Middle East Timeline (1850-2000)

In 1869 the Suez Canal was completed, it connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The canal separates the African continent from Asia, and it provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian and western Pacific oceans. The creation of the canal enabled for ships to use more direct routes allowing ships to deliver goods and people more efficiently.

World War 1 happens in correspondence to M.A.N.I.A. There were two sides, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. The war begins in Eastern Europe but then spreads to US, Russia, Germany, Russia, etc. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, officially ended the war between the Central and Allied Powers.

In 1915, the Turkish government initiated a plan to expel and massacre Armenian's that were living in the Ottoman Empire. Arminian's that were Christian minorities and lived as second class citizens subjected to legal restrictions, were mostly targeted because of denied safeguards. By the early 1920's 1.5 million Armenians were killed and much more forcibly removed from the country.

On February 28, 1922, Britain declared limited independence for Egypt. Britain didn't incorporate any of the opposition leaders in their negotiations, however, in order to maintain control of significant details. Britain kept control of Sudan and maintained its right to defend foreign interests in Egypt. Egyptian struggle for independence from 1919-1922 is hailed as the first nonviolent mass protest in the modern Middle East.

In July 1922 the League of Nations approved the texts of the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon. Lebanon had already, in August 1920, been declared a separate state, with the addition of Beirut, Tripoli, and certain other districts, to the prewar autonomous province. Politically, “Syria” referred to what was left of geographical Syria once Transjordan, Lebanon, and Palestine had been detached from it.

When the stock market crashed it started the global economic crisis called the Great Depression. Production had already declined and unemployment had risen, leaving stocks in great excess of their real value. Other contributing factors were low wages, the proliferation of debt, a struggling agricultural sector and an excess of large bank loans that could not be liquidated As investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day, billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors.

The Dersim Rebellion is the largest uprising that was against Turkey from the Kurds. Dersim was a culturally distinct part of Kurdistan, partly due to ecological-geographical factors, partly to a combination of linguistic and religious peculiarities. Some of the tribes spoke Kurdish proper, but most spoke another, a related language known as Zaza. In 1936 Dersim was placed under military government, with the express aim of pacifying and "civilizing" it. The tribes' response to the modernization brought by the state, consisting of roads, bridges, and police posts, was ambiguous, which led to the rebellion.

Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, and World War II had begun. Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact where two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945, U.S. President Harry S. TrumanChurchill and Stalin discussed the ongoing war with Japan as well as the peace settlement with Germany. Post-war Germany would be divided into four occupation zones, to be controlled by the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and France.

On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state. The Jews were to possess more than half of Palestine, although they made up less than half of Palestine’s population. The Palestinian Arabs, aided by volunteers from other countries, fought the Zionist forces, but by May 14, 1948, the Jews had secured full control of their U.N.-allocated share of Palestine and also some Arab territory. On May 14, 1948, Britain withdrew with the expiration of its mandate, and the State of Israel was proclaimed. Forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded, soon after.

A race between U.S.S.R. and United States to prove who had more advanced technology and people, also to show who was the best. The race came to a close when Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969. Unlike Sputnik, Apollo 11 contained three astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins. By landing on the moon, the United States effectively “won” the space race that had begun with Sputnik’s launch in 1957. For their part, the Soviets made four failed attempts to launch a lunar landing craft between 1969 and 1972, including a spectacular launch-pad explosion in July 1969.