CHAPTER 7
NORTH AFRICA / SOUTHWEST ASIA
Geographic Qualities of North Africa/S.W. Asia
1. This realm contains several of the world’s
great ancient culture hearths and some of its most durable civilizations.
2. The North Africa/SW Asia realm is the source
of several world religions, including Islam, Christianity and
Judaism.
3. The realm is predominately but not exclusively
Islamic (Muslim). That faith pervades cultures from Morocco
in the west to Afghanistan in the east.
4. North Africa/SW Asia is often called the
“Arab World” but significant population groups in this realm
are not of Arab ancestry.
5. Population is widely dispersed in discontinuous
clusters.
6. Natural environments in this realm are dominated
by drought and unreliable precipitation population concentrations
occur where the water supply is adequate to marginal-corresponds
to B climates.
7. The real contains a pivotal area in the “Middle
East” where Arabian, North African and Asian regions intersect.
9. The end of Soviet rule and the revival of
Islam in Turkestan have the effect of expanding this realm into
inner Asia.
10. Enormous reserves of petroleum lie beneath
a portion of the region (Persian Gulf) bringing wealth to these
regions. Overall standards of living have risen to a small
minority of the population.
Regional Components
Egypt and the lower Nile is the historic
focus of the realm and one of the three most populous countries.
It is a major political and cultural force. The Maghreb
is in Western North Africa. Areas that border it are Algeria,
Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
African Transition Zone is from southern Mauritania in the west
to Somalia in the East. People of African ethnicities have
adopted the Muslim faith and Arabic language and traditions.
The Middle East includes Israel, Jordan,
Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. This crescent like zone of countries
extends from eastern Mediterranean coast to the head of the Persian
Gulf. The Arabian Peninsula is dominated by the large territory
of Saudi Arabia-also includes United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain,
Qatar, Oman and Yemen. The source and focus of Islam with
its holy city of Mecca. It is the source of the world’s
greatest oil deposits. The Empire States include Turkey,
Iran and Afghanistan. Turkey
is a secular Islamic republic and Iran
is a fundamentalist one. Both countries have an imperialistic
history still felt in the region. Turkestan is located in
an old Soviet central Asia where Islam is resurgent. It
includes Kazakhstan-the
largest state, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan,
Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan.
In the basins and valleys of the great rivers of this realm lay
two of the world’s earliest culture hearths, sources of innovations
and ideas traits and technologies, lifestyles that spread far
beyond their nuclei. Mesopotamia, the land between the Rivers,
was a zone of fertile alluvial soils, abundant sunshine and ample
water.
In the Tigris-Euphrates lowland between
the head of the Persian Gulf and the uplands of present-day Turkey
arose one of humanities first civilizations. Agricultural
knowledge was based on planned sowing and harvesting There
was distribution of surplus grain storage and later consumption.
This zone of advanced farming extended in an arc from the Mediterranean
coast to the Persian Gulf known as the Fertile Crescent.
Irrigation was the key to progress and
power. The Hydraulic Civilization theory holds that cities
able to control irrigated farming over large hinterlands held
power over others and thrived as they expanded their spheres of
influence. Higher crop yields resulted from irrigated agriculture
and in turn, this food surplus could support the development of
a large non-farming population. The strong centralized government
is backed by an urban based military expanded power into the outlying
areas. Farmers who resisted authority were denied water.
Continued reinforcement of the power elite came from the need
for organizational coordination to assure continued operation
of the irrigation system. There was a surplus of water due
to irrigation able to support non-farmers. Class distinction
reinforced by power differences and labor specializations developed.
The Hydraulic model fits several areas where cities first arose,
China, Egypt & Mesopotamia
Eventually durable states arose in the
Mesopotamia region. Babylon on the Euphrates River evolved
for nearly 2,000 years as a walled fortified center with temples,
towers and palaces. Egypt’s cultural evolution may have
started earlier than Mesopotamia and the focus of this civilization
lay above (South) of the Nile Delta and below the cataracts (rapids)
of the Nile. The Nile was Egypt’s highway of trade and interaction
also supported the following agricultural crops by irrigation:
Domesticated cereals (wheat, rye and barley)
Vegetables (peas and beans)
Fruits (Grapes, Apples and Peaches)
The raising of pigs, sheep and cattle
Many of these ancient civilizations are
located in present-day arid environments. It is possible
that climate damage along with shifting environmental zones in
the wake of the Pleistocene ice age was responsible for the change
to a drier regime. Innovations in agricultural planning
and irrigation technology may have been made irresponsive to changing
environmental conditions as these communities struggled to survive.
As old societies disintegrated, new power centers emerged.
Persians, Greeks & Romans all colonized the irrigated riverine
areas of the middle east-Romans also colonized North Africa’s
farmlands into irrigated plantations.
Rise of Monotheistic Religions
According to British Geographer William
Fisher, the nomadic peoples tended to combine their lifestyle
with their own religious view. A single god with whom a
close individual relationship lasting a lifetime and beyond can
exist. Practically all of the great monotheistic religions
of the world have arisen on the margins of the great deserts of
Eurasia where pastoral people come into contact with the polytheism
of settled areas. Although Judaism and Christianity are
examples of monotheistic religion with their origin in this region,
their centers of influence have remained confined or moved out
of the region.
Islam
Islam served as a unifying force for a
dispersed, divided people. Eventually an Islamic empire
extended from S. Europe to tropical Asia and Central Asia to sub-Saharan
Africa. Muslims are divided into two sects:
Sunni (85 percent) and Shia (15 percent). Sunnis accept
appointed successors to Muhammad and Shi’ites accept only
blood relatives of Muhammad as the true caliphs (successors to
Muhammad). Both are fundamentalist and both are generally
hostile to western influence, but Shi'ites especially. Spread
of Islam occurred via diffusion processes, the spread or dissemination
of a phenomena across space and through time. Changes included
culture traits, technology innovation, diseases, political ideas
and religious practices.
Adjacent individuals in a locationally
fixed population are affected as the innovation waves pass by.
This is known as contagious diffusion typical of how influenza
viruses are spread. An innovation can also spread by leapfrogging
over a wider area than the local dispersion pattern associated
with contagious diffusion. At the national and continental
scales, the urban hierarchy becomes the main channel of diffusion.
This process of hierarchical diffusion starts in the primate or
largest city. The innovation subsequently progresses through
smaller cities, towns and villages until the saturation stage
is reached. Relocation diffusion phenomena are spread not
within a fixed population, but by adopting individuals who move
and carry innovations with them. Other terms common to Islam
include:
Caliph-successor to Muhammad
Imans-mosque officials when lead worshippers
in prayer
Shah-secular king of Muslims
Ayatollah-religious leader under Allah Mullahs
Mullahs-Teachers of the Islamic faith
Sharia-criminal code used by fundamentalist
Muslims
Christianity
Christianity arose in the western Mediterranean
region and diffused westward and northward into the Roman Empire
and beyond. When the wave of Islamic diffusion reached
into Iberia from North Africa, however, Christians in Europe
mobilized
not only to meet the threat but to resurrect Christianity in
the region of its source. The Arabs had colonized the
whole of Southern and Central Spain and Portugal, occupied Sicily
and
threatened Rome. Much of this diffusion wave weakened
by the 11th century and the Crusades, a series of military expeditions
designed to reestablish Christianity in it source region.
Muslims forces fought back and in 1187 retook Jerusalem-by the
end of the 14th century the Christians ended their attempts
to
penetrate this realm.
Judaism
Judaism predated other religions by many
centuries, having its source in the same region. The rise of Islam
over powered the smaller Jewish communities but it was the Christian
who waged centuries of holy war against the Muslims. Jewish
communities existed in small enclaves from Morocco to Iran and
Turkey to the Horn of Africa. In 1948 the State of Israel
was established in Palestine, becoming a battleground between
Arabs and Jews and Muslims lies in the crossroads of regional
conflict.
After the Muslims had withdrawn from Spain
and the Crusades had concluded, a powerful Islamic empire arose
in northwestern Turkey in the area of Anatolia. This was
the Byzantine remnant of the Roman Empire and the City of Constantinople
(Istanbul) was the Rome of the eastern churches of Christianity.
The Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453 and soon controlled
much of Eastern Europe, the Mahreb, Persia and Mesopotamia.
Under Suleyman the Magnificent (1522 to 1560), the Ottoman Empire
was the most powerful state of its time in Eurasia. After
Suleyman's reign the Austrians and Russians pushed Ottoman boundaries
back, the Balkans freed themselves and Egypt also freed itself.
After WWI, the Ottoman empire was parceled out to the European
colonial powers becoming the modern states of Syria, Iraq,
Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine (later Israel).
France--Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia
Britain--Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Palestine
Italy--Libya
To delimit their colonial holdings and
to facilitate administration, Europeans laid out a frame work
of political
boundaries which often left a legacy of unsettled territorial
quarrels and displaced different tribes and ethnic groups. This
became critical especially when oil was discovered in this realm.
Oil Exploration
The realms population of near 450 million,
is clustered, fragmented and strung out in river valleys, coastal
zones and crowded oases. The region might not be considered
important to the world due to its location in an inhospitable
arid climate. Currently oil and the state of Israel keep
this region in the forefront of world affairs. Oil is
found in several regions of North Africa and Southwest Asia. Southern
and southeastern part of the Arabian peninsula northwestward
around
the rim of the Persian Gulf, reaching into Iran and continuing
northward into Iraq, Syria and Southeastern Turkey. From
North Africa, Algeria to Libya and Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan
and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan comprise
another region of oil deposits.
Current estimates suggest more than 65
percent of the world's known oil reserves lie in the North Africa/SW
Asia realm. The oil production of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait,
UA East Libya is of great importance to the rest of the world,
notably the energy demanding developed realm. When the political
boundaries of this realm were defined, mostly by colonial powers,
the dimension of the oil reserves existing beneath the desert
sand were not known. Major finds occurred in the Kirkuk
reserve in Iraq (1927), Iran-1908, Kuwait-1938, Saudi Arabia-1936,
and Lybia-1959.
Exploration of Oil in Iran and Iraq
Exploration for oil in the Middle East
or Mesopotamia as it was known began in 1901 when a Persia (as
Iran was then known), seeking money for economic development,
contacted British capitalists seeking to grant concession in order
to determine if there was oil in Persia. Oil seepages had
been noted for centuries in Persia, where oozings were used for
such purposes as the caulking of boats and bindings of brick.
Persia could claim a national identity stretching back to the
ancient empire of Cyrus the Great and Darius I which by the 5th
century B.C. extended from India all the way into what today are
modern Greece and Libya. The Parthian empire later emerged
from this region becoming a formidable rival to the Roman Empire.
Persia itself was a great crossroads for trade and conquest between
Asia and the West. Wave after wave of armies and entire
peoples passed through and in some cases settled. Alexander
the Great, swept in from the west, Genghis Khan and the Mongols
from the East. At the end of the 18th century the Qajars
succeeded in winning control over a country that had fragmented
into the principalities of contending war lords, ruling for 150
years. By the nineteenth century the region found itself
subject to diplomatic and commercial competition between Russia
and Britain for dominance over Persia, which the shahs sought
to play the two great powers off against each other. Beginning
in the 1860’s Russia had embarked on a relentless drive of expansion
and annexation in Central Asia. The Russians were looking
beyond Central Asia, as well as, toward controlling neighboring
countries and acquiring a warm water port. To the British,
Russia’s expansion was a direct threat to India and its trading
routes. The British sought to keep Persia intact, serving
as a buffer between Russia and India. The two powers wrangled
over influence of Persia through concession and loans and other
tools of economic diplomacy. With Persia in danger of being
swallowed by Russia, the British approved of an oil concession
which would right the balance of power between the two countries.
Eventually after nearly seven years of struggle against the elements,
the confused political scene and near bankruptcy, oil was discovered
in 1908.
ppIn Mesopotamia
(Iraq) concessions were granted to the partners in the Turkish
Petroleum Company. The partners in Turkish Petroleum included
Royal Dutch (Shell), Anglo-Persian (British Petroleum) and the
French. After much arduous and time consuming negotiations,
the American companies, led by Standard of New Jersey (now Exxon),
were brought in as the Near East Development Company. This
was created to hold the interest of the American companies in
which a red line was drawn around the Arabian peninsula and Turkey
and Mesopotamia, where no other company could explore for oil.
Oil was discovered in Kirkuk in 1927.
Oil Discoveries in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
Kuwait was a small state trying to assure
its independence and freedom of action midst larger powers.
It had long played a commercial rule owing to its location near
the head of the Persian Gulf and along the trade and pilgrimage
routes between Basra and Mecca. Its emergence as an independent
principality dates from the middle of the 18th century, when nomadic
tribes from the interior of the Arabian Peninsula and in 1756,
selected a shiekh from the Al-Sabah family. By the 19th
century it had become the emporium for commerce in the upper Gulf
through paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire, successfully resisting
direct application of Turkish authority. At the end of the
19th century Britain wanted to stop German influence represented
in the Berlin-Baghdad railway and Kuwait wanted to assure its
independence of the Ottomans. Britain assumed responsibilities
for Kuwait’s foreign affairs and later established a protectorate
over the emirate. Kuwait’s economy was devastated by the
introduction of artificial pearls replacing the demand for natural
pearls in the Persian Gulf. Kuwait enthusiastically accepted
concessions from Gulf and Anglo Persian (now British Petroleum)
after a series of prolonged negotiations Kuwait was outside the
“Red Line Agreement”(a series of complicated negotiations between
European and American oil companies and businessmen in the Middle
East- particularly in Turkey-it determined who had exploration
rights in this region) and companies not associated with this
agreement were free to develop oil.
Gulf oil showed some interest in exploring
for oil in Saudi Arabia, but Gulf was a signatory to the Red
Line
Agreement, precluding any oil company from operating independently
within Saudi Arabia. Gulf brought up the option to Standard
of California (Socal-now Chevron) not bound by the agreement,
took up the option and after a series of intense negotiations
with the British (previous agreements with local Sheiks allowed
that only
British would develop oil in order to prevent German penetration
of the Gulf region) drilling began in Bahrain in 1931 with
oil
discovered a year later. Eventually Socal would win concessions
from Ibn Sauds kingdom offering the kingdom badly needed capital
for the development of his country. After much difficulty,
oil was finally discovered in 1930. WWII would slow development
of oil, but from this time forward Saudi Arabia would be the
new
center of gravity of oil and a site of geopolitical strategy
in world affairs. The oil rich countries of the realm
had a coveted energy resource but they did not posses the equipment
or skills to exploit it. These had to be introduced from
the outside world and this entailed what many tradition-bound
Muslims feared most: penetrations of the vulgarities of
western ways. In Saudi Arabia the two major cultural forces
were Islam and Aramco, the joint Arab-American oil company
that
discovered oil in the kingdom.
Creation of OPEC
The swelling volumes of oil from the Middle
East were crucial to the post war recovery of a devastated Europe.
The Marshall Plan made possible and pushed a far-reaching transition
in Europe, the change from a coal-based economy toward one based
on imported oil. Additional oil companies (independents)
moved into the Middle East and offered their host companies better
deals concerning royalties for the host country. This forced
the majors to renegotiate their concession via a 50-50 split between
country royalties and oil company profits. This was also in response
to deals with Venezuela which avoided the expropriation of oil
fields that had occurred in Mexico. Nationalization was
avoided for the time being (except in Iran). In 1959, under
pressure from domestic producers, Eisenhower was forced to place
an import tax on imported oil, or quotas on foreign oil, which
hit Venezuela harder than any other country since the U.S. was
the destination of 40 percent of its total exports. Venezuela’s
proposal of quota system for oil was ignored. In 1958 the
Soviet Union tried to divide the western alliance by selling oil
on the cheap to western European countries. In order to
reduce this threat, the western oil companies cut their posted
price thus reducing the national revenues of the Arab oil producers.
This galvanized the oil producers into action and Abdullah Tariki,
Finance Minister of Saudi Arabia, and Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso
also Oil Minister of Venezuela met at the 1959 Arab Oil Congress.
In this meeting, the supranationalistic organization the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, modeled after the Texas
Railroad Commission, was formed. Yet for all its bluster
during the 1960’s, OPEC was largely ineffective. The world
oil market was overwhelmed with surplus and the exporting countries
were competitors. Even when they flexed their muscle during
the Six-Day-War of 1967, the United States and other non Arab
countries boosted production to make up for the short fall of
oil.
Regions and States
Egypt
Egypt, anchor of the lower Nile Basin occupies
a pivotal location in the heart of a realm that extends for over
6,000 miles longitudinally and some 4,000 miles latitudinally.
About 97 percent of the population lives
within a dozen miles of the Nile’s banks or its deltas.
The river rises and falls seasonally, watering and replenishing
crops and fields on its banks. In April and May the river
is at its lowest level, a trickle through the desert, but during
the summer months it rises reaching its crest at Cairo in October.
In ancient times this regime made possible the invention of basin
irrigation, earthen dams built, closing off fields along the
low
banks of the river, and creating numerous artificial basins.
The silt-laden river water poured into these basins during flood
state. While the water was high the exits were closed
trapping valuable deposits of alluvium. When the water
levels drop, exits opened allowing water to escape, leaving
behind rejuvenated
soil ready for sowing. The construction of permanent dams,
begun during the 19th century, made possible the perennial irrigation
of Egypt’s farmlands. By building a series of artificial
barriers across the river (with locks for navigation) engineers
could
control the floods, raise the Nile’s water level, free the farmers
from their dependence on sharp seasonal fluctuation of the rivers
natural regime, expanded the country’s cultivable area and allowed
the growing of more than one crop per year on the same field.
By mid 1980’s all farmland in Egypt had finally come under perennial
irrigation. The greatest of all Nile projects, the Aswan
Dam, begun in 1958 (by Soviet financial aid) and finished in
1971
creates the large artificial reservoir, Lake Nasser, the effect
of this dam was to increase Egypt’s arable land by nearly 50
percent and to provide oil poor Egypt with about 40 percent
of its electricity.
The Nile Delta’s channels are now controlled
as the river itself and they irrigate twice as much land as upper
and middle Egypt combined. The more intensive use of the
Nile’s water and silt upstream are depriving the delta of much
needed replenishment. The low lying delta is subsiding creating
fears of salt-water intrusion from the Mediterranean damaging
vital soils. Egypt’s substance farmers (fellahen) still
struggle to make their living off the land as did the peasants
5,000 years ago. Many agricultural techniques once agriculture
innovations, have not changed over the years. Farmland per
capita has declined as population growth nullifies gains in agricultural
productivity. Egypt remains this realms most important and
influential country, lying spatially, culturally and ideologically
at the heart of the Arab world. Long under the influence
of foreigners, Egypt reasserted itself in the 1950’s, throwing
off the monarchy and nationalizing the Suez Canal. After
two disastrous wars with Israel in 1967-1973, Egypt was in desperate
need of foreign aid to repair its war damaged economy. After
a series of peace talks with Israel, a peace accord was signed
in 1978 resulting in Egypt’s expulsion from the Arab League.
Today Egypt is under pressure from militants in the activities
of the Muslim Brotherhood; an extremist organization that has
resulted to violence and intimidation to promote its goal of an
Islamic republic.
Six Subregions of Egypt
The six subregions of Egypt are the Nile
Delta, Middle Egypt, Upper Egyptian Nile from Thebes to the Sudan
border, Western Desert containing several large oases and Eastern
Desert & Red Sea Coast.
The majority of Egyptians live and work
in lower and middle Egypt, the country’s core area. Metropolitan
Cairo is home to 1/6 of Egypt’s population and the largest urban
area on the African continent, here the Nile Valley opens into
the delta. Below Cairo, in the delta to the north, lie vast
fields of the cotton that constitute Egypt’s main cash crop (exported
in raw form as well as finished textiles). Above the capital,
food crops dominate in the Nile, hugging strip of farmlands that
is Middle East. Despite the expansion of its irrigated croplands,
Egypt in the mid 1990’s imported more than 60 percent of the food
it needs and population growth continues at 2.5 percent annually.
Egypt’s planners know that reducing this rather high growth rate
would improve the economic situation, but fundamentalist Muslims
object to any programs that promote family planning. The
government is wary of militant Islam. Development gains
are wiped or by demographics.
Maghreb and Libya
The countries of northwestern Africa
are collectively called the Maghreb (Morocco,
Algeria and Tunisia). Libya faces the Mediterranean
between the Maghreb and Egypt and is an oil rich desert state
whose population is almost entirely clustered in settlements along
the coast. The Atlas mountains form the Nucleus of the settled
Maghreb. These high ranges wrest from the rising air enough
orographic rainfall to sustain life in the intervening valleys
where good soils support productive farming. From the vicinity
of Algiers eastward along the coast of Tunisia, annual rainfall
averages more than 30 inches, three times the amount recorded
at Alexandria in Egypt’s Nile Delta. Where the highlands
of the Atlas terminate, desert conditions begin. Eastward
two major ranges appear that dominate the landscapes of Algeria
proper. The Tell Atlas to the north, facing the Mediterranean
and the Saharan Atlas to the south, overlooking the great desert
between these two mountain chains each consisting of several parallel
ranges and foothills, lies a series of intermountain basins, drier
than the northward, facing slopes of the Tell Atlas. In
these valleys, the rain shadow effect of the Tell Atlas is reflected
not only in the steppe-like natural vegetation but also in land
use patterns. The countries of the Maghreb are sometimes
referred to as the Barbary States. The regions oldest inhabitants
are the Berbers. Berbers livelihood consists of nomadic
pastoralism, hunting and farming. Phoenicians and Romans
conquered territory building towns and roads, laid out farm fields
and irrigation canals and introduced new methods of cultivation.
Arabs conquered demanding allegiance to Islam forming an Arab
Berber alliance (the Moors). During European colonial era,
over a million Europeans settled here, most of them French recognizing
the agriculture possibilities of the Tell’s vast Mediterranean
agriculture. These agricultural products include wines,
dates, olives, oranges, citrus groves, wheats and barleys.
Nationalism emerged as a powerful force
and a costly revolutionary war gripped Algeria from 1954 to 1962.
Oil discovered in Algeria in 1956 by the French contributed to
the economy. Negotiations of Algerian independence guaranteed
retention of Frances position in Saharan oil. North Africans
have been emigrating to Europe, primarily to France, in search
of work. At least 1.5 million North Africans reside in Europe.
Algeria and Tunisia face a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism
as their economies have weakened.
Libya is small in population, large in
area, rich in oil and not much else. Oil was discovered
in 1959 when concessions were granted to many small oil companies
as opposed to large oil companies in the Persian Gulf. It
was a very high quality “sweet” (low sulfur content) crude in
contrast with heavier Persian Gulf crudes. It’s oil was
perfect for automobiles and other environmentally suited products.
At one point Libya was producing more oil than Saudi Arabia.
In 1969 a group of radical young officers led by Muomar Al-Qaddafi,
seized control in a coup and demanded an increase in the posted
price of oil. After tense negotiations with Occidental
Petroleum (led by Armund Hammer) Libya’s share of profit from
oil increased to 55 percent. The Libyan agreements decisively
changed the balance of power between governments of producing
countries
and the foreign oil companies for other oil-producing countries
in the realm. It had an emboldening effect which would
have far reaching consequences down the road. Money derived
from oil has built up the country’s military and support revolutionary
Arab causes elsewhere in the realm. It has also built
up support of the Sudan’s reconstruction as an Islamic Republic
and support of Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt and elsewhere.
African Transition Zone
The African Transition Zone includes Senegal,
Niger, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Nigeria , Eritrea, Mali, Chad,
Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Somalia. This is a wide
corridor across which Islam yields to traditional African (animist)
and Christian religions. French colonialism grafted a European
blue print of development onto traditional Islam. Conflict
has affected this realm, particularly Chad and Sudan between
Muslims
and non-Muslims. Ethiopia too has suffered from famine,
dictatorship and civil war between Muslim Eritreans and non-Muslim
Ethiopians. Further south, Somalia has devolved into total
anarchy as warring Muslim clans vie for control. The region
suffers from tremendous environmental problems. This
east-west zone borders the Sahara also known as the Sahel
and is subject
to frequent and long lasting drought. The Sahel is a steppe
environment and the cultural African Transition Zone can be
seen
generally coinciding with the climate steppe regime. The
desert is not static but expands and contracts in fairly regular
cycles. When it contracts its margins turn green, grasses
grow and the bush fills out, people and their livestock move
in
and settlements flourish. When dry conditions resume, the
Sahara can grow as much as 15 percent in a single year.
Movement of people during these stressful times are exacerbated
by crossing political boundaries where they are not wanted.
Persian Gulf
ppWith only 20 million
people, this is not an important realm in terms of population,
but is important in its abundant mineral resources. The Arabian
peninsula contains the Earth's largest concentration of known
petroleum
reserves. Saudi Arabia occupies most of this area and by some
estimates may possess as much as one-quarter of the world's
remaining
oil. These reserves lie in the eastern part of the country, particularly
along the Persian Gulf and in the deserts of the Rub al Khali
in the southeast.
ppThe national state
of Saudi Arabia was consolidated in the 1920s through the organizational
abilities of King Ibn Saud. After unifying various nomadic tribes
(usually by marrying into each family-reportedly the king had
over 200 children!), Ibn Saud's kingdom was devastated by the
world-wide depression of the 1930s which curtailed the annual
Muslim pilgrimmages to Mecca. Desparately needing new revenues,
Ibn Saud sought out expertise to look for oil in the kingdom as
oil had been discovered in nearby Bahrain in 1932. American help
was desired because Ibn Saud thought the Americans were superior
geologists and their lack of colonial adventures meant that they
were least likely to cause trouble, in addition to the fact that
they were the farthest away. The king also did not trust the British
and did not want them involved in the discovery of oil. Eventually
oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia, but would wait until after
World War II to enter into the global economy
Middle East
Iraq
Iraq comprises nearly 60 percent of the
total area of the Middle East and has 40 percent of the region’s
population to include major oil reserves in the Kirkuk region
and large areas of irrigated farmland. Significant
archeological sites exist, as the country is heir to the early
Mesopotamian states and empires that emerged in the basin of the
Tigris and Euphrates and the core area centered around Baghdad
situated on the Tigris River. Sunni Moslems dominate
the core area and the country’s political machine. It is
bound by Turkey, Jordan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria,
all (except Jordan) adversarial. Nearly 9 million of the
country’s 20 million inhabitants are Shi’ites- severely repressed
during the Gulf War. The Shat al Arab is the boundary between
Iraq & Iran; the junction where the Tigris and Euphrates come
together. Iraq’s territorial claim to land on the Iranian
side triggered an eight year war which nearly ended in it's defeat.
In 1986 the price of oil collapsed suddenly.
This was a response to a glut of new oil discoveries in non-OPEC
countries, energy conservation by the importing companies
and
fears by Saudi Arabia that it was becoming a marginal power based
on its rapidly shrinking market share. In order to regain
their place in the market, the Saudis made specialized deals
with
refiners and flooded the market with oil causing the price to
plummet (which devastated the Texas economy and other non-OPEC
oil-producing countries as well). The slump in oil prices
caused many Arab governments to experience shortfalls and budget
deficits. Iraq was devastated by this and it's eight year
long battle with Iran. In addition to these problems, Iraq accused
Kuwait of drilling for oil that belonged to Iraq and of exceeding
OPEC quotas. As a result of these perceived misdeeds, Iraq invaded
Kuwait in 1990. Saddam Hussein's miscalculation that the
Western allies would do nothing, nearly cost him his position.
Iraq was devastated by the massive bombing offensive launched
by the United States and its coalition allies. The UN
imposed an embargo on oil imports (still in place today) and
the other
OPEC countries stepped up production to make up for the shortfall.
At the end of the Gulf War, the U.N. established a security zone
between the 36th parallel and Iraq’s northern borders as a security
zone for Kurdish refugees, but Iraq continues to persecute
them.
In the north, most of the people are Sunni Muslims but they are
also Kurds.
There may be as many as 24 million Kurds scattered in Turkey,
Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia and Azerbijian- an example of a nationality
without a country.
Syria
Damascus, capital of Syria, is the worlds
oldest continuously inhabited city. Extensive agricultural
country is located along the Mediterranean coast, wheat is located
along the Northern Border, cotton in the east and oil in the northeast.
The loss of territory to Israel (Golan Heights) is a source of
conflict. Peace negotiations with Israel are ongoing, but
the Israelis show no willingness to give up this strategic location.
The creation of Israel has been an irritant
for Jordan. Trade used to flow through Haifa which is now
an Israeli port. Jordan was home to over half a million
refugees when Israel was created, refugees outnumbering residents
2 to 1. The West Bank was lost during the 1967 war as well
as Jerusalem to Israel. Negotiations seek to give it back.
Lebanon has enjoyed a long history of trade
and commerce beginning with the Phoenicians. One quarter
of the population is Christian. In 1975, civil war between
Christians and Muslims nearly destroyed the country. Many
Christians have emigrated from the country as Muslims consolidate
their control. Israel and Syria have involved themselves
in the dispute for their own security purposes but have become
entangled in the country’s internal problems.
Israel was a product of the collapse of
the Ottoman Empires. Britain gained control over the mandate
of Palestine and British policy supported the Aspirations of
European
Jews who wanted a homeland established there. Once independent
they were attacked by Arab neighbors who rejected the plan.
Israel was eventually victorious over Arabs gaining territory
in central and northern regions. At the end of the first
Arab-Israeli War the Jewish population controlled 80 percent
of
what had been Palestine west of the Jordan River. This
early conflict proved to be only the first in a series of wars
between
Israel and its Arab neighbors. The 1967 week long conflict
resulted in major Israeli victories; Golan Heights-Syria,
West Bank-Jordan & Jerusalem, and Sinai Peninsula-up to
the Suez Canal Egypt. A 1973 war led to Israel’s withdrawal
from Sinai and eventually returned to Egypt. Since then
a fragile peace has been sustained punctuated by terrorist
incursions
from Lebanon and Jordan, Israeli retaliation, and Israeli encroachment
on Lebanon in a security zone extending along their joint
border
on the Lebanese side. Greatest challenge facing Israel
is the achievement of an accommodation between the Israeli government
and the Palestinians under its control. One prominent issue
has been the displacement of Palestines and their subsequent
quest
for a homeland. Some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced
when Israel was created. Today almost 4 million Palestinians
live in Jordan (55 percent of population) and other Arab countries.
The West Bank might have become such territory but Israel has
built numerous Jewish settlements there, making up 15 percent
of the population over Palestinian objections. Another
problem has been Jerusalem holy place for Jews, Christian and
Muslims.
The original U.N blueprint for Palestine, was to have the city
internationalized. Jerusalem has been divided between
the Jewish state and Jordan. It fell to the Israelis
during the 1967 war. It is regarded as the capital but
most countries recognize Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital. Israel’s
rapid rise to strength and prosperity amid under development
common to the
Middle East is a major irritant in the region. Israel has
been transformed by the energies of its settlers and by heavy
investments and contributions made by Jews and Jewish organizations
elsewhere in the world’s especially the U.S. Through the
practice of fertigation (brackish desert water is mixed with
fertilizers
and piped directly to the roots of each plant.) Israel
is able to be self-sufficient in agriculture. Egypt has
become Israel's chief energy supplier selling oil from the Sinai
peninsula.
Division within the country exist between Jews of North African
ancestry (Sephardic Jew) and Jews of Europe and American backgrounds
(Ashkenazim) who dominate the upper socio-economic strata.
Divisions also exist with orthodox Jews who advocate return to
religious law.
Review Questions for Chapter 7
1. This region of the world is often called
the "dry world", "the Islamic world","the oil world" and the "Arabic
world". Explain the reasoning behind these classifications.
2. What is the "Hydraulic Civilization"according
to deBlij and Muller? What are two competing theories they
give for their development?
3. Explain how Islam originated and diffused
in this region. Define diffusion, relocation diffusion,
expansion diffusion and hierarchical diffusion in your essay.
What are the differences between the shia and the sunni Muslims
and how do they contribute to the tensions in the North Africa/Southwest
Asia realm?
4. How did the partitioning of this region
to France and England after World War I complicate later discoveries
of oil?
5. Detail how oil was discovered in Iran,
Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Why was American technological
expertise preferred over the British by the Saudis?
6. Discuss the geopolitical reasons behind
the Persian Gulf War.
7. Why is the presence of Israel an irritant
for the Arab world? What are the points of disagreement
concerning the creation of a Palestinian state? The West
Bank? The Golan Heights? Why will the availability
of water eventually become another source of conflict between
the Palestinians and the Israelis?
8. Discuss the plight
of the Kurds and why their distribution among Turkey, Iraq,
Iran
and Syria causes turmoil in this region according to Barkey.
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