224 • 14 MODERNIZING RULERS IN THE INDEPENDENT STATESBritish and Bolshevik attempts to take over Persia, reorganized the country,
and then replaced the weak Qajar shah with a strong ruler. In a remote part
of east-central Arabia called Najd, a young man from an old ruling family
combined a Muslim reform movement with a tribal warrior confederation
to unite most of the peninsula as the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Because most of the Middle East maps we see on television and in class¬
rooms show political borders, we tend to think of "Turkey," "Iran," and
"Saudi Arabia" as entities that have always existed. In reality, Turkey and
Saudi Arabia got their present names and boundaries only between the
world wars. Iran (as Persia came to be called in 1935), although its modern
borders differ little from those of the 1890s, is a far cry from the Persia that
was divided in 1907 into Russian and British spheres of influence. In each
of these states, these changes resulted from the inspiration, ingenuity, and
industry of a military commander who became a political leader: Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk in Turkey, Reza Shah Pahlavi in Iran, and Abd al-Aziz ibn
Abd al-Rahman (Ibn Sa'ud) in Saudi Arabia.
TURKEY: PHOENIX FROM THE ASHESWhen the Ottoman naval minister signed the Mudros Armistice in Octo¬
ber 1918, ending his country's active role in World War I, the empire was
nearly prostrate. Its armed forces had suffered some 325,000 deaths (more
than the total number of US casualties), 400,000 wounded, and 250,000
imprisoned or missing in action. High government spending had led to
crushing taxes, déficit financing, and a severe price inflation that ruined
many families.
Turkey's commerce, finance, and administration had already been dis¬
rupted by a fateful government policy: the deportation of the Armenians.
Although they were Christians, most of these industrious people were
loyal Ottoman subjects. Some had served in the army or the civil adminis¬
tration before the war. Others had made their mark in medicine, teaching,
business, or skilled trades such as goldsmithing and photography. Only a
few Armenians wanted a separate nation-state, for there was no Ottoman
province in which they could have formed the majority of the population.
But because some had earlier turned nationalist and rebelled against Sul¬
tan Abdulhamid, many Turks suspected them of treason. Once World War
I broke out, the Ottoman government, abetted by its German advisers and
fearing the Armenians as a potential fifth column, decided to clear them
out of areas in eastern Anatolia near their coreligionists in enemy Russia.