What went wrong in the Middle East?

 Firstly the name of course. Who would have thought that a sailor and no less than an admiral could not read the map.

Before Admiral Mahan Alfred Thayer Mahan - Wikipedia named the place Middle East everybody had a different name for the area and the residents there were living in peace and prosperity under the Turkish rule. That was around the end of 19. and beginning of 20. Century and had been going on for almost 400 years. (Please notice the number of zeros. We are talking about 400 years which is a very very long time and who knows how many generations) Well yes of course, there was some turbulence from time to time like maybe the Wahhabi uprising Wahhabism - Wikipedia in early 19. Century but that was really a minor thing at the time and I am sure that nobody in Istanbul knew who those guys on the gallows were.

Ironic that members of the same family were hanged by one empire, made kings by another and took in as the minor partner of one of the biggest businesses in the world by the third. History of Saudi Arabia - Wikipedia

Admiral Mahan’s naming the Middle East, the Middle East attracted everybody’s attention to the area. After all that was the “Middle” and nobody wants to be on the side, at least not the politicians. No, I am joking of course, the interest to the area came because of another admiral.

Admiral Fisher of the British Navy John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher - Wikipedia decided that although Britain truly ruled the waves at the time (late 19. early 20. Century, dates are repeating themselves) it would be better if they had changed the warship design radically. So he invented a new ship and called the whole class of ships built after the name of the first one the Dreadnought Dreadnought - Wikipedia.

The new ship was designed to run on oil.

The battleships before the dreadnought class used coal for fuel but coal was even worse than the wind. It was bulky, dirty, heavy, needed to be stocked in huge quantities in the middle of nowhere in coal stations and then those coal stations needed protection and a coal burning ship was visible from miles away. Too many set backs. Oil was cleaner, easy to carry and stock, had minimal stack smoke, and better in general. It was like today’s gas engined car versus a Tesla.

But there was one minor problem.

British navy was fed up with paying for coal and wanted this new fuel to be very cheap or preferably free.

Oil at that time was in North America, Russia and in this place Admiral Mahan named the Middle East.

Taking the oil from the USA would not do, after all only 150 years ago Americans had made themselves very clear that nobody was welcome to the resources in North America for free. Oil fields in Russia were not near the sea and eventually winter came there and look what happened to Napoleon. That, too would not do.

I think at that time if a young British diplomat would come up with a proposal such as:

“We can negotiate with the Turks, we have the capital and the technology and they do not say no to allies (Britain and Turkey were best buddies at the time Germans came later) anyway. We say we need this oil for world peace and they make money and the people in the area gets to do something other than herding sheep, everybody wins.”

He would be summarily sent to the farthest post from London never to set foot on civilized soil again and his report burned.

So the grandchildren of William the Conqueror William the Conqueror - Wikipedia decided to just take the oil and loved it when the Germans had another World Domination Dream and immediately started to realize it with that disastrous efficiency of theirs. Never thinking twice, as the Principles of Efficiency dictate because the time spent thinking can be used better by working towards the goal once the goal is set, they started invading right and left in Europe.

Everbody knows what followed.

That is what went wrong in Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, Mosul, Yemen, Bahrain, Basra, and Anatolia, not to mention the rest of the World.