Hi, welcome back to my blog! I’m making a timeline of conflicts in the Middle East to answer the question: Why is there conflict in the Middle East, and how did it get that way? By looking at major historical events and what’s happening now, I hope to understand the roots of these conflicts and what impact they might continue to have in the future.
This post will begin at the begining of recorded history to explore the major events that shaped the Middle East before the 20th century. Sinces its alot of time to go over, I can’t adress every conflict that has unfolded in the region over millennia. Instead, I’ll focus will be on key events, grouping related developments to present clear, simplified outcomes and results, Instead of making detailed accounts of each individual point in time.
The first recorded history in the middle east is from Mesopotamia, where people first made permanent cities based on agriculture. Mesopotamia is where located in modern-day Iraq. Mesopotamia and Egypt as well as the northern regions between them formed the Fertile Crescent also known as the cradles of civilization. This is where many of the world’s oldest cultures and civilizations were created. (1)
Early conflict in Mesopotamia began at the same time as farming communities did along the two rivers there: Tigris and Euphrates rivers around 4000–3000 BCE. To survive both water and fertile land were essential. These resources were often fought over as river flooding was unpredictable. However, these wars were small-scale and local usually between villages. Similar things were happening in regions like the Levant, and Anatolia (modern day Syria, Lebanon, Isreal, Palestine). In the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900–2334 BCE), water control directly affects food production so political power. At the time Egypt was being to unify under the Early Dynastic kings and there were military campaigns to win control over neighboring regions and gain power. These fights were over canals, farmland, and river access. in Egypt the Nile River floods were much more predictable and competition over water was less intense so they had less conflict than Mesopotamia. During the Early Dynastic Period Mesopotamia was split up into four independent city‑states (city that works like a country and has its own government, economy and culture). Them being Ur, Uruk, Lagash, and Umma. These cities went to war over land and water rights often. one of the earliest recorded wars in history occurred around c. 2600 BCE between Lagash and Umma. Being constantly at war against each other made the region vulnerable to stronger rulers. (2)(3)(4)
Now that the cities were weakened from the constant warfare, conquerors created empires. Sargon of Akkad (c. 2334 BCE) unified much of Mesopotamia. This is an important moment because for the first time all the districts were united under one empire. (1) These empires constantly had rebellions, revolts and border wars. After the Akkadian collapse, Mesopotamia entered periods of fragmentation, followed by new powers like Babylon. (5) Continuing forward wars of this kind continued with conflicts were overlapping regions, driven by competition for resources, trade, political power, and survival. From 499 BCE to 449 BCE the Greco-Persian Wars were fought by Greek City States against Persian Empire in Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Aegean. The Greeks won. (7) Between 334 and 323 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered much of the Middle East and other areas (Balkan Region, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Holy Lands, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan) this destroyed the current remaining Persian rule. This spread Greek cultural and religious influence across the region. After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, his empire broke apart into rival kingdoms ruled by his generals, leading to even more warfare and instability. (6)
Over the 1st century BCE the Roman Empire gradually expanded into the middle east. At the time there was a dominant Jewish population that held power between 2000 and 586 BCE. When Constantine, the emperor of the Roman Empire became a Christian around 312 CE, Christianity became the main religion in the Middle East. After the fall of the Roman empire in 476 CE. The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, containing stayed together centred around Constantinople, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.(8) Between this time there were many wars in the area especially Muslim wars of expansion. As In the early 7th century CE in present-day Saudi Arabia, the Prophet Mohammed founded Islam, which his followers considered a community as well as a religion and spread throughout the middle east. The Area looked like this:
In this time there were also eight major Crusades to the Middle East between 1095 and 1270 them being (10)
- First Crusade (1096–1099) – Captured Jerusalem and established Crusader states
- Second Crusade (1147–1149) – Launched in response to the fall of Edessa, failed
- Third Crusade (1189–1192) – Richard the Lionheart, recapturing Jerusalem
- Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) – Diverted to Constantinople, never reached the Holy Land.
- Fifth Crusade (1217–1221) – Targeted Egypt, including Damietta, failed
- Sixth Crusade (1228–1229) – Frederick II; temporary truce, regained Jerusalem for a decade
- Seventh Crusade (1248–1254) – Led by Louis IX of France, focused on Egypt, failed
- Eighth Crusade (1270) – Also led by Louis IX, focused on Tunis, failed
The Crusades were organized by western European Christians after centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. They wanted to stop the expansion of the Muslim states and to reclaim the “Holy Land” (11) The Holy Land refers to the region mostly in modern Israel and Palestine, it’s been the cause of many conflicts because of prophecy and spiritual connect. Its considered sacred by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam due to its biblical and religious significance each religion believes important events and prophecies are connected to it. (12) So, it caused a lot of conflict both then and now as it is a relativity small piece of land which multiple parties want control over.
After the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman empire expanded across Anatolia (Turkey), The Balkans, The Arab Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Palestine), Egypt and North Africa. At the same time the Safavid Empire modern day Iran established Shi’a Islam as the state religion and created long-lasting Sunni–Shi’a divisions in the region. Thought years between the 1600 and 1700 there was relative stability. In the 1700s–1800s Europeans get more involved in the middle east like Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. (13)
For now, I’ll stop there and pick back up the historical events next post with events that happened in the 20th century.
From all these events we can see that there have been many conflicts in this area through out history. The ruling has changed and the land has been conquered many times. Different religions and cultures have influenced the people and culture to what we see today. Weve seen conflicts including local village and tribal warfare, city‑state rivalries, civil wars and rebellions, regional invasions, empire‑wide conquest campaigns, competition for resources, trade, political power, survival, religion and Holy land issues.
- The Entire History of the Middle East
- Mesopotamian Warfare: Early Development of Armed Conflict – World History Encyclopedia
- Warfare | Egyptian Wars
- Mesopotamian Warfare: The Sumerians, Akkadians and More – History
- Sargon | History, Accomplishments, Facts, & Definition | Britannica
- Alexander the Great | Empire, Death, Map, & Facts | Britannica
- Wars Fought in the Middle East Timeline 499 BCE-Present Day | TheTimelineGeek
- Rooted in the Past: Seeds of Discord in the Ancient Middle East | Encyclopedia.com
- Roman Empire – Expansion, Decline, Legacy | Britannica
- How many Crusades were there, and when did they take place? | Britannica
- Were the Crusades successful? | Britannica
- Holy Land – Wikipedia
- The Eastern Mediterranean, 1600–1800 A.D. | Chronology | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art