War and Nationalist Movements in the Middle East

1. War and Nationalist Movements in the Middle East Israel, the Arab States, & Africa Chapters 28- 31

2. At the onset of the First World War The British and French made promises of increased self-determination to local elites in the Middle East to get them to ally with them against the Ottoman Empire.

3. The First World War 1914-1919 Four years of war disrupted European colonial domination. Four years of war encouraged nationalist movements that had began prior to World War I.

4. At the war�s conclusions Great Britain & France engendered resentment by reneging on their promises of self-determination.

5. In 1922, when Britain received the League of Nations mandate for Palestine, Britain promised it to both the Zionist and the Arabs.

6. England and France divided the defeated Ottoman Empire�s Arab holdings into mandates. They quickly faced Arab nationalist resistance to European occupation and the establishment of a League of Nations�approved Jewish homeland in Palestine. The latter was created through Britain�s support of yet another form of nationalism, Zionism. These conflicting nationalism movements led to great tension in the Middle East.

7. WWI European Mandates Betraying promises to preserve Arab independence made in 1915, French and British soldiers occupied much of the Middle East in the years after the First World War. Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon were set up as Mandates under the auspices of the League of Nations.

8. The Disposition of Palestine The Arab sense of humiliation and anger was greatly intensified by the disposition of Palestine where British occupation was coupled with promises of a Jewish homeland.

9. Balfour Declaration Lord Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, promised prominent Zionist leaders in 1917 that his government would promote the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This fed aspirations of the Hebrew people of the dispora, the European Jews.

10. Leon Pinsker, 19th century Zionist leader The British promise was in response to the vicious pogroms, or violent assaults, on the Jewish communities in Russia and Romania in the 1860s and 1870s. Theodor Herzl, 1897, founded the World Zionist Organization, to promote Jewish migration to and settlement in Palestine. Hebrew Nationalism

11. The Arabs felt a growing hostility toward the Jewish emigration to Palestine The Arabs felt betrayed by the British and this sense of betrayal was a critical source of the growing hostility the Arabs felt toward the Jewish emigration to Palestine and their purchase of land in the area.

12. Britain reneged on Balfour Pledge Rising Arab opposition convinced many British officials, especially those who administered Palestine, to severely curtail the Balfour Pledge. This shift led to Zionist mistrust of British policies and open resistance to them.

13. Britain failed, through education and consultation, to encourage strong leadership among the Arab population. Consequently, in the critical struggles and diplomatic maneuvers of the 1930s and 1940s, the Arabs of Palestine were rarely able to speak for themselves. They were represented by non-Palestinian Arabs who often acted more in the interests of Syria or Lebanon.

14. Zionist hightened resolve for a Palestinian state From1936-1939 the British tried to stopped the flow of immigrants to Palestine. This led to violent Zionist resistance. The Zionist assault was spearheaded by the Zionist military force, the Heganah And by several terrorist organizations.

15. Adolf Hitler to his Army commanders, August 22, 1939: "Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?"

16. In 1942, as the Nazi war machine got bogged in Russia, the persecution of Gypsies, Jews, leftists, intellectuals, and homosexuals increased. In February of 1942 at the �Wannsee Conference� a �final solution� for the �Jewish Problem� was decided on by prominent Nazi officials. Genocide was committed after 1942 through April 1945. As many as 12 million people were murdered in the Holocaust, of these at least 6 million were Jews. The more the war against the Allies turned against Hitler, the more they pressed for genocide. Jews and other �undesirables� were identified and arrested and shipped to camps in the East.The more the war against the Allies turned against Hitler, the more they pressed for genocide. Jews and other �undesirables� were identified and arrested and shipped to camps in the East.

17. 20th Century Genocides Armenians in Turkey: 1915-1918 - 1,500,000 Deaths Stalin's Forced Famine: 1932-1933 -7,000,000 Deaths Rape of Nanking: 1937-1938- 300,000 Deaths Nazi Holocaust: 1938-1945?- 6,000,000 Deaths Pol Pot in Cambodia: 1975-1979- 2,000,000 Deaths Rwanda: 1994- 800,000 Deaths Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1992-1995 - 200,000 Death

18. By the end of WWII, the major parties claiming Palestine were locked in a deadly stalemate. In 1948 with sympathy for the Jews running high because of the Holocaust, the members states of the United Nations- with the U.S.& U.S.S.R. in rare agreement- approved the partitioning of Palestine into Arab and Jewish countries.

19. The U. N. Partition of Palestine

20. On 14 May 1948 the creation of the state of Israel was proclaimed. Shortly before the proclamation, all British troops left the country. The neighboring countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria reject the UN plan for partitioning Palestine (the Two-State Solution) and promptly declare war against Israel. The first Middle East War lasted until January of 1949.

21. The War Sealed the persisting hostility between Arabs and Israelis Though heavily out numbered, the Zionists were better armed They not only held on to their U. N. territory they expanded it at the Arab�s expense. The brief war created hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arab refugees.

22. Arab-Israeli Wars The 1948�49 War * The 1956 War * The 1967 War (The Six-Day War) * The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) * The 1982 War

23. From 1949 to 1956 the armed truce between Israel and the Arabs, enforced in part by the UN forces, was punctuated by raids and reprisals. Among the world powers, the United States, Great Britain, and France sided with Israel, while the Soviet Union supported Arab demands. The nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt's Gamal Abdal Nasser in July, 1956, resulted in the further alienation of Great Britain and France with Egypt and they made new agreements with Israel. From 1949 to 1956 the armed truce between Israel and the Arabs, enforced in part by the UN forces, was punctuated by raids and reprisals. Among the world powers, the United States, Great Britain, and France sided with Israel, while the Soviet Union supported Arab demands. Tensions mounted during 1956 as Israel became convinced that the Arabs were preparing for war. The nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt's Gamal Abdal Nasser in July, 1956, resulted in the further alienation of Great Britain and France, which made new agreements with Israel.From 1949 to 1956 the armed truce between Israel and the Arabs, enforced in part by the UN forces, was punctuated by raids and reprisals. Among the world powers, the United States, Great Britain, and France sided with Israel, while the Soviet Union supported Arab demands. Tensions mounted during 1956 as Israel became convinced that the Arabs were preparing for war. The nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt's Gamal Abdal Nasser in July, 1956, resulted in the further alienation of Great Britain and France, which made new agreements with Israel.

24. The 1956 War On Oct. 29, 1956, Israeli forces, directed by Moshe Dayan, launched a combined air and ground assault into Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

25. The 1956 War Early Israeli successes were reinforced by an Anglo-French invasion along the canal. The cease-fire of Nov. 6, which was promoted by the United Nations with U.S. and Soviet support, came only after Israel had captured several key objectives, including the Gaza strip and Sharm el Sheikh, which commanded the approaches to the Gulf of Aqaba.

26. The 1956 War Israel withdrew from these positions in 1957, turning them over to the UN emergency force after access to the Gulf of Aqaba, without which Israel was cut off from the Indian Ocean, had been guaranteed.

27. The 1967 War (The Six-Day War) After a period of relative calm, border incidents between Israel and Syria, Egypt, and Jordan increased during the early 1960s, with Palestinian guerrilla groups actively supported by Syria.

28. The 1967 War (The Six-Day War) In May, 1967, President Nasser, his prestige much eroded through his inaction in the face of Israeli raids, requested the withdrawal of UN forces from Egyptian territory, mobilized units in the Sinai, and closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israel.

29. The 1967 War (The Six-Day War) Israel (which had no UN forces stationed on its territory) responded by mobilizing. The escalation of threats and provocations continued until June 5, 1967, when Israel launched a massive air assault that crippled Arab air capability.

30. The 1967 War (The Six-Day War) With air superiority protecting its ground forces, Israel controlled the Sinai peninsula within three days Israel then concentrated on the Jordanian frontier, capturing Jerusalem's Old City (subsequently annexed)

31. The 1967 War (The Six-Day War) Israel then concentrated on the Syrian border, gaining the strategic Golan Heights. The war, which ended on June 10, is known as the Six-Day War.

32. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) During 1973 the Arab states, led by Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, believing that their complaints against Israel were going unheeded (despite the mounting use by the Arabs of threats to cut off oil supplies in an attempt to soften the pro-Israel stance of the United States), quietly prepared for war.

33. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) On Oct. 6, 1973, the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur, a two-pronged assault on Israel was launched. Egyptian forces struck eastward across the Suez Canal and pushed the Israelis back, while the Syrians advanced from the north.

34. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) Iraqi forces joined the war and, in addition, Syria received some support from Jordan, Libya, and the smaller Arab states.

35. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) The attacks caught Israel off guard, and it was several days before the country was fully mobilized. Israel then forced the Syrians and Egyptians back. In the last hours of the war, established a salient on the west bank of the Suez Canal, but these advances were achieved at a high cost in soldiers and equipment.

36. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) Through U.S. and Soviet diplomatic pressures and the efforts of the United Nations, a tenuous cease-fire was implemented by Oct. 25. Israel and Egypt signed a cease-fire agreement in November, but Israeli-Syrian fighting continued until a cease-fire was negotiated in 1974.

37. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) Largely as a result of the diplomatic efforts of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Israel withdrew back across the Suez Canal and several miles inland from the east bank behind a UN-supervised cease-fire zone. On the Syrian front too, Israeli territorial gains made in the war were given up.

38. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) After the war Egyptian and Syrian diplomatic relations with the United States, broken since the 1967 war, were resumed, and clearance of the Suez Canal began.

39. The 1973�74 War (The Yom Kippur War) The 1973�74 War brought about a major shift of power in the Middle East and ultimately led to the signing of the Camp David accords.

40. The Camp David Accords Camp David Accords is the popular name for the historic peace accords forged in 1978 between Israel and Egypt at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, Md. The official agreement was signed on Mar. 26, 1979, in Washington, D.C. by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, with U.S. President Jimmy Carter signing as a witness.

41. The Camp David Accords Under the pact, which was denounced by other Arab states, Israel agreed to return the Sinai to Egypt, a transfer that was completed in 1982. In a joint letter the two nations also agreed to negotiate Palestinian autonomy measures in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, but virtually no progress was made on this issue until the 1990s.

42. The 1982 War In 1978 Palestinian guerrillas, from their base in Lebanon, launched an air raid on Israel In retaliation, Israel sent troops into S Lebanon to occupy a strip 4�6 mi (6�10 km) deep and thus protect Israel's border.

43. The 1982 War Eventually a UN peacekeeping force was set up there, but occasional fighting continued.

44. In 1982 Israel launched a massive attack to destroy all military bases of the Palestine Liberation Organization in S Lebanon After a 10-week siege of the Muslim sector of West Beirut, a PLO stronghold, forced the Palestinians to accept a U.S.-sponsored plan whereby the PLO guerrillas would evacuate Beirut and go to several Arab countries that had agreed to accept them.

45. The 1982 War Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 1985 but continues to maintain a Lebanese-Christian�policed buffer zone north of its border.

46. In the Middle East conflicting strains of nationalism had collided. The legacy of colonialism proved even more of a liability here than in much of the rest of newly independent Asia and Africa.

47. Africa & the Twentieth-century Nationalist Movements Education provided to Asian and African elite women by European colonizers created a nucleus of remarkable leaders in twentieth-century nationalist movements.

48. Women Participated in the Independence Movements Western-educated women marched in mass demonstrations for national independence and social reform. In Algeria and Kenya, women participated in guerilla tactics against colonial forces. In many of these places, the reforms women sought in the first half of the twentieth century have yet to be fulfilled.

49. Britain reneged on promises of nationhood after the First World War As in India and the Arab Middle East, most Western-educated Africans supported their British and French occupiers in World War I, most significantly by supplying soldiers induced by promises of nationhood after the war.

50. Pan-African unity alarmed the European powers When those promises went unfulfilled, protests ensued. Attempts to encourage pan-African unity alarmed the European powers and encouraged anticolonial sentiments. By the 1920s, pan-Africanism faded, replaced by the brand of nationalism seen in other colonies.

51. World War I set many templates for the twentieth century. The decline of European hegemony The emergence of the United States and Japan on the global stage Communist rule in Russia Nationalist surges in European colonies Increased political power of labor organizations Increased political power of women

52. The great age of African independence came after World War II. In the early stages of this process, charismatic African American political figures had a major impact on emerging African nationalist leaders. North American: Marcus Garvey and W.E.B.Dubois.

53. By the mid-1920s nationalists from French and British colonies were going separate ways. Well-educated French-speaking West Africans concentrated their organizational and ideological efforts in Paris. They began a literary movement called, Negritude. This helped to combat racial stereotyping. Leopold Sedar Senghor, a Senegalese poet, celebrated the beauty of African skin and physique.By the mid-1920s nationalists from French and British colonies were going separate ways. Well-educated French-speaking West Africans concentrated their organizational and ideological efforts in Paris. They began a literary movement called, Negritude. This helped to combat racial stereotyping. Leopold Sedar Senghor, a Senegalese poet, celebrated the beauty of African skin and physique.

54. Leon Dumas, French Guyana (Guiana); Aim� C�saire of Martinque Aim� C�saire was born on Martinique in 1913. In1931 he received a scholarship that allowed him to study at the University of Paris. He eventually returned to Martinque and was elected the mayor of Fort de France. He maintained a double carrier, politician and writer. Leon Damas moved on to France where he pursued studies in law.Aim� C�saire was born on Martinique in 1913. In1931 he received a scholarship that allowed him to study at the University of Paris. He eventually returned to Martinque and was elected the mayor of Fort de France. He maintained a double carrier, politician and writer. Leon Damas moved on to France where he pursued studies in law.

55. Africans in the British colonies Except in the settler colonies of Kenya and Rhodesia, Western-educated Africans were given greater opportunity to build political organizations within Africa itself.