Full Answer
Why was the Middle East so important to the United States?
Suddenly, the United States had new interests around the world. As armies and economies shifted from coal to oil—and as Middle East oil production increased—the Middle East became a decisive battleground in this much larger global competition.
Why do western states clash over the Middle East?
Even long after a new kind of challenge emerged with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Western states continued to clash among themselves over the Middle East more than over any other area of the Third World. The issues were, and still are, oil, strategic influence and markets. [1]
Is the Middle East too important to abandon?
But as the United States plunged into the Cold War, the Middle East was too important to abandon. Over the next seven weeks, Babel is going to take you on a deep dive into the United States’ experience in the Middle East.
What were the effects of imperialism in the Middle East?
In the Middle East, the established states were able to contain the new political challenges: British imperialism crushed revolts in Egypt and Iraq, as France later would in Syria.
What is an important resource in the Middle East?
Like oil and water Today, abundant petroleum fields dominate the area's economy. The Middle East is similarly disproportionately rich in natural gas (32 percent of the world's known natural gas reserves are in the region) and phosphate (Morocco alone has more than half of the world's reserves).
What is the main resource shipped in the Middle East?
We'll start with the obvious: the number one export for many countries here is crude oil or related petroleum products. Middle Eastern countries made up a significant portion of global oil export revenues during 2015 with shipments valued at $325 billion or 41.3% of global crude oil exports.
What is the most important primary product of the Middle East?
We'll start with the obvious: the number one export for many countries here is crude oil or related petroleum products. Middle Eastern countries made up a significant portion of global oil export revenues during 2015 with shipments valued at $325 billion or 41.3% of global crude oil exports.
Why is oil so important in the Middle East?
Oil sales have created immense wealth and boosted the economy in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. Millions of people in these and other parts of the Middle East have homes, jobs and education as a direct result of oil.
Is water or oil more important in the Middle East?
But the Middle East faces a bigger problem and one that will have long-term implications on its stability. In this region, water is more valuable than oil. That doesn't mean oil isn't important to the region or to the numerous countries that rely on that supply.
What natural resource is scarce in the Middle East?
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA)* is the most water-scarce region of the world. Home to 6.3 percent of the world's population, the region contains only 1.4 percent of the world's renewable fresh water. As population pressures in the region increase, the demand for water resources rises.
What did the ancient Middle East trade?
South Arabian merchants utilized the Incense Route to transport not only frankincense and myrrh but also spices, gold, ivory, pearls, precious stones, and textiles—all of which arrived at the local ports from Africa, India, and the Far East.
What is the most influential culture in the Middle East?
The majority of people in the Middle East are Muslim. Using complete sentences, identify and describe the four major ethnic groups of the Middle East. There are four main ethnic groups living in the Middle East. The Arabs are the largest, making up 75% of the region's population.
Why is the Middle East important?
The Middle East is an important element in this strategic picture. This region has provided no shortage of crises to fuel international tension. Current maneuverings around UN Resolution 598 (to end the Gulf war) or the intricacies of the Armacost-Petrovsky negotiations (on Afghanistan) display the degree to which the components of the current crises have long antecedents. From the late 18th century until World War I, the “Eastern question&rdquo — the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire — was the most acrimonious issue in relations between the European powers.
What is the most distinctive feature of the Middle East compared to other regions of the Third World?
Secondly, the most distinctive feature of the Middle East compared to other regions of the Third World is the ferocity of the interstate conflicts. These have little to do with East-West rivalry, even if they do, over time, become embroiled with it.
What are the lessons of the post-war Middle East?
The first is that the link between social upheaval in the region and the great power contest has been an indirect one. Such developments as the Iranian revolution or the Palestinian resistance have caused great anxiety in the West, and provided some opportunities to the USSR, but overall the Soviet bloc has been remarkably unsuccessful in taking advantage of the turmoil there.
Why did Moscow use US involvement in Afghanistan?
Moscow, for instance, uses US involvement in Afghanistan to obscure the local causes of counter-revolution. Much of Washington’s strategic discourse laments the invidious role of the USSR and its “proxies” and “surrogates” in the Third World.
What are the three conflicts that have emerged in the 1980s?
Presently three regional conflicts have become an integral part of East-West negotiation and the Soviet-US relationship. These are: Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war and the Arab-Israeli conflict. While these are distinct issues, they overlap in important ways.
What issues did the Western countries face in 1917?
The issues were, and still are, oil, strategic influence and markets. [1] . The current Western confusion over relations with Iran, ...
What is the second question about the East West conflict?
The second question involves the character of the East-West conflict as it affects the Third World, and the degree to which great power involvement can cause, exacerbate or potentially resolve conflicts in Asia, Africa and Latin America. A central maxim of much recent writing on East-West relations holds that the nuclear arms race is a means ...
What is environmental history in the Middle East?
Beyond its contribution to a regional historiography, Middle East environmental history offers some useful insights for world historians. It helps define the region as a unit of study and helps illustrate underlying patterns in its development that transcend national differences and the passing of kingdoms and empires. As in similar studies of Africa, Latin America, or South and East Asia, such perspectives can help clarify the particular path one part of the world has taken without relying on mere cultural exceptionalism. 51 This is not to say that environmental history imposes a new geographical determinism: Yet it underlines the environmental constraints and incentives that have driven Middle Eastern states and peoples throughout history, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Over centuries, the region's arid, variable climate has presented a recurring challenge to long-term growth and development, while political power has risen and fallen based on control and distribution of key productive lands and natural resources. This environmental approach helps us to move past the narrow focus on religious and ethnic conflict that often dominates views of the Middle East and to see the region's story as that of a branch of humanity dealing with the common opportunities and limits of a particular patch of nature. Such a shift should come as a welcome development for world history.
How have scholars studied the Middle East?
In certain respects, scholars of various fields have investigated Middle East environments and societies for some time. For decades, prehistorians have reconstructed natural and anthropogenic changes in the landscape through sediment and pollen analysis, 1 and classical archaeologists have reconstructed elements of population and settlement, agriculture and erosion through excavations and field surveys. 2 Anthropologists and historians since Herodotus have also looked at the influence of key geographic features such as the Nile and Mesopotamian river valleys and the unique ecology of the region's pastoral nomads. Furthermore, starting in the 1970s, historians under the influence of the Annales school began to look more closely into issues of demography, disease, and land use. 3
What chapter is Climate of Rebellion?
34 See White, Climate of Rebellion, chapter 5.
What were the changes in the nineteenth century?
In the nineteenth century, the emergence of modern empires and states was closely linked to a return to some pre-crisis trends in population and land use along with a resumption of central control over population movements and natural resources, now backed by European ideas and industrial technologies. This shift began with aggressive public health measures, adopted first by Mehmed Ali's breakaway regime in Egypt in the early 1800s, followed by the Ottoman Empire (and somewhat later Iran). Recruiting European advisors, the modernizing Egyptian ruler instituted sanitation and quarantine measures, imposing official registration and state controls over the movement of subjects, while drastically reducing disease mortality. 43 Ottoman measures of the 1830s—part of the centralizing reforms known as the Tanzimat—would enjoy similar success, in spite of strong popular opposition. 44 Likewise, khedival Egypt 45 and later the Ottoman imperial government 46 undertook more aggressive schemes of nomad control and settlement (followed by Iran in the twentieth century under the Pahlavis). 47
Who wrote the book Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World?
37 Andrew M. Watson, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700 – 1100 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Who wrote Man and the Mediterranean Forest?
22 For instance, J.V. Thirgood, Man and the Mediterranean Forest: A History of Resource Depletion (New York: Academic Press, 1981).
Who wrote the book Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt?
13 Alan Mikhail , Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
