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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Emergence and Spread of Nationalisms

According to Lapidus, "Arab nationalism was natural before World War I in the literary revival of the Arabic language, the revival of Arab identification with the glories of the Moslem past, and the anti-Turkish governmental ambitions of Arab intellectuals" (665). Pan-Arabism peaked under Gamal Nasser and has declined since his death.

Nationalism in one province took hold in Kemalist Turkey, in Pahlavi Iran and in Algeria. It is still a powerful force in some(prenominal) countries including Iran after the Khomeini variation of 1979, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and among Palestinians whose goal is to confirm a nation of their own.

The anti-colonial revolutions of mid-century were the rational culmination of the nationalist movements of the late 19th century and have now, except for anti-Israeli and (because of its support for Israel) anti-American sen durationnt largely play itself out. In a deeper sense, however, the anti-colonial revolutions were a manifestation of a essential distaste for Western culture which is reflected in the current Islamic Revival, what Hourani calls "a movement to restore the domination of Islamic justice (sharia) and social morality" (17). According to Cleveland, "the driving force slow the Islamic resurgence was . . . a rejection of the Middle East's dependence on Western and opposite alien models of development . . . [and] secularization . . . including a current aversion to "Western consu


Large reserves of rock oil began to be discovered in the Middle East toward the end of the 19th century in Iran and later in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and elsewhere on the Gulf coast. The major producing companies were controlled by British or other Western firms with the blessings and often active intervention of their governments. The British dark blue switched from coal power to oil in 1912. Oil vie a vital part in allied victories in both world wars. The economies of the West became even more helpless on Middle eastern oil in the transmit World War II era.

Lapidus, Ira M. A recital of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1988.
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Top down social reforms, particularly in education, health and in the status of women were promulgated by the Kemalists and their successors in Turkey and lesser reforms under the Shah's White transition of the 1960s which included land reforms. Most Middle Eastern governments were highly conservative until Nasserism and its cousin in Syria and Iraq, the Baath party took over. However, the pilot light impetus toward social reforms in the countryside which took the form, for example, of extensive land redistribution in Iraq in the 60s and 70s eventually ran out of steam. While these governments preached social justice, they ran their cash in hand horribly and went deeply into debt to finance arms purchases. By the time Anwar Sadat succeeded Nasser, "Egypt had a staggering contradictory debt, mainly to the Soviets for arms purchases" (Cleveland 339).

The oil wealth of the Middle East is distributed very unevenly with many countries, such as Yemen, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians providing labor for the oil fields and receiving foreign aid from the wealthy oil sheikhdoms, but otherwise be left out in the desert without much in the way of natural resources.


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