Effects of the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire on the Middle East

The collapse of the Ottoman empire had vital ramifications for the international politics of the Middle East. The Ottoman empire for several centuries constituted the primary unifying force among the Islamic world in the middle east. Turkey, under Ottoman control, was more symbolic of a centralized leadership or base of power that governed the greater Islamic world, including the Arab nations. Such leadership served as a vessel to manage relations with foreign superpowers like Britain and France, who had a strong vested interest in the middle east, especially Britain which by 1914 had the concerns of the "protection of the Suez Canal and protection of the Gulf"(Mansfield,149). These were vital due to their link to India and the Abadan region of modern day Iran, containing "key oil installations" (Mansfield, 149). The Ottomans were propped up by such foreign powers as symbolizing legitimate power for Muslims over the Islamic world, while Britain indirectly exerted power over Egypt and France maintained influence over the areas of Syria and Lebanon. With the Ottoman collapse and soon after the abolishment of the Caliphate in 1926, the sense of a single unifying force towards which the Islamic world could rally around was non existent. The resulting effect of such events was a sense of strong nationalist sentiment emerging among both post Ottoman Turkey and various Arab Nationalist movements forming the nationalist wave sweeping through the Middle East with the collapse of the Ottoman empire. Another effect resulting from Ottoman collapse, signaling the end of the last Islamic empire exerting power over the Middle East, was that foreign powers such as Britain and France could now directly exercise power over the region without working through the Ottomans. Connected with this idea however, was the coinciding nationalism in ruled states, primarily Egypt, spurred by an overly aggressive Britain, who no longer had the Ottomans to prop up as fake rulers but still needed to protect growing interests in the area.