The First World War in the Middle East *In-Person* *NEW*

When most people think of the First World War, they think of the long, bloody struggle between the Allied and the Germans in the trenches of the Western Front. In fact, equally great struggles took place on other fronts, and arguably the most important of these was the Middle East. In 1914, the greater part of this region was ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, a multinational state struggling to modernize and facing rising nationalism among its subject peoples. This class will follow the course of the campaigns between the Turks and the Allies in Gallipoli, Palestine, Iraq, and Arabia, the effects of the fighting on the many different peoples of the region, and how the war, the downfall of the Ottoman Empire, and the coming of the British and the French laid the groundwork for the Middle East we know today. It is a dramatic story full of vivid personalities like Sir Edmund Allenby, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Prince Feisal of the Hejaz, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Instructor: Allan Converse