A local king was placed in power, but the purpose was mainly to sever it from the Ottoman Empire during World War I (L.O.C., Egypt). The Sultanate of Egypt (1914-1919) was one of those, a short-lived protectorate of the British Empire. For example, “protectorates” were territories endowed with semi-autonomous government.
Similarly, the Belgian King Leopold II considered Congo his personal possession.Ĭountries were at times defined in more independent terms, although they remained under the control of foreign government. It was considered by France, not as a “colony” but as part of France proper. Algeria illustrates another end of the spectrum. Not all countries of the Middle East were colonized: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan remained sovereign. In the Middle East, there have been varying degrees of interference by outside powers. Ferguson admits that certain institutions (2011), developed and established globally via European colonialism, must be internalized by countries worldwide attempting to gain equal footing in global affairs and financial systems. This imperialism has been experienced as global dominance by colonized countries, and especially by indigenous cultural communities. The English language we are using to write this book, for example. In fact, European settler colonialism made a major global impact, evidenced by the ubiquitous European linguistic, cultural and institutional practices found worldwide and in global systems. When economic historian Niall Ferguson says “everybody did empire” he is de-emphasizing the power European empires had over the rest of the world. At the same time there is a classical meaning for empire, with reference to the empires of antiquity such as the Greeks and Romans. Rather than compete with other ways of using the term, and perhaps furthering the confusion surrounding its usage, we use “imperial dynamics” in this chapter. The term “imperialism” can be a “catch-all” to describe the relationship between a powerful country with a less powerful country. This chapter discusses these power relationships and their importance for the Middle East. There are many terms for the uneven power relationships which developed between European states and the area we know as the Middle East today. Europeans brought their ideas, institutions and technical inventions with them, and many of them became standards for the whole world. Political developments in Europe, such as the Magna Carta, and the Treaty of Westphalia, followed by economic transformation from global trade and industrialization led to a completely different form of imperial power. It’s important to distinguish, however, between imperialism as it was “done” in antiquity and medieval times, and its modern form. As Ferguson said, “everybody did empire” (2011).
Imperialism was nothing new in the world when European expansion began impacting the Middle East. Chapter Three: The Middle East and the Impact of Imperialism