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Global Studies – Regents Review

Middle East Regents Review Packet

I. Geography:

A – Deserts

1 – SaharaDesert:

  1. Separates Middle East (Northern Africa) from sub-Saharan Africa
  2. Creates cultural diversity between two regions
  3. Desert is growing (desertification)

2 - Region has difficulty raising food; only 15% of the land is arable

3 – Lack of water is a major problem

  1. “Crossroads of Civilization”

1 – Located at the crossroads of three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa)

2 – Leads to much cultural diffusion

3 – Three major religions began here: These are Islam, Christianity, and Judaism

C. Geopolitics: (define) The combination of geographic and political factors influencing a country or region

1 – Strategic location leads to building of the Suez Canal

2 – Many important waterways for trade located in this region

  1. BosporusStrait – connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, controls trade of Eastern Europe and Western Asia
  2. Strait of Hormuz - control of this waterway means control over oil supply (goes through the Persian Gulf)

D Resources

  1. Oceans and seas used for trade
  2. Lack of water hurts ability to grow crops and forces people to live near water
  3. 60% of world’s oil supply is located in the Middle East

II. History:

  1. RiverValley Civilizations

1 – Developed along the Tigris and Euphrates (Fertile Crescent) & Nile (Egypt)

2 – Rivers supplied transportation, food and irrigation

3 – Creation of writing systems

  1. Hieroglyphics and cuneiform (2 earliest forms)
  2. Allowed for written records
  3. Hammurabi’s code – law code based on an “eye for an eye”. Based on social class system – nobles were treated differently

4 – Contributions

a. Monotheism (Belief that there is only one god)

(Persians)

b.Alphabet (Phoenicians)

c. iron (Hittites)

  1. Muslim Golden Age
  2. Advances in Math (zero) and science (astronomy and anesthetics)
  3. Helped preserve Greek and Roman learning
  4. Used tolerance when ruling other cultures
  5. Crusades
  6. Defeat the Europeans in their attempt to capture the Holy Land
  7. Led to massive cultural diffusion (silk and spices) between two groups
  8. Sulieman the Great organizes Muslim laws
  1. Ottoman Empire
  2. Conquered the region in the 1400’s
  3. Use religious tolerance - to rule the diverse region
  4. European nations begin taking control of the region in the 1800’s
  5. Location and oil make the region desirable
  6. Ottoman Empire had become very weak (“ sickmanof Europe”)
  1. Arab Nationalism
  2. KemalAttaturk
  3. Gains power in Turkey and attempts to modernize nation
  4. Secularism – separated religion and government: religion not taught
  5. Nationalism – stopped the genocide against the Armenians; told people they were Turks
  6. Use of western clothing (outlawed the veil), adopted last names, more rights for women
  7. Ideas spread to Iran under the Shah
  8. Gamal Nasser
  9. Leader of Egypt in the 1950’s and 1960’s
  10. Wanted Arab nations to work together (Pan-Arabism)
  11. Nationalized the SuezCanal by going to war against Israel, England and France
  12. Built the AswanHigh Dam on the NileRiver, which provided power, irrigation and fishing

III. Arab-Israeli Conflict

  1. Creation of Israel (1948)
  2. Land is considered holy to Jews; Promised Land - according to the Torah)
  3. Expelled from the land by the Romans - Diaspora
  4. Jews were persecuted where they went (Russia; Europe)
  5. By the early 1900’s Jews began emigrating back to the Middle East
  6. The land was controlled by the Ottoman Empire until 1918. After that it became a British mandate (similar to a colony)
  7. Britain promised to help create a Jewish homeland there in the Balfour Declaration
  8. After WWII, Britain gave the land to the U.N. who partitioned the land between Jews (Israel) and Arabs (Palestinians)
  1. Arab-Israeli conflicts
  2. War

a. 1948: War if Independence – Surrounding Arab nations (Egypt, Syria, etc.) help Palestinians attack Israel. Israel wins. Palestinians lose their land, becoming refuges. Israel supported the building of Israeli housing settlements on the captured land, trying to make it part of Israel.

b. 1956 – Suez Canal is nationalized by Egyptian president Nasser. Nasser cuts off Israeli trade routes. Britain, France, and Israel attack Egypt. U.S. and U.S.S.R. help broker a peace deal.

c. 1967 – Six Day War – Israel wins again against Arab neighbors, gaining the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and West Bank

d. 1973 – Yom Kippur War - ______

______

  1. Terrorism:

a. Use of guerilla warfare to achieve their goal: AnArabhomeland

b. Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is led by Yassir

Arafat

c. “State Sponsored Terrorism” – Iran, Iraq and Libya have supported (given money and shelter to) terrorists

C. Attempts at Peace

  1. Camp David Accords (1978)

a. Pact between Egypt (led by Sadat) and Israel (led by Begin)

b. Egypt regained lost land in exchange for peace

c. Sadat was assassinated for making peace by his own people

  1. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (1990’s) – Oslo Peace Accords

a. Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and PLO leader Arafat agree to peace terms. Rabin is assassinated

b. Later Prime Minister Barak signed Oslo Accord with Arafat, giving the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. There is a Palestinian government, but it is not totally independent from Israel yet.

c. Terrorist attacks have increased recently, especially by the group Hamas, which has stalled the peace talks

IV. Iranian Revolution

A. In 1953, Britain and the U.S. helped Mahammad Reza Pahlavi gain control of the Iranian government

1. He proclaimed himself the shah

2. Westernized and modernized the country

3. Ruled as a dictator

B. In the 1970’s, opposition to the shah was led by the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini. The shah fled Iran in 1979.

C. Khomeini returned and declared Iran an Islamic Republic

D. In 1989, Khomeini died and more moderate leaders took control

E. In 2005, elections put conservatives back in power

F. World concerns continue to focus on Iran’s nuclear program

G. The new Iranian government is extremely hostile to the West

H. Strict adherence to Muslim religious tradition

V. ModernMiddle East

  1. Economics
  2. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
  3. Group of countries, mostly from the Middle East
  4. Created to give these nations more control over the price of oil
  5. Military
  6. Persian Gulf War
  7. Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait to gain control of its oil supply
  8. The U.N., led by the U.S., attacked Iraq to protect the oil supply
  9. Hussein left Kuwait, but lit hundreds of oil wells on fire, hurting the environment
  10. In response to his aggression, the U.N. put economic sanctions

(embargo) on Iraq until they destroyed their weapons of mass destruction. U.N. weapons inspectors were sent but Iraq would not cooperate. The U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 without U.N. approval to force Hussein from power

  1. Iraq War
  2. At the end of the Persian Gulf War, the U.N. required that Iraq destroy its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as well as its missiles.
  3. The U.N. began a series of inspections to ensure compliance
  4. In the late 1990’s, Saddam Hussein expelled the U.N. inspection team and would not allow any more inspections
  5. Response –U.S. and Britain stages air strikes
  6. Timeline
  7. 2001 – U.S. accused Iraq of supporting terrorists, such as al Qaeda, and hiding weapons of mass destruction
  8. 2002 – U.N. denied President Bush’s request for military action against Iraq
  9. 2003 – (March) – U.S. and its coalition forces invade Iraq, without U.N. support. (December) Saddam Hussein was captured. After a length trial he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and was hanged in December 2006
  10. 2005 – Iraqi elections took place amidst the violence. Transitional government drafted a new constitution
  11. 2006 – (April) Jawael al-Maliki became prime minister and former a government
  12. 2007 – U.S. increased its military operations to end internal violence
  1. Social
  2. Islamic Fundamentalism
  3. Anti-western movement which started in Iran and spread to Afghanistan and other countries
  4. Attempt to return to the basics of Islam
  5. Women lose rights and must be covered in public
  6. Iranian Revolution led by Islamic Fundamentalists, Iran becomes a theocracy in 1979
  7. Iran becomes hostile to the U.S.
  8. U.S. is “Great Satan”
  9. Iranian students storm the U.S. embassy, taking U.S. citizens hostage for 444 days
  10. Political
  11. Iran-Iraq War
  12. War erupts over territory (border disputes)
  13. Lasts for 10 years
  14. Kurds – religious group in Turkey and Iraq – persecuted; lack rights

Words:

Alphabet, An Arab Homeland, Aswan High Dam, Balfour, Bosporus, Britain, Camp David, Christianity, conservatives, constitution, Cuneiform, denied, Diaspora, dictator, diversity, desertification, Egypt, Euphrates, hanged, Hieroglyphics, Hormuz, inspections, Iranian, Iraq, Islam, Islamic Fundamentalists, Judaism, Kemal Attaturk, Khomeini, Kuwait, modernize, Muslim, OPEC, Oslo, Ottoman, Pan-Arabism, power, religious tolerance, Sadat, Sanctions, shah, “sick man”, Suez Canal, terrorists, Torah, U.N., U.S., Women, Yassir Arafat, veil, violence, westernized