zones. Traditional crafts—carpets, calligraphy, metalwork, and ceramics—remained vital symbols of identity. Concrete architecture and Western education transformed cities, while mosques and bazaars continued as cultural anchors.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Trade routes: The Suez Canal reoriented world shipping; the Persian Gulf became an oil artery.

• Pilgrimage: The Hajj connected Muslims globally through Mecca and Medina.

• Migration: Rural–urban drift filled cities; labor migration later linked Yemenis, Egyptians, and Iranians to Gulf oil fields.

• Military corridors: The Near and Middle East served as theaters of imperial rivalries—British in the Gulf and Egypt, Russians in the Caucasus, Ottomans across Anatolia and Arabia.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Religion and reform: Islamic modernists such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh sought synthesis of faith and reason; Christian minorities in Lebanon and Armenia fostered education and journalism.

• Literature and art: The Nahda (Arab Renaissance) revived Arabic prose and poetry; Persian and Turkish writers blended realism with nationalism.

• Architecture: Cairo’s modern boulevards, Tehran’s avenues, and oil-era Gulf skylines redefined urban form while domed mosques and minarets remained emblems of continuity.

• Music and media: Radio and cinema from Cairo, Tehran, and Istanbul spread popular culture across linguistic and sectarian boundaries.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Desert agriculture expanded through artesian wells and canals; the introduction of cash crops like cotton in Egypt and tobacco in Iran restructured rural economies. Oases sustained date-palm and grain cultivation, while pastoralists adjusted routes to motor transport and border restrictions. In coastal cities, desalination and modern infrastructure emerged to offset water scarcity.

Political & Military Shocks

• Imperial decline and reform:

  • The Ottoman Empire weakened, culminating in its dissolution after World War I.

  • Egypt’s Muhammad Ali dynasty modernized administration and industry but fell under British occupation (1882).

  • Iran’s Qajar dynasty faced constitutional revolution (1905–11) and later Pahlavi modernization (from 1925).

• World Wars and mandates: British and French mandates carved up former Ottoman territories; Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Palestine emerged under European oversight.

• Nationalism and revolution:

  • Turkey’s Republic (1923) under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk secularized and industrialized Anatolia.

  • Arab nationalism surged—Nasser’s Egypt championed anti-imperial unity.

  • Iran underwent the 1951 oil nationalization crisis and the White Revolution (1963).

  • The Zionist movement culminated in the creation of Israel (1948) and successive Arab–Israeli wars (1948, 1956, 1967).

• Oil and Cold War: The discovery of major oil fields (Iran 1908; Iraq 1927; Saudi Arabia 1938; Kuwait 1938) made the region central to global power politics. U.S. and Soviet rivalry deepened through alliances and arms races.

Transition

Between 1828 and 1971, the Near and Middle East transformed from imperial provinces and desert sultanates into a mosaic of nation-states, revolutionary republics, and monarchies bound by oil and ideology. The collapse of Ottoman and colonial empires unleashed nationalist movements, while petroleum wealth and Cold War geopolitics redefined economies and alliances. In the deserts of Arabia and the deltas of the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates, modernization coexisted with faith, and cities like Cairo, Tehran, and Riyadh became centers of a region poised between deep tradition and global transformation

Several Arab organizations oppose Jewish immigration in the 1920s, including the Palestine Arab Congress, Muslim-Christian associations, and the Arab Executive.

As the Jewish settlement strengthens and deepens its roots in Palestine, anxiety mounts among the Palestinian Arabs.

The greatest asset brought by the Zionists settling Palestine is their organizational acumen, which has allowed for the institutionalization of the movement despite deep ideological cleavages.

...Zefat, and, ...

...Hebron, one hundred and thirty-three Jews are massacred and three hundred and thirty-nine wounded; the Arab casualties, mostly at the hands of British security forces, being one hundred and sixteen killed—including at least three women—and two hundred and thirty-two wounded.

Sixty-four Jews in Hebron alone are killed and over fifty injured, most of them from an old Jewish community, largely anti-Zionist; the Arab police "stood passively by while their fellow Muslims moved into the town and proceeded to deeds which would have been revolting among animals," and a still greater slaughter is prevented only by the bravery of one member of the vastly undermanned British police.

Many are saved by their Muslim neighbors.

The Jewish community of Hebron ceases to exist when its surviving members leave for Jerusalem.

The causes of the disturbances are varied: an inter-Palestinian power struggle, a significant cutback in British military presence in Palestine, and a more conciliatory posture by the new British authorities toward the Arab position.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky's belief in the inevitable conflict between Jews and Arabs and his call for the establishment of an "iron wall" that will force the Arabs to accept Zionism is now vindicated in the minds of many Jews.

The establishment of the Jewish agency in Jerusalem, while accentuating Arab fears, gives the Zionists a new sense of confidence.

High Commissioner Sir John Chancellor, warned by the Zionist Executive that the Arabs are preparing to attack the Jews of Jerusalem with massive riots, refuses to cut his vacation short, declaring that relations between the two sides are improving.

However, “the goading policy of the Supreme Moslem Council over the Wailing Wall had the desired effect of driving Jews to exasperation.”

A dispute in Jerusalem concerning religious practices at the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, results on August 15 in a demonstration at the site to counter "Arab arrogance" and the raising of a Zionist flag over the Wall by members of Betar, who were the organizers—"a major provocation even in the eyes of Jewish public opinion".

Arabs, fearing that the Noble Sanctuary is in danger, respond by attacking Jews.

One Jewish youth is stabbed in the back.

During a week of communal clashes in Jerusalem, ...

The first Arab Women's Union in Palestine, headed by Zalikha al-Shihabi, is founded in Jerusalem on October 26, 1929.

From the 26th to the 29th, the first Palestinian Arab Women's Conference is held in Jerusalem with at least three hundred in attendance and is followed by a demonstration and a meeting with the High Commissioner to protest British policy.

The sizable immigration wave that began in 1924 had continued for two years, bringing rapid development largely in Tel Aviv, which has absorbed a considerable number of the immigrants of the fourth Aliyah.

Palestine has absorbed in five years about eighty thousand immigrants, mainly from the countries of eastern Europe, half of them from Poland and the rest from the USSR, Romania and Lithuania.

About twelve percent have come from elsewhere in Asia, mainly Iraq and Yemen.

Only a few have come from the rest of Europe and the Americas.

During the years 1926 and 1927 the Jewish settlers had experienced what is to be the worst economic crisis of the British mandate.

About twenty-three thousand of the recent immigrants elected to leave the country before the economic upturn of 1928 and 1929.

The years from 1923 to 1929 have been relatively quiet; Arab passivity is partly due to the drop in Jewish immigration in 1926­-28.

In 1929, many private entrepreneurs are forced to look to Ahdut HaAvodah to pull them through hard economic times.

Ahdut HaAvodah is now powerful enough to absorb its old ideological rival, HaPoel HaTzair.

They merge to form the Israeli Workers Party, Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael, better known by its acronym Mapai, with David Ben-Gurion at its head.

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who has served as a member of Histadrut's secretariat from 1920 to 1929, aids his old colleague in the formation of Mapai, which is to dominate the political life of the State of Israel for the next two generations.

The hegemony of Ben-Gurion's Labor Zionism in the Yishuv is challenged by the Revisionist Zionists led by Jabotinsky, who espouses a more liberal economic structure and a more zealous defense policy than the Labor movement.

Jabotinsky believes that there is an inherent conflict between Zionist objectives and the aspirations of Palestinian Arabs.

He calls for the establishment of a strong Jewish military force capable of compelling the Arabs to accept Zionist claims to Palestine.

Jabotinsky also thinks that Ben-Gurion's focus on building a socialist Jewish economy in Palestine needlessly diverts the Zionist movement from its true goal: the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

In the wake of the Palestine riots, the Fifth Aliyah begins.