History of Western Occupation

World War I shattered the existing world order. Empires collapsed or entered their death throes. Faith in religion was shattered. Aristocracies became meaningless. The world economy soon collapsed. Communism and fascism rose from the war’s ashes and for a while contended with the West for supremacy. Politics was militarized. It gave us the tank, the first bombings of civilian cities, chemical weapons, the machine gun, aerial warfare and mass murder on a genocidal scale – all of those things that continue to consume blood and treasure like a vast, dark hole….. Continue Reading →

By the 19th century the Ottoman Empire was the “sick man of Europe”, increasingly under the financial control of the European powers. Domination soon turned to outright conquest. The French annexed Algeria in 1830 and Tunisia in 1878. The British occupied Egypt in 1882, though it remained under nominal Ottoman sovereignty. The British also established effective control of the Persian Gulf, and the French extended their influence into Lebanon and Syria. In 1912 the Italians seized Libya and the Dodecanese islands, just off the coast of the Ottoman heartland of Anatolia. The Ottomans turned to Germany to protect them from the western powers, but the result was increasing financial and military dependence on Germany….. Continue Reading →