Middle East history (Coursework Sample)

MIDDLE EAST HISTORY
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Middle East history
1. The great game
Forces associated with global political and economical modernity have influenced and shaped economical, social, political and cultural life in many regions of the world. There were major powers that emerged in the last 500 years, shaping the current international states and modern economic inclination and development (Gelvin, 2011). Some of these powers include the British and Russia, who scrambled for geopolitical influences in many regions of the world. The conflict and rivalry between the Russian Empire and the British Empire to control the Central Asia resulted to The Great Game. It is usually marked with 1813 Russo-Persian Treaty, to the 1907, Anglo-Russian Convention (Gelvin, 2011). The two powers tried use geopolitical machinations to gain influence and political power in the region.
The industrial and technological revolution, coupled with limited resources was the main motivators behind the great game. The Russian and the Briton wanted to conquer regions like the Central Asia to expand on their industrial production and exploiting minerals and other resources (Gelvin, 2011). The other reasons for the great game were for military strategic plans by British, who show the expansion of the Russian Empire into Central Asia, as a threat to its occupation in the other regions of the world, like India.
Some of the success of the British includes the occupation of Kabul in 1839, taking of Chitral in 1895, taking of Hinza in 1891 and the agreement to solely control the Afghanistan foreign affairs (Gelvin, 2011). Some of the failures of Britons include expel from Kabul in 1842 and failure to stop Russia from occupying some regions of Afghan. Some of the success of the Russian includes taking of Geok Tepe in 1879 and Merv in 1884(Gelvin, 2011).Some of the Russian failure includes the failure to control Afghanistan. Current Iran had been under the occupation of Safavid dynasty, and later Qajar dynasty, which had great influence from the British (Gelvin, 2011). The major empires influenced the modern day outlook and political inclination of modern day Iran.2. Ottoman Empire collapse in the end of the 19th and early part of the 20th Centuries
The Ottoman Empire had a great influence to the modern outlook of Asia and other parts of the world. Ottoman Empire expanded greatly to Middle East, southern Europe and North Africa. The 19th century shows Ottoman Empire losing the Serbia, Greece and Egypt (Gelvin, 2011). It was entered profligate spending and modernizations which caused the empire to become bankrupt. It was forced to seek money from every avenue it could. The Empire failed to produce enough and imposed greedy and huge taxation to farmers. It was failing to modernize the empire to a competitive level with the West in terms of military and infrastructure. This signaled disaster and its failure to the end of 10th century and in the early 20th century.
Young Turks revolution of 1908 took the Ottoman government in the hands of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and Enver bay. Mahmet Ali was in leadership and wanted to revive the process of reforms (Gelvin, 2011). This came with a promise to have an efficient constitution, and great tolerance to minorities and Arabs. This failed to materialize due to the involvement of Ottoman to several disastrous wars, including World War one, with inevitable loss of empire territories. Ottoman Empire experienced a decline in the military ability, just before the World War One. The empire sided with the Central Powers during the World War One (Gelvin, 2011). British and allies pressed them from the south and the Armenians and Russians put more pressure on the north. Turks were involved in genocide for the Armenians, who sided with the Russians. This caused the defeat of the Ottoman Empire together with the Central Powers.
Despite the lack of proper military planning, Ottoman Empire failed to develop the necessary industries to ensure economic success (Gelvin, 2011). The other failure by the empire was a failure to develop proper monetary systems to shield itself from bankruptcy. Finally, the Turkish leaders attack on Armenians created a loss of trust to the whole of the empires’ leadership policies and abilities.
3. Middle East adoption of western ideas
Spread of modernism from the West had profound effects in some aspects of life. The globalization and integration of the market in the global market, forced the people of middle to adapt to the idea of the western world (Gelvin, 2011). This change affected areas such as areas of government, economy, social changes like status of women, and culture. World system of nation state and change in the world economy were putting pressure on the Middle East countries to rethink their position in reforms.
The success of western economy and occupation started to make the people of Middle East to question their religious beliefs, culture and government system. Middle East had experienced a long series of empires from the Ottoman, Safavid Empire, to Qajar dynasty (Gelvin, 2011). The western countries on the other hand were democracies with much of the decision reached through majority. Western nations had also developed complex technology and stable economies, not forgetting the military powers due to these advancements. An effort to reach a medium between rejection and adaptation caused the modernization (Gelvin, 2011). The culture changed in the most of the regions and western architecture was incorporated in the cities and town new buildings, these include things like skyscrapers buildings. Women were at some degree liberated and were allowed into the economy and in some regions to the politics.
The other changes included the separation of politics with religion as it was with the west. This was adopted by some few Middle East countries and the rest opted for modernization of Islamic, where the government would be more flexible, and diverse. Afghan, for example, started to harmonize the Islamic laws with modernization, to achieve a more stable and cable government (Gelvin, 2011). There was also acceptance and tolerance of art and music from the western artists. The Middle East countries also started economic and trade integration with the rest of the world, opening up trade barriers and liberalizing trade.
4. Defensive developmentalism
Gelvin came up with the concept of defensive developmentalism, which was the copying of the Europeans governance methods by the rulers of states outside Europe and imposing them to their states (Gelvin, 2011). This method of governance was effect...