The Arab Spring: A History is a podcast seeking to explore just how the Arab Spring happened. If you've ever wondered just what has been happening in the Middle East for the last few years, this is the podcast for you. So, how are we going to do this? We're going to tell the story of the Middle East since 1900, and take it up to the present day. We'll look at a mixture of revolutions, social reform, political developments, global diplomacy and economic boom and bust across the region that attracts so much attention from the rest of the world. From Turkey to Egypt, Dubai to Syria, Iran to Israel, Afghanistan to Tunisia, we'll follow how the world of 1900 became the world we live in today.
Hello and welcome to Arab Spring: A History. In this episode we introduce the series, and have an overview of what we will be covering in the coming weeks. The scene is set in 1900, as we explore why the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Persia had fallen so far behind the West.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we cover the Ottoman Empire in the years 1876-1919. We cover the Young Ottomans, the Young Turks, the CUP and, the Armenian Genocide, not to mention the small matter of the First World War. The scene is set for the rise of Ataturk next week.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we cover the rise of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. We look at his early life, and follow him through World War One and the Turkish Wars of independence. Ataturk may have created a state, but he still needs to create a nation.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we finish looking at Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. We look at how Turkey was created through a mixture of political, social and economic reforms, such as the use of political parties, the Latin alphabet and the 1932 Miss Universe Contest.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we turn to Persia. As bad as things were for the Ottomans, things were worse for the Qajars. We look at the Constitutional Revolution, the weakness of the central government, the weakness of the army, issues with the Majlis, the discovery of oil and Reza Khan's 1921 Coup.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we look at revolution. Inspired by Ataturk, Reza Khan rebuilds the Persian State into Iran. A lot of effort given to the army and he tries to make his country more European.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we finish off looking at Reza Shah. We see how he shot himself in the foot by troubling the Superpowers of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. We then turn to how the Great Powers imposed themselves on the west by setting up the situation for the Mandates.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we turn to the Mandates. We look at just what they were and how they were set up. We take a look out the fall of the Kingdom of Hejaz, the rise of Saudi Arabia, and follow the history of the French Mandates in Lebanon and Syria through to 1939.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we turn to Zionism. We firstly look at the Mandate in Iraq, seeing how unlikely it was that such a divided state would succeed, before turning our attention to the foundation of Zionism.
This week in Arab Spring: A History we take the story of Zionism, Transjordan and the British Mandate in Palestine through to 1939, before covering the Second World War in the region.
