[BLANK_AUDIO] Welcome to lesson four of our course on the emergence of the modern Middle East. Today we will talk about the creation of the Middle East state system. This Middle East state system was created in the aftermath of World War I, after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and in the period of ascendance of the Western powers, Britain and France, in the Middle East and it is they, who created much of the new state system. So we can ask ourselves, what influenced the decisions of the great powers when they entered into this creation of the Middle Eastern state system? First of all, we should look the fact that the British and the French did not have the same perceptions of what the Middle East really was. In the eyes of the French, the Middle East was the heterogeneous mosaic of minorities. Which, clashed with the British view, which tended to see the Middle East as a homogeneous, Arab part of the world. This was the Arab world, a world populated by the Arab people. In the French view, this was not the case. The Middle East was really a mosaic of various religious minorities. And if it's one, if one is to look at the Middle East, in retrospect, it would appear that the French had a more precise view of the reality. But at the time, in the aftermath of the First World War, the decisions were between Britain and France, and in making these decisions the British had to take into consideration a variety of different points of view as to policy in the Middle East. On the one hand, there was the view from London, the view from London, we sought compromise with France, sought compromise with France because of France's importance in the European context. France was a critical ally of the British against Germany, and even though the war was already over, the British were still very concerned with the balance of power in Europe, and in that respect, France was very important. The view in Cairo, however, was very different. From Cairo, the French appeared to be a nuisance, and an irritant. In a region which the people in Cairo who believed in the emergence of Arab nationalism, that it is with Arab nationalism that the British should side, and in that respect, unite the Middle East under British influence without necessary deference to France. But it was the view from London that emerged victorious, and in their considerations about how to go about structuring the Middle East. The Middle East had to take Arab nationalism into account, it was a force after the First World War that had made its mark in the international community, and the great powers, therefore, could not simply establish in the Middle East some kind of colonial order as if nothing had happened in the First World War. And therefore, there was the invention of the mandate compromise. That compromise between colonial interests and the need to acquiesce in the self-determination of peoples. That is, for the Great Powers to have their influence in the region, but to lead the peoples of the region to independence. Britain's interest had to be balanced against those of France, and here the two perceptions tended to clash once again. The British, seeing the region as one strategic theater, that is, the entire Arab world as one strategic theater, on the way to the important imperial position of India. In the French view, this was not one strategic theater. In fact, the Levant, the area of Syria and Lebanon, should be seen as separate from France's possessions in North Africa. In fact, France wanted as little influence as possible of Arab nationalism in Syria and Lebanon, which could influence the position of France in Algeria, in North Africa in general. And therefore, the French were very suspicious of Arab nationalism, very suspicious of the British association with the Arab nationalist movement. And the Arab nationalist movement, thanks to the Arab revolt, against the Turks in the middle of the First World War, had achieved some form of international recognition. The world did recognize that there was an Arab nationalism, that there were Arab national rights, and that these had to be addressed. So, it was a combination of all these complex factors, that eventually determined the state structure of the Middle East. Many of the new Arab states that were established on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire had never existed before. They had not existed as defined political entities before 1920.
