Ottoman Empire Research Paper

For over 400 years, the Ottoman Empire ruled over the region that we call today the “Middle East”. The closeness of the region to Europe and its geographical advantage led to a European power struggle for economic and political authority/control over the ‘Middle East’ (Lockman, 2004). Therefore, due to a weakened Ottoman Empire, the West started interfering in the regional affairs and gradually shaped the ‘Middle East’ as we know it today. The rise of strong local leaders within the Ottoman Empire, but also the invasion of ancient Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte created the western concept of ‘The Eastern question’, which refers to the period from the end of the 18th century to prior WWI, to exert European influences and destabilise the Ottoman Empire. Internal dynamics were the creation of the independent province of Egypt within the Ottoman which led to a rise of uprisings in other parts of the Empire (Serbia:

Yet, once the later was defeated, Britain denied the promise made after the ‘Great Arab Revolt’ was fought (Schneer, 2010). Meanwhile, in 1916, Britain secretly signed a treaty with France to carve up the Ottoman Empire into French and British areas of colonial influence, known as the Sykes-Picot agreement: France would acquire possession of present Syria, Lebanon and Jordan; and Britain controlled Iraq and Palestine (Schneer, 2010). Nonetheless, it was not the only conflicting agreement done before the end of WWI. In 1917, through the Balfour declaration, Britain sealed the fate of Palestine as it stipulated the “British support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine” in order to get the Jewish support for the war – which was implemented Post World War II (WW2) with the creation of the Israeli state (Schneer, 2010). All three agreements were conflicting and