Chapter 20-3: Conflicts in the Middle East

In the wake of the Arab uprisings, the changes that they fostered, and the fault lines that they exposed, the Modern Middle East is a complex region. History explores how the forces associated with global modernity have shaped the social, economic, cultural, and political life in the region over the course of the past 500 years. Beginning with the first glimmerings of the current international state and economic systems in the sixteenth century creates the bridge to the long lasting impacts of imperial and imperialist legacies, the great nineteenth-century transformation, cultural continuities and upheavals, international diplomacy, economic booms and busts, the emergence of authoritarian regimes and the varied forms of resistance to them and to imperialism in an area of vital concern to us all.