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2.6: The Middle East

  • Page ID
    51691
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    Wilson’s proposals for self-determination were also ignored when Britain and France divided the Middle East between them instead of granting the Arabs their promised independence from the dismembered Turkish Ottoman Empire. Instead, Britain and France set up de facto colonies with artificial borders that split populations and put warring groups in the same country. In the Sykes-Picot agreement, Britain took Palestine, Jordan and Iraq, while France took Syria and Lebanon. This set up many of the conflicts that exist today. For instance, Britain formed Iraq out of three dissimilar provinces of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and put in charge a king who had never been there. In addition, Britain’s Balfour Declaration supported the concept of a Jewish state in the middle of an overwhelmingly Muslim Middle East.


    This page titled 2.6: The Middle East is shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lawrence Meacham.

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