10-1 Nationalism in the Middle East

10-1 MAJOR CHANGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
• Collapsed after WWI
• Nationalism and foreign involvement helped bring it down
• After the war, most areas gained independence, and Turkey stood alone as the Ottoman’s land.
• The new leader was Mustafa Kemal
ATATURK
• Means “father turk”
• Changed Turkey into a democracy
• Changed alphabet
• Created public schools
• People to adopt western style
• People had to adopt family names (last names)
• Set up five year plans to industrialize
• Brought in western clothes
• Women get equal rights
• People could be whatever religions they wanted

• Some people, like devout Muslims, didn’t like all of his reforms
REZA SHAH PAHLAVI
• Originally called Persia
• Had lots of oil, so it was wealthy and other countries wanted control
• Pahlavi overthrew the gov’t in 1921
• Copied Ataturk’s reforms
– Western style education
– Made reforms to make the country stronger
ARAB NATIONALISM
• Arabs wanted to make their own countries after the Ottoman Empire broke up.
• Instead, England and France took over in many areas, decided their borders, and divvied them up
– The people didn’t have a real connection to their country.
• Ibn Saud: united Arabs and started his own kingdom, Saudi Arabia
– Oil was discovered here
PALESTINE
• 80% Muslim, 20% Jewish
• Zionists wanted to make it the official Jewish homeland.
• When the Germans started picking on the Jews, more and more moved there
– This led to violence among the people.
• Balfour Declaration – British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine
– Eventually they limited the number of people that could come in.