Colonization and decolonization

The human race has been known for struggle for power alongside the struggle for survival since time in memorial. This has always led to disagreements and several out comes of selfishness greed and even wars. The struggle for power does not only apply to the political arena of the human life but also their spiritual, academic, scientific and most common is the economical superiority. It may be power gain to an individual, a group of persons, a corporate organization or even an entire nation.

In the 20th Century the scrabble for power was at a pick point with the British and European countries seeking to colonize other countries and continents in search of a more powerful identity as a country. This started way back in the continent of Africa and extended to Asia. The modern Arab countries and the Middle East were not an exception to this struggle for power. They actually came into the current state of existence from a series of wars that were as a result of colonization by the Europeans and the Britain.

This later led to the breakdown of the formerly strong Ottoman Empire as well as other established kingdoms and led to the start of the World War 1. Having a very strong position that the current state of the Arabian and Middle East is as a result of the former historic events in this region; this paper therefore, highlights the aspects that led to the modern Arab countries and the Middle East shaping through colonization and decolonization processes. The modern Arab countries were under the colonial rule of the European and the British from the 19th to the 20th Century.

Their entry to these regions was on the basis of trade and tourism. They then advanced into colonizing the natives of theses places. Although there were already established empires and kingdoms like the Ottoman Empire the government of these kingdoms were powerless against the enticed trade and united forces of the European. The colonialist practices of racism and discrimination alongside the imperial acts of taking all the wealth of these countries led to the countries seek for independence.

For example the marbles collected from the east by the colonist were so many to an extent of creating a museum . Their discrimination acts were more evident through the creation of dependency in order to be in control of these countries. An example is when they took advantage of the food shortage in Ottoman Empire to bring this empire to a compromising situation where they could easily manipulate the government. Their discrimination was due to the fact that they considered themselves as the only individuals who were destined to rule the others in the human race.

This made them consider the other people as fewer humans and more animals especially in their culture and way of life which was primitive to their standards. The compromising situations of the Ottoman Empire led to its disintegration long before the start of the World War 1 which brought the empire crumbling down. The Armenia and Azerbaijan’s had long drawn their borders to separate themselves from the once great empire. They did this with the help of Russia which was not an ally to the empire.

The colonist on the other hand had already started to create secret borders on the empire. The government in position also encouraged this by cooperating with the European and Britain in the business links not knowing that they used this as an avenue to colonize the empire. The British war minister, Lord Kitchener had already declared his intentions of partitioning the Ottoman Empire after world war . The World War 1 was a global war where the main countries especially from the west brought in some soldiers to aid their army from their colony countries.

There were two major groups involved in this fight and their colony countries were very vital in the more needed man power. These groups included the triple entente power (consisting of the France, Russians, the British, Italy, Japan and the United States) and the central power (consisted of the Ottoman Empire, the Bulgaria and the Germans). The coming up together helped bring the aspect of decolonization and creation of new boundaries, territories and economic setups. The aspects of the British policies on the region were a key contribution to the changes and decisions made in the Ottoman Empire.

Through some emphasis the British thought of taking control over the Arabs in the Ottoman Empire who were rather oppressed in the system. This was a method of divide and rule to ensure an expansion of their British power. At this time the Ottoman Empire was more concerned with some key aspects like its security and economy. This is as a result of the huge debt to the British, the European and the Germans after the span of food shortage in 1918. They also had spent numerous amounts in buying weapons for the battles they encountered severally in expanding their empire.

The fight with the Armenia was also a reason for the huge importation of warfare artifacts. This made them seek to get a good relationship with the Bulgarians and try to get the Germans support in terms of finances. The second issue was to seek some assistance through negotiation with the Europe on reforms needed in the Armenian side. They then had to consider looking for Russia’s help (the protectors of the Armenian’s) since they were acting on the much adored Greek’s power. This was pretty difficult since they were on parallel grounds on the support for the World War 1.

The empire later agreed to sign a treaty on oil distribution to both the British and the French empires something that was later discovered by the Soviet government as a secrete plan done before the treaty in order to divide the empire between the two colonies . The leader of the Ottoman Empire during the World War 1 was quite difficult and stood his grounds to disagree with the British over the division of Tripoli. He tried to rescue what was remaining but Mr. Churchill was later made an escape on the failed negotiations and lack of help that led to the division of the empire.

It is not after the war that the British leaders recognized his efforts although he did not move to support them. His successor on the other hand collaborated with the British in attempts to reach on peace negotiations but led to destruction of the set protocol, with no specific proposals on the negotiations, had no more general opinion and therefore the colonies took him for granted. They saw him as a naive, non informed, easy to manipulate and poorly skilled person in negotiations. He was therefore used by the Britain’s leader: Lloyd George to carry out the imperial acts of Britain.

He hence moved from one political mistake to the other. This was therefore the complete downfall of the empire at the time of World War 1. The empire disintegrated to modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Trans Jordan taken out by the British. Turkey had a battle with the British and due to underestimation they won the British and now established themselves as a separate entity into the world war. This also included the European Thrace, and Asian part that was not under the British rule.

The Iranians did a great deal in pushing out the Americans as well as the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. Their force was Islam driven and led to the present establishment of the regions after First World War. The Middle East did not manage to sort itself out after this war. From Franz story the Algerians struggle for independence led to the formation of the decolonization movement. This was advanced to Revolutionary groups looking into the aspect of how to expel the colonialist. This was mainly done by the people in the rural areas not employed by the colonialist.

They used an advocacy for violence to achieve their goals. All these are the aspects that led to the present state of the Middle East and the modern Arab countries. They have been long introduced to war and scrabble for resources as well as division planted in the colonial era is still felt to date. It also took them quite a while to sort themselves out of financial downfall and dependency cultivated at this time. The other thing is that, the treaties signed still hold and therefore the reason to large supplies of oil to the European and British countries.

Although colonialism came to total abolishment after the Second World War, the European and British countries remain more developed in terms of economic and scientific aspects. the modern Arab and middle east countries have also been molded to be prepared for war especially against the Britain, European and United States hence the reason as to why they have been involved in formation of nuclear weapons as a means of revenge to the wealth taken from them they have resolved to attack the western countries through terrorism especially when the west tries to interfere with their frequent fights over the oil grounds. The division created by the colonialism era still holds and forms a basis for different alliances in fight over boundaries, resources and cities.

BIBILIOGRAPHY Fanon Franz The wretched of the earth. Groove press 2004 ed Fromkin David A peace to end all peace: the fall of the Ottoman Empire and creation of the modern middle east. Hot paper backs. 2002.

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