World GeographyWorld Geography

Chapter 23

The Countries of Southwest Asia

Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. All rights reserved.

World GeographyWorld Geography

Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. All rights reserved.

Section 1: Creating the Modern Middle East

Section 2: Israel

Section 3: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq

Section 4: Arabian Peninsula

Chapter 23: The Countries of Southwest Asia

Section 5: Turkey, Iran, and Cyprus

VocabularySection 1: Creating the Modern Middle East mandate Zionist self-determination drip irrigation potash

Chapter 23

The Countries of Southwest Asia

Diverse Peoples

After being conquered by the followers of Muhammad (570-630 AD), most of the peoples of the region adopted Islam and the Arabic language, but some continued to practice other religions and maintain their cultural identities.

For over 150 years Islam governed these peoples as one political region, but beginning in the tenth century, the empire began to fall apart.

Turks, led by the Seljuks, conquered almost all of the Middle East, adopting Islam and ruling for more than four hundred years before being replaced by the Ottoman Turks.

The Ottomans did not impose Islamic law on non-Muslims. Beginning in the late 1700s, discontent and ethnic and

religious rivalry caused Ottoman power to deteriorate. European nations, eager to exert political influence in the

Middle East and gain new markets for their products, called the Ottoman Empire “the sick man of Europe.”

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World War I

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World War I Britain convinced the Arabs to

revolt against the Ottomans, and the Arabs believed they would receive a homeland in return.

Britain and France secretly worked out an agreement to divide the Ottoman Empire.

After the war, the Ottoman Empire was reduced to Turkey. The independent Arab state was limited to Arabia and Yemen.

France took Syria and Lebanon as a mandate, while Britain took Palestine, Trans-Jordan, and Iraq as three separate mandates.

Balfour Declaration

His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Arabs and Jews1

•Pre WWI

•Two groups claimed Palestine as their homeland—the Arabs and the Jews

•Amid the flow of Jews emigrating to Palestine in the face of persecution where they lived, Zionists believed the solution to oppression was to create their own country.

•1917

•Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, a statement of support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, which caused an uproar among Arabs.

•WWII

•As Nazi Germany began to persecute Jews, thousands fled to Palestine.

•The International community was sympathetic to the desire for Jews to have their own nation after WWII.

•Post WWII

•The United Nations recommended that Palestine be partitioned, which infuriated the Arabs because most of the best land went to the Jews.

•In 1948, Israel declared its independence and within hours was attacked by neighboring Arab countries, which resulted in Israeli control of three fourths of Palestine.

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Environmental Change

Define

• race• ethnicity

What is the difference between the two?

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Environmental Change Israelis have transformed stretches

of desert into tracts of fertile land, and have developed the process of drip irrigation.

Agricultural success has strained Israel’s limited supplies of water.

Israelis have built processing plants to extract potash, salt, and other minerals from the Dead Sea.

The government has tried to attract workers to live in and develop the desert.

Israel has looked to high technology industries to help its economy.

Service industries have developed to support the growing population.

Palestine

Jews Arabs

Askenazi

(From Europe)

Sephardic

(From Southwest Asia)

Recent Immigrants

(Mostly from Russia and Ethiopia)

Israeli Jews can also be separated on basis of how religious they are. Many Jews are not religious while some are extremely religious.

MuslimsChristians

Druzes

Diverse CulturesIsrael’s Jews Differences between

Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardic Jews formed a sharp division in Israeli society.

Sephardic Jews came from Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Asia, and were poorer and less educated than Ashkenazi Jews, who came from Europe.

Most recent immigrants to Israel come from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union.

There are wide political divisions in Israeli government, which ranges from the very religious groups to the nonreligious groups.

Israel’s Arabs Almost 20 percent of the

population is Arab. The Arabs are a diverse

group, with a population that includes Muslims, Christians, and Druzes.

Israeli Arabs are citizens of Israel, with full political rights.

Nevertheless, Israeli Arabs believe they have been discriminated against in education, employment, and other areas.

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Cooperation and Conflict During and after the Israeli war of independence

in 1948, as many as 500,000 Palestinian refugees fled to neighboring Arab countries. Some Palestinian refugees found jobs and housing, but others remained in crowded refugee camps.

In the mid-1960s, many of these camps became bases for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which demanded that Palestine be liberated, and attacked and killed Israeli civilians.

More and more Israelis settled in the occupied territories, which caused Palestinian support for the PLO in the West Bank and Gaza to grow.

Palestinians began uprisings, called intifadas, in 1987 and again in 2000, after peace talks with Israel stalled.

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Jordan

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Jordan

After the 1948 war between the Arab countries and Israel, Jordan annexed the West Bank, which increased Jordan’s productivity.

After attacking Israel with Egypt and Syria in 1967, Jordan lost the West Bank to Israel, suffering economically as a result.

As the Arab-Israeli wars sent many refugees to Jordan, Palestinian Arabs became a significant part of Jordan’s population and are now a strong political force there.

Jordan’s economy has been improving since the early 1990s, and it continues to unite an Islamic heritage with modern political freedoms.

Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq

Page 487 Complete #1-5. Do not write the questions.

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Lebanon: Civil War and Recovery

Since independence from France in 1943, power has been divided between Maronite Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Druze based on the sizes of their populations.

The Maronites had the highest population and held the most power, but population growth among Muslims and growing economic inequalities between groups created more tensions.

Civil war broke out in 1958 and again in 1975, and in 1982, Israel invaded to drive out the PLO.

An international peacekeeping force was sent in to maintain order, but after several hundred United States Marines were killed, all American troops were withdrawn and the country slid into anarchy, or lawlessness.

The militias, or citizen armies of each faction of Lebanese society, stopped fighting each other in the early 1990s when a new power-sharing agreement was created.

Lebanon has begun to rebuild its infrastructure and economy, and Israel withdrew its troops in 2000.

In 2006 there was a short conflict between Hamas and Israel with most of the fighting occurring in Lebanon. Other than this, Lebanon has experienced peace and stability since the end of their civil war.

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Syria: Challenges and Reforms

The location of Syria has made cities like Damascus and Aleppo busy centers of trade.

Although Syria has rich farmland, farming methods are out of date, and only one third of the fields are irrigated.

Turkey has built dams upstream along the Euphrates, which has resulted in Syrian claims that less water is available for agriculture and electricity production.

General Hafez al-Assad took power in Syria, making all economic decisions and allowing little political freedom.

Bashar Assad succeeded his father in 2000, and began to turn Syria’s economy into a market economy while freeing political prisoners.

Economic recession and political repression has caused many to protest the authoritarian government of Assad. Protests have turned increasingly violent and it is likely that his government will not last beyond 2013.

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Iraq: A Series of Conflicts Iraq lies on the fertile plain between the Tigris and

Euphrates rivers, and after oil was discovered in the 1920s, Iraq spent billions of dollars of oil money to develop the country.

In 1980, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein took advantage of turmoil in Iran to seize a disputed border area, but after years of inconclusive conflict, both sides accepted a UN cease-fire in 1988.

War broker out when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, and armed forces led by the United States attacked and liberated Kuwait.

Hussein remained in power, but refused to follow the terms of a UN cease-fire, so the UN imposed an embargo.

In 1988 and again after the Persian Gulf War, Iraq crushed Kurdish uprisings, forcing many Kurds to flee to neighboring countries.

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003. Most U.S. forces have been withdrawn as of December 2011.

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23-3 Chart

Jordan Lebanon Syria Iraq

Recent historical events that have affected this country

•1948…•1967…

•Civil Wars…•Early ‘90s…

•They are currently in a civil war.

•1980s…•1990…•2000s…

Dominant ethnic or religious groups

Issues confronting this country

•Palestinian refugees

* Rebuilding their…

•Agriculture…•Water…

•Rebuilding government after Saddam Hussein was ousted.•Securing country while U.S. removes soldiers

For today you need to finish… Unit 6 RASH if not completed. Unit 6 Map if not turned in. Islam/Judaism Chart 23.3 Chart (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq)

Demographics

Define ‘demographics’. Why would a government need to study

demographics? Why would companies want to study

demographics?

Warm-up

Pick up a handout and answer the first four questions.

Are there any countries in Southeast Asia that practice Islam?

Is there anything this map does not show regarding religion that could be important? What?

Arabian Peninsula In what ways did the discovery of oil

change the Arabian Peninsula? How has Saudi Arabia tried to balance

modern-day changes and economic growth with respect for tradition?

Why are Oman and Yemen considered the least developed countries in the region?

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Oil Changes a Region

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Oil Changes a Region

The discovery of oil in the 1930s brought the region enormous wealth, which was used to pay for hospitals, schools, roads, airports, apartment buildings, modern health care, and desalination plants.

In 1960, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was formed to decide how much oil to produce and at what price to sell it.

Between 1970 and 1980, high demand for oil caused prices to soar, which had an immense impact on the world economy.

Because oil wells will one day run dry, the countries of the region are investing large sums of money to develop other industries.

Saudi Arabia

Since the 1960s, Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars to build the country’s infrastructure, or basic support facilities.

Two giant industrial centers on the coasts of Saudi Arabia are home to petrochemical factories that collect, process, and ship oil and natural gas.

The family is the most important social unit in Saudi Arabia, and women have an honored position in Saudi society but limited freedoms.

Saudi Arabia has tried to create a balance between change and tradition, which can be seen in Saudi Arabia’s role as guardian of Islam’s most sacred cities, Mecca and Medina.

Each year, approximately two million Muslims from all over the world visit Saudi Arabia for the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.

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Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates

All three of these depend on oil production.

Dubai is in the UAE. Bahrain has recently experienced

protests against their ruling government. Qatar has been selected to host the

2022 FIFA World Cup. Qatar: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/12/03/mme.a.qatar.rapid.growth.cnn?iref=videosearch

Oman and Yemen

Yemen has only begun processing its oil deposits, while Oman has used oil revenues to improve life for its people, although it did not undergo the large-scale modernization that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait did.

Most people in Yemen and Oman are farmers or herders, and many farmers depend on an ancient system of underground and surface canals called the falaj system for water.

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Oman and Yemen

Wadi Shab

Palm tree farms in Oman

Al-Bustan Palace Hotel

In the late 20th century Sana'a’s population grew exponentially, from roughly 55,000 in 1978 to more than 1 million in the early 21st century. Sana'a may be the first capital city in the world to run out of water.

High-rise architecture at Shibam, Wadi Hadramawt

Vocabulary

shah secular ayatollah

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Turkey

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Turkey

After revolutionaries overthrew the sultan and declared Turkey a republic in 1923, Mustafa Kemal, the first president, set about modernizing Turkey.

In the government, secular and Islamic parties have struggled for power.

Struggling under government repression, Kurds have fought for independence and, more recently, have been trying to peacefully win their rights.

Turkey has one of the few freely elected governments in the region.

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Islam Changes Iran

Important Iranian Figures

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq

Ayatollah KhomeiniPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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Islam Changes Iran After WWII, the British possessed most

of the oil fields in Iran. Fearful of losing these oil fields, the British encouraged the U.S. to partner with them to overthrow the Iranian Prime Minister. Iran was ruled after this by the shah who had support from the U.S.

The U.S. feared communism gaining a foothold in Iran.

In 1979, after the people of Iran revolted and the shah fled, the Ayatollah Khomeini declared Iran an Islamic republic.

1980-1988 Iran/Iraq War Still tension between reformers and

Islamic leaders. Today it is believed Iran are on the

verge of having nuclear weapons.

Cyprus

Greek colonists settled Cyprus as early as 1200 B.C.

Today about four fifths of Cypriots speak Greek and are Greek Orthodox Christians.

Cyprus was part of the Ottoman Empire from the 1570s until the British occupied it in 1878, and one fifth of Cypriots are Turkish and follow Islam.

In the 1960s, civil war split Cyprus between Greeks and Turks.

Some Greeks Cypriots wanted Cyprus to become part of Greece, and in 1974, Turkey sent troops to Cyprus to prevent this.

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Venn Diagram

Your activity is a Venn diagram on Iran and Turkey. Your book should be your primary resource, but you may use any

other resource at your disposal. You should have 25 total characteristics regardless of where they go.

Consider the following characteristics as you complete your diagram. Physical geography History Important figures Political system Social issues Economy Religion Ethnic groups

TURKEY IRAN