The Middle East is the birthplace of three religions and many civilizations. Egypt has played a pivotal role in this. The Middle East is a region that has had invaders from the East and the West and has seen the changing balance of power between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. It is a region of contrast and complexity.
Territory, trade and influence have always been the name of the game when it comes to politics, treaties and expansion. To understand the events of today let’s just focus on the period from the 1700s to the early 1900s in the Middle East and beyond.
Numerous battles were fought over Iran, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt as well as other parts of the Middle East. Successes and acquisitions, however, were usually short-lived. One major threat was intense Russian territorial expansion southward towards the Mediterranean Sea in the late 1700s and 1800s. By 1812 the Russians posed a serious threat to the Ottoman Empire on both the western and eastern front and purposefully continued their advance southward in the Middle East.
During this time Western Europe was advancing across the sea; the advance against Islam had begun as a process of recovery and reconquest, particularly in Spain and Portugal against the Moors. They recovered their peninsula from the Arab Muslims and Moors and pursued them into Africa and beyond. The Portuguese fought the Muslim rulers of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Iran and India from the Red Sea and beyond to Asian waters. The Spaniards, the French, the Dutch and the British followed. It is true that not all had a bone to pick for religious reasons. Some of their pursuits of expansion were purely for purposes of commercial and maritime gain. The Red Sea was the goal of many -- for the British it formed a short cut to their crown jewel, India.
The Turks who were very powerful at this time across the Middle East had to contend with the advance of the Russians, British and French. For most of the first half of the 19th century the countries of Western Europe concerned themselves with commerce and diplomacy in the Middle East.
Some things never change.
Nowadays, all eyes are on the events in Egypt. It was common back in the 1800s for European nations to interfere in internal affairs in the Middle East. Possibly some lessons from history have been learned. Recently, during the early days of the protest in Egypt, Western nations held back from making any initial judgments or taking any particular side.
Towards the mid-19th century France and Britain were giving support to Turkey against Russia as Russia became aggressive again. The result was Russia was thwarted in the Middle East and turned its attention to Central Asia, the Caspian Sea and the borders of China. Having said all this, Egypt has had considerable influence over the years from the West since the late 19th century when the British occupied Egypt in 1882. Though the indigenous political system remained more or less intact it was subject to British military occupation and overall political and economic control.
Egypt has struggled since the early 1900s with the improvement in living standards of the rural and urban working class population. Sadly the social Westernization of the upper classes without any mutual change among the lower classes is much to blame for the current state of affairs. Overall the nation has neither experienced nor benefited as it could have in the realm of technological, economic, social and political changes.
I often think to myself how fortunate I have been to have been raised in a land of democracy. Even during the three decades of living in Turkey I have witnessed major steps in the right direction in a nation that is still young in its formation of democracy.
Westerners want to believe the Middle East is getting better and that democracy will bring about the changes needed. Turkey has been used as a role model. Iraq is the world’s newest democracy in the Middle East. Iraq is still a land of pain and fear, Lebanon’s citizens feel unsafe and Egyptians have felt more oppressed and experienced greater poverty. Maybe one day Middle Eastern nations will experience unity, wealth and security.
