The Ottoman Empire
When the Ottomans were establishing their domain, which extended through the Balkans, Mameluke Egypt was the center of Middle East trade and of Islamic culture. However, destruction of Crusader ports and depredation by the Mongols had devastated much of the Fertile Crescent. The population dwindled steadily and great areas of cultivated land became desert. Settlements were frequently raided by Bedouins (desert Arabs). In spite of the desolation, many Jews returned to Palestine, especially from Spain, where they suffered persecution beginning in the late 1300's and were expelled in 1492.
The Portuguese in the early 16th century opened the sea route around Africa, and the Dutch helped establish a European monopoly on trade with the Indies. The economy of the Mameluke Empire collapsed. The Ottomans entered Syria in 1516 and in a few months conquered the Levant and Egypt. Within 25 years they had gained control of Mesopotamia and much of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf coastline. Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, became one of the great trade centers of the world.
After the period of expansion, Ottoman sultans (monarchs) gradually lost control of their outlying territories. Many local rulers became virtually autonomous, and most of the empire languished economically. In time, Europeans were permitted to conduct overland trade with the East. France and Great Britain vied for use of the route across Egypt's Isthmus of Suez. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte's armies seized Egypt for France (which wanted easy access to India), but the French were expelled in three years. The British began making trade arrangements along the Arabian coast.
The French constructed the Suez Canal, 1859–69, but the British gained financial control of it very shortly and by the mid-1880's had established military control over Egypt. They also had set up protectorates in southern Arabia and the Persian Gulf.
France gained influence with the Ottoman sultans and was given special privileges in the Levant. Russia, pushing southward, annexed some of northern Persia, while Great Britain discovered oil in southern Persia in 1908. Germany, seeking to become a colonial power, had gained a favored position with the Ottomans by the start of World War I.
At the outbreak of war in 1914, Ottoman Turkey formed an alliance with Germany; Turkish forces saw action against Britain and Russia. With British support, the Arabians formed several independent domains. After the Allied victory, the Ottoman Empire was dismembered. Syria (including modern Lebanon) became a League of Nations mandate of France; Palestine, Trans-jordan (now Jordan), and Mesopotamia (now Iraq), mandates of Britain. Egypt reestablished its monarchy, but British troops remained. Turkey became a republic.
