The Middle East British Imperialism in the 20th Century
During and after World War I, many territories of the Middle East influenced British power. Arab Ottoman provinces were in hopes that the British and French would support the independence of Arab. Throughout the Middle East during the nineteenth century, all three types of imperialism occurred, including political, economic, and cultural imperialism (Onley, 2015). During this time, European imperialist powers threatened most of the Middle East. This act was mainly due to the fact that the Middle East wasn’t as technologically advanced in military weaponry, which made it easy to take over such territories. Although these powers had a substantial influence on the territories of the Middle East, many of the territories responded with backlash. The impact of the European powers, however, resulted in significant changes for most Middle East territories.
The introduction of British imperialism affected the diplomacy of most of the Middle East counties in the 20th Century. The British imperialism hindered not only the diplomacy of countries in the Middle East but also those overseas. The primary goal of British Imperialism was to conquer and take control of Middle East counties either by military or political representation. They brought in new rules of governance in the Middle East. As a result, countries in the Middle East brought to halt most of their negotiations, and focused on these new rules. However, some of the countries in the Middle East who were against the British Imperialism started borrowing funds from Western Nations. In contrast, others concentrated on revolution and development in their region, thus causing bankruptcy (Onley, 2015). For example, Egypt tried to outdo the Western colonialist through their military forces and finances they borrowed from the Western Nations. However, when they became bankrupt, the British imperial found it easy to over-through them. Therefore, the Egyptians had to accept British relations, ideas, and rules. This vacuum had to be filled by the British rulers, thus influencing the diplomacy system among most countries in the Middle East.
The level of economy in most countries in the Middle East was affected negatively. When the British colonialist invaded the Middle East, they came intending to grab lands and politically dominate these regions. As a result, they had to tap in their resources to lure some rulers in the area. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the Middle East region had one of the largest oil reserves in the World. Therefore, when the British imperialist invaded it, they invested a lot in the industrialization process in the region (Galpern, 2013). Consequently, most of the Arab leaders started supporting and answering to them, despite being given empty promises such as getting protection from local rebellion. Some of the leaders, such as Emirs, found this beneficial as they found it easy to compete with their rivals. Nonetheless, the economy of most countries in the Middle East depreciated as the British took control of all income-generating activities in this region.
The Ottoman Empire was an empire founded in 1299 by the Oghuz Turks. The empire controlled parts of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. During the 19th century, the empire began seeing its decline resulting from the falling behind of technological advancement. The Ottoman Empire would try to fix its situation with the Tanzimat reforms, but it proved to be useless. The Ottoman Empire finally came to an end with a loss to the Allies in the war. The Qajar dynasty was a royal family of Azerbaijani Turkic origin controlled Persia (MacKenzie, 2017). It would eventually end as well after the revolts in Persia took place. These ends would pave the way for British countries to start moving into the Middle East, such as France going into Egypt and Syria. These British powers did not, however, want the burden of complete control over these countries but did view them as a great financial investment. The British presence in the region of the Middle East did end up affecting their longstanding cultural and societal ways. The countries of the Middle East tried to avoid British dominance but eventually failed.
After World War I, the decline of Western political influence in the Middle East began to dissolve. Persia, Turkey, and Egypt were finally providing sufficient backlash to take control of their political rights. Many of the Middle East countries would have political independence by the year 1950 (Louis, 1984/2016). Although they had gained this new control, the Western powers still wanted to benefit financially from the Middle East countries as well as to stop the communist Soviet Union from expanding into these countries. To accomplish this objective without having a revolt from the Middle East countries, Western powers gave Middle East countries financial and technological support. The Western power would eventually divide the Middle East into nation-states as a way of establishing a more natural path for power within these countries.
Throughout the Middle East self-determination, this is the process by which a country determines its statehood and forms its own allegiances and government, was still a goal that was yet to be reached. Many countries of the Middle East were still determined to one day achieve their goal of gaining economic independence as well. This was a hard decision, however, due to the influence given by Western powers with guaranteed financial stability and military equipment. Those countries who sought economic independence also became big fans of socialism because of the economic superiority that it could bring to the region (Louis, 1984/2016). Middle Eastern leaders throughout such countries as Iraq, Persia, Syria, and Lebanon would be given the difficult choice of having the continued help of the Western powers with their assistance in many facets of their life or finally establishing their economy to achieve self-determination (MacKenzie, 2017). Throughout time the Middle East countries have been able to clear the air between Western power dependency and their aspirations of being independent countries. Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iraq achieved independence from Britain, and other countries began to follow. These countries now had the opportunity to progress by developing their economic structure, creating a personal cultural barrier, and forming a self-standing government (Fisher, 1999/2019). The Middle East did, however, face the dilemma of being one of the last regions of the world to develop such an internal structure. In a way, they would have to catch up to other countries to establish their power upon the world.
From 1950 until now, Middle East countries have rapidly changed politically, economically, and culturally. Many of these countries, however, are still trying to find the right identity to define them. This means that change is imminent over time that will help shape their true identities. What may also be a factor for shaping their identities are actual conflicts regarding interests with other Middle East countries such as Libya, Egypt, and Sudan political strife and the Petroleum conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. These seem to be just bumps in the road onto a paved well-structured government for each of these countries. Many developing nations from the past faced similar matters throughout their upcoming as well (Fisher, 1999/2019). The Middle East is projected to one day be a stable political and economic force with dense oil regions and strong Islamic political views conquering the areas as well, all signs point to great things heading towards these developing countries soon.
In conclusion, British Imperialism in the Middle East during the 20th Century had the impacts on the Middle East, the European, and other African counties in which they had colonial relations. To begin with, the diplomatic and economic consequences, as mentioned earlier, British Imperialism aimed at ensuring governance to the Middle East countries, but as a result, the countries through their leaders engaged in diplomatic relations with the British for support against their competitors such as Egypt. Despite such alliances of the Middle East countries with their British colonies, imperialism was subject to the negative impact on the Middle East countries as it affected their trade and agricultural dominance. The activities involved in British imperialism include the effects of World War I, social, cultural, and economic effects. Therefore it forms the core of historical relations to the Middle East countries and the World. British imperialism also resulted in the emergence of cultural identities and national boundaries resulting in the formation of communities and geographical relations of the Middle East countries.
References
Fisher, J. (2019). Curzon and British imperialism in the Middle East, 1916-19. In Google Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bcIOPouftKgC&oi=fnd&pg=PR6&dq=The+Middle+East+British+Imperialism+in+20th+Century&ots=reSaU-0uRr&sig=bBEVMy8a14XTPSeJA2rmijIAErQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20Middle%20East%20British%20Imperialism%20in%2020th%20Century&f=false (Original work published 1999)
Galpern, S. G. (2013). Money, oil, and empire in the Middle East. In ideas.repec.org. Retrieved from https://ideas.repec.org/b/cup/cbooks/9781107657182.html
Louis, W. R. (2016). The British empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism. In Google Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ATQQ0FMS1FQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR15&dq=The+Middle+East+British+Imperialism+in+20th+Century&ots=N5R01J_MAo&sig=BZlZEIPk3_r8hv4iHLrS4lnD_uk&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20Middle%20East%20British%20Imperialism%20in%2020th%20Century&f=false (Original work published 1984)
MacKenzie, J. M. (2017). The empire of nature: hunting, conservation and British Imperialism. In www.manchesterhive.com. Retrieved from https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526119582/9781526119582.xml
Onley, J. (2015). Britain’s informal empire in the gulf, in citeseerx.ist.psu.edu (pp. 29–45). Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.495.8658&rep=rep1&type=pdf