Middle East

Middle East

Chronology of events

? 1869 : opening of the Suez Canal . Growing strategic importance of Egypt.

? 1875 : at the initiative of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli , the British Empire acquired the shares of the Suez Canal.

? 1876 ??: Rise of the New Ottomans . A reform group gets to a coup, overthrowing the Sultan, and impose a European-style constitution that will ensure certain freedoms for Ottoman subjects.

? 1882 : the British imposed a protectorate over Egypt.

? 1916 : Lawrence of Arabia and King Faisal of Saudi take up arms against the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, in secret, the United Kingdom and France signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement , carving up the Ottoman lands in two areas of influence, should they win the war.

? 1917 : through the Balfour Declaration , Britain promised the Zionists a Jewish homeland in Palestine .

? 1925 : the Pahlavi dynasty took control of Iran , and ruled the nation until 1980 .

? 1927 : Britain recognizes the independence of the Hejaz and Nejd in the Arabian peninsula under the rule of the family Saud .

? 1932 : Hejaz and Nejd are unified in a single large state, Saudi Arabia , a monarchy ruled by the Saud dynasty.

? 1938 : oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia, bringing immediate and international geopolitical status.

? 1948 : British mandate expires on Palestine. It proclaimed the independence of Israel . The Arab states immediately invaded the Jewish state, but fail to destroy it. This generates a new situation of global geopolitical tensions, the Jewish state versus an eventual Palestinian state. Also, Jerusalem is divided in two.

? 1956 : Nasser ordered the nationalization of the Suez Canal . In response, Britain and France invaded Egypt with the cooperation of Israel. The war is a complete disaster for the invaders, and the UN ordered its withdrawal.

? 1958 : Nasser managed to create the United Arab Republic merging with Syria. The political experiment lasts until 1961 , when Egypt and Syria once again go their separate ways. In Iraq, meanwhile, a coup topples the monarchy and establishing a republic, under the command of the Baath Arab Socialist Party .

? 1967 : Six Day War . Israel cleanly beat a coalition of Egypt and Syria, and seizes the upper Golan and the Sinai , as well as the entire city of Jerusalem . The Suez Canal will be closed for eight years.

? 1973 : Yom Kippur War . A new Muslim coalition goes to war with Israel. As a measure of pressure, the countries of the OPEC generate a sustained rise in oil prices worldwide, translated into a global crisis .

? 1991 : Following the invasion of Iraq against Kuwait , a coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq and set severe restrictions on the government of Saddam Hussein.

? 2003 : with the argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (which were ...