Editing Middle East (section)

=== Modern History (1918 - 20XX) ===
After Ottoman Empire was defeated and WW1 ended, French and Brits decided to screw their own Middle Eastern allies (as usual) and set up their own colonial regimes and puppet states, this was all but codified in the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement which created a bunch of artificial states that would all but guarantee that the region north of Saudi Arabia would remain a socio-political quagmire for many decades to come. Most notable ones are French Syria, British Palestine and Kuwait, as well as marionette Kingdom of Iraq. Saudi Arabia was also formed in that time period from old Arabian peninsula states, while Oman and Yemen became British puppets. This status quo remained all the way up to 1950s, even during WWII (well, if you don't count joint Allied intervention to Iran to prevent it from joining the Axis and get a new safe way for a lend-lease, as well as short Iraqi campaign to weed out pro-Hitler Golden Square Party). 

During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Syria and Egypt made moves towards independence since the Sick Man of Bosphorus was fast dying of anachronism and lack of key reforms. Although the Kingdom of Egypt was technically "neutral" during World War II, Cairo soon became a major military base for the British and the country was occupied. In Palestine, a potent shitstorm was brewing as conflicting forces of Arab nationalism and Zionism created a situation the British could neither resolve nor gtfo from. The rise of Germany's Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party had created a new urgency in the Zionist quest to immigrate to Palestine and create a Jewish state. Most of the German propaganda aimed at arabs was influenced by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, but many historians dispute that he played a significant role in the Holocaust.

The modern Middle East was primarily shaped by three factors - decolonisation as Europe just gave up on the overcomplicated region to deal with issues at home, the founding of the state of Israel with all the "FUN" that entailed, and the growing importance of this stinky slimy substance called oil. A further layer of complexity was added by the new [[Cold War]] order which saw the world's two remaining superpowers - the USA/NATO and USSR/Warsaw Pact take a keen interest in the region due to various opportunities to dick with each other and the region being the largest (then) known source of civilization-driving oil, with the U.S.A. supporting Israel's right to exist, and the Soviets supporting Palestine's wish to drive the Jews into the sea, figuring they could finish off the Jews and have one less religion they'd have to finish off themselves if they could conquer the Middle East.

After the end of the [[Cold War]] the region experienced some notable changes. It allowed large numbers of Jews in USSR to gtfo from Russia and Ukraine into Israel - further bolstering the Jewish state. It also cut off the easiest source of weapons and loans from USSR meant to oppose pro-western regimes and lastly opened up the prospect of cheap oil from Russia, driving down the price of black gold and reducing the west's dependence on oil from the Arab states. In 1990 the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein initiated an invasion of oil-rich arab state of Kuwait which lead to the USA having a permanent presence in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East by extension. 

Fast forward some ten years and the greatest geopolitical fuckup since the fall of the USSR hit as USA saw the greatest attack on its soil since the bloody Revolutionary War of the 1770s when a bunch of Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked some planes and rammed them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, killing some 3000 Americans and wounding about 25000. Suffice it to say that the US was PISSED and soon invaded the country held to harbour the hoodlums - Afghanistan. The 9/11 attacks saw the USA focus its geopolitical attention to the Middle East for the next 20-ish years as it dicked around in Iraq and Afghanistan. After the Arab Spring which saw an astounding wave of social upheavals from Morocco to Yemen (supported by CIA) - Syria also turned into a quagmire as the country found itself as a battleground between USA, resurgent Russia, Turkey, Israel and the infamous Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL.

As of the New 20s the situation in the Middle East seems to be returning to something resembling normality, which means a bunch of simmering conflicts between the usual suspects with a few flareups. This is mostly due to USA and Russia shifting their focus to the events going on in Eastern Europe. War zones like Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen have all settled into uneasy ceasefires as foreign forces withdrew and their allies on the ground are left to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, China has been busy investing in the countries on the eastern fringes of the region (Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran to a lesser degree). The Arabian peninsula has seen some fighting too as Yemen imploded and became a proxy for Saudi Arabian and Iranian dick-slapping contest. That, and recent crises in terms of food prices, trade fluctuations, and a global pandemic have made people collectively miserable. The most interesting and hopeful event in the region is the people of Iran, long grown sick of Islamic clerical rule, have en masse begun mass protests which not even the usual repression can stop, and has seen a large cultural rejection of Islam growing among the populace, leading to a growing population of Ex-Muslims despite the religious law of Sharia calling for the death of apostates, due to anger at the Ayatollah's regime betraying the prior revolution and not holding up the agreement to bring democracy, along with the brutal murders of protesters for civili rights, mainly women and girls. The region is still in flux so stay tuned for further developments.