European colonialism in the Middle East

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European colonialism in the Middle East

• Intervention, Transformation,
• Independence

A romanticized painting of Napoleon inspecting a
mummy at the Pyramids.
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Definitions

• Imperialism
• Policy of extending control over foreign entities
  either thru direct or indirect political or
  economic intervention
• Colonialism
• System in which a state claims sovereignty over
  territory resources beyond its borders,
  displacing or ruling its local population

Cecil Rhodes, From Cape to Cairo, as depicted
in a 19th c. Punch magazine.
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Why did Europe become so strong?

• New state types
• emergence of the national state around 1500
• well-defined territory
• relatively centralized
• Professional armies
• New accumulation of wealth
• New economies
• Exploration of the New World, 1450-1700.
• Industrial capitalism

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W. European Transformation

• New ideas
• Science and Enlightenment
• Development of a new scientific discourses
• New identities
• Us and Them, Civilized world and
  uncivilized world, Orient Occident
• emergence of nationalism

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ResponsesTransformations in Ottoman rule

• Ottoman reform The Tanzimat, 1830s-1870s
• New centralization
• New technologies (railroad)
• New education
• New institutions
• Autonomous reforms (Egypt)
• Erosion of Ottoman economic and political
  independence
• Capitulations
• European protection of non-Muslim minorities
• 1881 Public Debt Administration
• Nationalism
• loss of Ottoman territories in Europe
• Turkish and Arab nationalism
• Communal violence

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The Age of Empire, 1875-1914

• Growing global division between the very powerful
  and the less powerful
• Rise of colonial empires
• Between 1876 1914 about 25 of the worlds land
  surface distributed as colonies among about 6
  states (E. Hobsbawm)
• Reasons economics (new markets new resources),
  strategic reasons, political symbolism,
  nationalism

In the late 19th c. around 60 of Britains
cotton exports went to India further east
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Imperialism in Africa, late 19th-early 20th
century
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European colonialism in the Middle East, late
18th-late 19th c.

• 1798-1801 French invasion of Egypt
• British outposts on the Arabian Peninsula, 1799
• French annexation of Algeria, 1834 (settler
  colonialism)
• British administrative occupation of Egypt, 1882
• Russian and British imperialism in Iran

Geromes Napoleon in Egypt (1863)
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European colonialism in the Middle East, 20th
century

• WWI and Competing promises
• Husayn-McMahon Correspondence, Sykes-Picot
  agreement Balfour Declaration
• Post WWI League of Nations-sanctioned Mandate
  System gives Britain and France administrative
  control of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria,
  Lebanon
• Many other areas remain under direct or indirect
  colonialism

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Sykes-Picot Agreement
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The Mandate System

• certain parts of the world put under
  trusteeship of various victorious European
  powers
• British mandates in the MidEast Palestine, Iraq,
  Transjordan
• French mandates in the MidEast Syria, Lebanon
• Mandates both sanctify western colonialism but
  also circumscribe it

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• ARTICLE 22 OF THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF
  NATIONSJune 28, 1919
• To those colonies and territories which as a
  consequence of the late war have ceased to be
  under the sovereignty of the States which
  formerly governed them and which are inhabited by
  peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under
  the strenuous conditions of the modern world,
  there should be applied the principle that the
  well-being and development of such peoples form a
  sacred trust of civilization and that securities
  for the performance of this trust should be
  embodied in this Covenant.
• 2. The best method of giving practical effect to
  this principle is that the tutelage of such
  peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations
  who by reason of their resources, their
  experience or their geographical position can
  best undertake this responsibility, and who are
  willing to accept it, and that this tutelage
  should be exercised by them as Mandatories on
  behalf of the League.
• 3. The character of the mandate must differ
  according to the stage of the development of the
  people, the geographic situation of the
  territory, its economic conditions and other
  similar circumstances.

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Outside the Mandate

• True independence Turkey
• Mostly independent Yemen, S. Arabia
• Direct colonial rule Libya (Italy) Algeria,
  Morocco, Tunisia (French)
• External control influence Iran (Britain,
  Russia, U.S.), Egypt (Britain)
• British treaties of protection Kuwait, Oman,
  U.A.E.

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Map Correction Iran and Egypt were not fully
independent until much later than indicated here.
Both continued to have extensive external
involvement in their economic and political
affairs.
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Full Independence How and When

• Military Coup Egypt (1952), Iraq (1958)
• Revolution Iran (1979)
• War Turkey (1920-1923), Algeria (1954-1962),
  Israel (1948)
• Uprising and Int. Agreement Libya, Syria,
  Lebanon (after WWII)
• Treaty Jordan (1946/8), Tunisia (1956), Morocco
  (1956)
• Communities promised states/autonomy that did not
  receive them Palestinians, Kurds, Armenians

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Colonialism Overarching effects

• Creation of new, national states in place of the
  Ottoman Empire (Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Turkey,
  etc.)
• Implanting of western-supported regimes
  (especially monarchies) that use violence to
  maintain authority. In many cases, these would
  later be violently overthrown.
• Centralization of political power. Loss of rural
  autonomy.
• Reorganization of social relationships among
  different groups. Privileging of some religious
  and social groups over others, leading to future
  conflict.
• Massive economic disruption. New economic
  relationships, with arrangements particularly
  benefiting western powers
• New models nationalism, modernity vs
  traditional

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Colonialism Imperialism,summed up (a
perspective)