User:BellaJennes/sandbox

After world War II, there was a rise of both superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union during the period of the Cold War. While theses superpowers were rising, other countries in the middle east were also gaining power. These countries were Egypt, Iraq and Iran. The Middle East, was and still is a geostrategic space with natural ressources such as oil and gaz and that is why, both superpowers wanted to influence and control these countries to extend their ideologies which were liberalism for the USA and communism for the USSR. Other countries such as France and Britain were also implied in the Middle East because they had mandates over certain countries such as Egypt or Syria. But once these countries gained their nominal independence, then only then they could choose their ruler in self sovereignty. Each of the three regions that gained independance in the Middle East had ressources or assets. Egypt took control of the Suez Canal form the Franco-British and Iran and Iraq had oil. Each of theses countries had a change of regime, a monarchy overthrow in Egypt; Iran became an islamic republic after the islamic revolution (1978-1979) and Iraq joined the Ba'ath party (a secular and socialist party). Each of these countries then wanted to obtain a position of leadership by extending their ideologies. Egypt believed in pan-arabism (making the arab world united as one); Iran believed in islamism and Iraq in arabism but their was one more kingdom that also had an important role to play in the rise of the Middle East. This Kingdom is Saudi Arabia which believed in the idea of wahabism.

Saoudi Arabia

Saoudi Arabia is an arab state in western Asia which was founded in the early 20th century with a land area of aproximataly 2,150,000 km2. Saoudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the North East, Qatar, Bahrain and the united Arab Emirates to the East, Oman to the South East and Yemen to the South. It's capital Riyadh.

Saoudi Arabia's history

At the time, Arabia was a space dominated by many tribes. There was no real kingdom. There were two important tribes which were the Saoud and the Ikhwan which were known as warriors who believed in Wahhabi islamism which they believed was the pure form of islamism. In 1902, Saoud began his ruling and to do so, he needed to conquer all the other tribes with an army. But, Saoud didn't have an army. He needed the help and the fighting skills of the Ikhwan tribe. An alliance was seeked with the Ikhwan tribe, in return for an army, the Saouds promised to spread their ideology in Saoudi Arabia. In 1926, Saoud captured Mecca and Medina, the holy lands of Saoudi Arabia. This happened in different phases after conquering tribe after tribe. It was a great victory for the Wahhabies. But conflicts emerged between the Ikhwan and the rulers as they wanted to spread their ideology even more, but Saoud opposed himself to their wish and had to eleminate the Ikhwan.