Middle East map. Please pay special attention to the junction of Syria, Iraq and Jordan.
Readily look at the map of the Middle East and you will find that the boundaries of some countries are unexpectedly straight, just like they were drawn with a ruler. The formation of these borders was not natural. They were held by people with rulers and pens. Western powers divided different tribes, races and sects from the first and second world wars between , and , .
Middle East
The straight borders between Iraq, Syria, Jordan and other countries are the product of the contradiction between colonialism and ethnic manipulation in the past. Even these countries themselves were born under the agreement and their history was not long.
Middle East topographic map
Dial clock back to the beginning of the junction of the 19th and 20th centuries, when European powers set up colonies around the world with the afterglow of imperialism to seek the best interests of the colonial mother country. Today's hustle and bustle in the Middle East must start with the Sykes-Picco Agreement, which the West arbitrarily demarcates modern borders of the Middle East.
Middle East
1
► A wave of refugees who died in a century and millions of people were homeless. The two "gentlemen" promoted
Lawrence's inspection and combat route in the Arabian Peninsula. 1909-1918
After the end of World War I, Britain and France were dealing with the defeated Ottoman Türkiye. The empire was originally a country that unified multi-ethnic and religious. It gradually weakened in the later period and could not control the situation of autonomy and separatism in various places, such as the Kurdish issue.
1913 The Ottoman Empire had basically only Asian territory
0 For the sake of each other's colonial interests in the Middle East, Mark Sykes of Britain and François Pico of France directly divided the spheres of influence that were beneficial to them and allowed them to be independent without the consent of the Ottoman Turkey and the local people. That is why today's Türkiye, Syria, , Lebanon, , Jordan and other countries have emerged.
Photos of Sykes and Pico
This began to have conflicts. In the past, when Ottoman Turkey was strong, it could still control the Sunni , Shiites, Yazidi, Palestinian , etc. in the territory. Today, we have received great powers who do not know much about local customs. As Europe gradually declined at that time, the local ethnic conflicts became increasingly deeper.
1914 The situation on the Arabian Peninsula was not until the end of World War II and the wave of national self-determination began, and the great powers gradually broke away from colonial rights around the world and allowed them to be independent; the independent countries established their territory in accordance with the Sykes Pico Agreement, which also caused the situation where the territory lines between these countries are so straight, but the internal contradictions cannot be effectively isolated.
Schematic diagram
In a graduation class that is already disharmonious to each other, the teacher "graduated". Will students who have not graduated have a more intense quarrel in the same environment?
In the chaotic Middle East, the hatred environment allowed the teenagers to inherit their revenge will continue. Israel took the lead in launching a series of independence wars, allowing the Middle East, which surrounds the Muslim world, to suddenly emerge from the Israelites who believe in Judaism.
Schematic diagram
Christian-Muslim conflict broke out in Lebanon in 1975. Immediately afterwards, in 1979, Iran's revolution occurred in , which advocated the West, and began to move towards a conservative line. The Iraqi-Iran war between and Iran from 1980 to 1988, is fighting for whom the oil hegemony in the Po Gulf region and Sunni and Shi'a politics.
schematic diagram
1990 Gulf War , the United States faced Saddam, who had funded. In the Second Gulf War in 2003, the United States brought Saddam down, which was the reason why he "ignored human rights." Sunni Saddam stepped down, and the Shiite government was inadequate, creating a power vacuum in Iraq.
Syria has also triggered a civil war due to the continued burning of the Jasmine Revolution and has become the focus of global attention.
schematic diagram
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►West divides spoils and burys the root of disaster: The story starts with the Sykes-Picco Agreement, which is related to a man and a woman
topographic map
Sykes-Picco Agreement is a very representative product of colonialism in the Middle East. During World War I, Britain promised that the Arabs would give land to the Arabs to their own independence after helping the Europeans overthrow the Ottoman Turkey.
Sykes-Picco Association
During World War I, the Allies had a secret agreement on the division of the Ottoman Empire after the war. Starting from November 1915, the draft was produced by Sykes and Pico, and later Russia participated, and the agreement was signed on May 16, 1916. The boundaries defined by the Sykes-Picco Agreement are as follows: Syria, southern Anatolia, and Iraq's Mosul region is classified as France's sphere of influence.
southern Syria and southern Mesopotamia southern (now most parts of Iraq) are British spheres of influence.
Black Sea southeast coast, Bosphorus, Dardanier The two sides of the strait are the sphere of influence of Russia.
boundary defined by the Sykes-Picco Association
is known as the "Lawrence of Arabia". As the British officer liaison officer of the British and Arabs at that time, Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence , he was a key role in instigating the Arabs against Ottoman Turkey.
Hussein
Lawrence not only assisted the then Arab patriarch Hussein Ben Ali family to formulate strategies, but also wrote a decisive page for the later modern history of the Middle East.
Joined the Tsarist Russian forces' Sykes-Picco Agreement, green is the Tsarist Russian controlled area; dark blue and dark red are the directly controlled area of France and Britain; light blue and
The evaluation of Lawrence is polarized, and some Arabs regard it as a hero who helped overthrow Ottoman ; but some people think that he is tantamount to the British colonial officials at that time, and is just seeking the country's maximum interests for Britain.
Lawrence
Another person is not as famous as Lawrence, but she also has a place in the "Arab uprising" in 1916-1918. Gechu. Bell, as one of the earliest female college students at the University of Oxford, was recruited by the British government as one of the key figures in formulating Middle East policies at that time because he was familiar with the Middle East culture and language.
Blue is the exclusive jurisdiction of France (area A is affected by France); red British sphere of influence (b. B is affected by Britain). Brown is an international co-managed area. As a British representative adviser in Iraq, Bell, in addition to drawing out Iraq's current national borders, one of his jobs is to assist the British support of Feather, the son of the former patriarch Hussein Ben Ali, to build Iraq.
Lawrence and Bell
Although Britain promised an Arab dream of founding, in fact, the British and French powers had already negotiated under the surface how to divide their respective spheres of influence after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottomans' heyday
Therefore, when the Ottoman Turkey was defeated, Syria, Lebanon and some Iraq became the custody of France as agreed, while Britain obtained Jordan and another part of Iraq.
Around 1440 AD, the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantine Empire confronted each other. This act of wantonly dividing national borders without taking into account ethnic and religious distribution has made the Sykes-Picco Agreement often accused of inspiring wars, violent conflicts and extremism in the Middle East.
Ethnic Distribution Map
Colonialism brings not only new national boundaries, but two main methods: intentionally differentiate local ethnic groups and consolidate the advantages of the colonial mother country by supporting a specific minority, which is also the bitter fruit of the century-old chaos in the Middle East.
English, French and Russian
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►Intensified ethnic and sectarian conflicts
World War situation chart (red is the allies, green is the allies)
The relationship between different sects does not represent an inevitable conflict in the Middle East; the Middle East has been located at the junction of Eastern and Western cultures since ancient times, and the cultural, ethnic and religious diversity here is no problem, but why has the war continued to rise in the past 100 years?
Schematic diagram
One of the main reasons is the complex and fragile political and religious balance in the Middle East, which has fallen into chaos due to the intervention of the great powers.
Take the Sykes-Picco Agreement as an example. The original ethnic ecology was torn apart. The Sunnis in this area were divided into two, one in Syria, and the other was squeezed into Iraq, which was originally Shiite-major.
sphere of influence
But ethnic mixing is not the biggest problem. The main fuse of the conflict comes from the British and French powers intervening in the Middle East with their usual colonial methods: supporting minorities to manage the entire country.
Schematic diagram
In southern Iraq, the majority are composed of Shiite Arabs, while the Sunnis in the north are relatively minority; while in western Syria, there are Shiites, Christians and Druzes inhabiting, but Sunnis are relatively majority in the territory; the border between Iraq and Syria is home to the Kurds of minority groups, and their voices that hope for independence are always regarded by the local government as a hidden concern of separatism.
The First International League Conference (November 15, 1920)
The Western powers saw this and seized the opportunity to manipulate ethnic conflicts to alienate different tribes, sects and races, and prevent them from uniting against foreign colonists.
After World War I
has always regarded himself as the Sunni Muslim sovereign country, with an area of 21 million square kilometers, 90% of it is a desert, a population of about 30 million, and the world's largest oil reserves.
Schematic diagram
Iran has always regarded itself as the Shiite Muslim suzerain country, with an area of 16 million square kilometers, 80% of which are northern mountains and central swamps, with a population of about 78 million. The fourth largest oil reserve in the world and the highest level of natural gas reserves in the world.
green range is the Hanzhi area range between 1916 and 1923.
In fact, there were not so many countries in the Middle East. In the past, there was only a strong clan concept, but no state concept. Because after the artificial national boundaries emerged, the Sunni and Shiite factions struggled even harder.
Schematic diagram
Does different civilizations and religions bring about social rift?
