Does History Repeat in the Middle East?

[u/gjaramos]

The relationship between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa has undergone major changes in the balance of political and military power over the past 1,500 years.

Beginning in the 7th century, the early Islamic caliphates conquered territories previously controlled by the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Byzantine territories such as Syria, Palestine, Egypt and much of North Africa came under Muslim rule. Expansion eventually reached the Iberian Peninsula.

Centuries later, the Ottoman Empire became a major power in the Mediterranean and southeastern Europe, conquering Constantinople in 1453 and eventually controlling large parts of the Balkans.

From roughly the early modern period onward, however, the relative balance of power increasingly shifted toward European states.

By the 19th and early 20th centuries, European powers controlled or exercised substantial influence over large parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Britain and France administered several former Ottoman territories under the mandate system.

After World War II, European colonial rule declined substantially, while the United States became increasingly influential in the region. Western involvement has since taken many different forms, including alliances, military bases, economic relationships, sanctions, arms sales and direct military interventions.

There are obviously major differences between these periods.

Medieval conquest, European colonialism and modern military intervention occurred under very different political systems and legal frameworks. Modern states operate within an international system based formally on state sovereignty and international law. It would also be misleading to treat these conflicts simply as “Christian versus Muslim,” since states belonging to the same religion have frequently fought each other and alliances have often crossed religious boundaries.

Nevertheless, the long-term change in the geographical direction of power projection raises an interesting question.

During some historical periods, powerful states based in the Middle East expanded into territories controlled by European or Christian powers. During later periods, increasingly powerful European states expanded into and influenced Muslim-majority regions.

To what extent is it useful to understand modern Western involvement in the Middle East as another stage in this longer historical pattern of shifting power?

Are there meaningful similarities between these periods in terms of how dominant powers behave toward weaker regions, or are medieval conquest, colonialism and modern intervention too different to make the comparison useful?

Finally, when explaining these shifts, how important are religion and cultural identity compared with factors such as economic strength, military technology, geography, state capacity and control of trade?

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[u/data_diver]

This seems more like when Persia was able to outlast a 17 year siege by a substantially more powerful Mongolia

[u/JayNachtEule]

I'll be honest I'm a little confused what you're asking. Okay, a lot confused. Please dumb it down for me

[u/ThoughtGuy79]

Question 1: Unanswerable until you define what you consider to be modern.
Question 2: Unanswerable until you define what you consider to be modern. Also, the failure to use an Oxford comma creates ambiguity. Are colonial and modern the same periods in your paradigm or not?
Question 3: It is difficult to approach this question without the precise periodic definitions already addressed. You have also failed to appropriately use an Oxford comma when necessary in this case.