The Middle East in Bible Prophecy - United Church of God

38 The Middle East in Bible Prophecy The Creation of the Modern Middle East
39
The Creation of the
Modern Middle East
For hundreds of years the Arabs did not have a government of
their own. From the conquest of the Arab lands by the Ottoman
Turks in the early 16th century, they were not an independent
people. Until World War I most of the Arab world lay within
the Ottoman Empire. Other parts had become colonial territories of the
European powers during the 19th century as the Ottoman Empire began
to shrink.
The Arabs
yearned for a
free and independent
Arabicspeaking
nation.
In the 20th century
they were
to become independent—yet
not one nation
but more than
20. One great
frustration for
the Arab world
today is that
there are 22
Arab countries
and little immediate
prospect
of Arab unity.
Left, until the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World
War I, most of the Middle East had been controlled by the
Ottoman Turks for centuries. Right, after the Allied victory
in World War I, the British and French governed the area
and eventually divided it into the nations we see today.
While subjects of the Ottoman sultan as the 20th century dawned,
the Arab world was at peace. Few would have guessed then how fundamentally
this region was to change in the next few decades. In the year
1900 the Middle East was indeed, as described in the introduction, a
“political backwater.”
The catalyst that rearranged the regional map was World War I. The
assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on
June 28, 1914, was the event that triggered the war. Within weeks all
Shaun Venish
the major powers of Europe were involved. Problems in the Balkans had
been building up as the Ottoman Empire declined and retreated from its
territories there. Nationalist sentiment among the various ethnic groups
was stirring up feelings against foreign imperial rule, directed against
the Austro-Hungarian Empire as well as the Turks.
At the onset of war, it was not clear which side the Ottomans would
be on. Finally they opted to support Germany and Austria against the
alliance of Britain, France and Russia. This proved to be a fatal error
in judgment. Within a few years it led to the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire and the end of Turkish domination of the Arab world after
centuries of rule.
A century later it is still difficult to comprehend how the assassination
of a fairly obscure European archduke could lead to such tumultuous
change and
to a century
of seemingly
never-ending
violence, but
that shot heard
’round the
world is still
reverberating.
Nationalist
and ethnic
aspirations
lead to change
Before the
assassination,
ethnic aspirations were surfacing throughout Europe and the Middle
East. In the Victorian era imperialism had been the vogue. The idea that
one nation, usually considered superior, could rule over others less able,
was perfectly acceptable in a Europe dominated by multiethnic empires.
Many of these empires were quite benign, allowing different ethnic
groups within their borders a great deal of freedom, including the freedom
to carry out business and to prosper. But the desire for national
homelands was building up partly as a result of increased educational
opportunities that encouraged the reading of national literature, thereby
fostering a sense of national identity.
This rise in ethnic consciousness was not limited to Europe. The
Middle East was another area where people wanted to fulfill their
national aspirations.