Yemen

Yemen is the home of the biblical 'Queen of Sheba' - the leader of a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years, including parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The idea of 'Africa' as a separate continent is very recent. The Suez Canal is a man-made separation. Europe, Asia and Africa are one land mass with very closely interwoven histories. In the Hebrew Bible, the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon with gifts of spices, gold and precious jewels. The Makonnen dynasty of Ethiopia claim descent from the child born out of that visit. There is no functional state and the area is ravished with war and blockades. A famine is underway affecting 17 million people. More than 50,000 children died from starvation in 2017. A painful reminder that despite our shared history, the importance of our lives is weighted by the random geography of our birth.

Queen of Sheba

United Arab Emirates

The southern coast of the Persian Gulf was known as the 'Pirate Coast' - although the ruler of Sharjah wrote a book in 1986 entitled 'The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf'. Pearling was a major industry. Some would also make a living by harassing British flagged ships from the 17th to the 19th century. For 150 years, the local rulers had a treaty with Britain as the Trucial States. Britain was expected to protect their authority in exchange for exclusivity rights. The invention of cultured pearls wiped out the industry, but oil finds in Persia (1908) and Mesopotamia (1927) led to eventually successful exploration which changed the game. The first successful boreholes struck black gold in Abu Dhabi in 1950. The Suez Crisis of 1956 is arguably the last time Britain flexed its global authority, and it ended up with a bloody nose. In 1968, unable to afford being a global policeman, Britain decided to withdraw all troops east of Aden. This led to unity negotiations and in 1971, six emirates joined to form the single country of the United Arab Emirates. Each Emirate is governed by an absolute monarch, and one (traditionally the Emir of Abu Dhabi) is selected as President.

Burj Khalifa

World's Tallest Man Made Structure

Syria

Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. A few others claiming this mantle are Beirut & Byblos (Lebanon), Jericho (Palestine), and Luxor (Egypt). The modern state of Syria is made up of several ancient Empires and Kingdoms. Damascus was the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, before it was moved to Baghdad at the start of the Islamic Golden Age.  Like the shift of the Islamic capital, Constantine moved the capital from Rome to modern Istanbul (Byzantium/Constantinople) in 330AD. Before the Islamic expansion to Syria, Greek and Aramaic had been the dominant languages of the area under the Byzantine era. Aramaic was the language Jesus spoke. It was also the area from where the Patron Saint of England, St. George, came. The modern state was carved out of the Ottoman Empire as a French Mandate after World War I. Mandate's were supposed to differ from colonialism with 'the governing country acting as a trustee until the inhabitants would be able to stand on their own'. Self-determination. Syria's 'self' is pretty complicated.

Umayyad Caliphate - 750 AD

Qatar

Qatar has a population of 2.6 million of which 313,000 are citizens, and the rest are expatriates. An Expatriate is someone temporarily or permanently living outside of their native country. I am not sure what the difference is from an Immigrant, other than perhaps intent. Is the relationship of an Expat purely commercial? With 90% of the population Expats, Qatar has the highest GDP per capita in the world at about $125,000 per person. Although a small country by population and size, it has the world's third-largest reserves of natural-gas. Qatar took part in the Arab Revolt that helped defeat the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The United Kingdom then gave recognition to the hereditary title of Sheikh Abdullah as leader of a 'Trucial State'. The area had previously been known as the Pirate Coast. The British controlled foreign policy, defence, and arbitration. Independence came in 1971. Qatar did not join the also newly formed federation of the United Arab Emirates.

Doha

Palestine

As nations are a story, they need people willing to listen for them to be 'true'. The Middle East is one of the most controversial areas, given different versions of the tale. Palestine is a de jure state recognised by 136 UN member states. Mandatory Palestine was a post World War I area carved out of the Ottoman Empire and put under the control of the British. An Arab uprising had helped the British drive the Turkish Empire out of the area. The British had supported the uprising under the promise of Arab independence (McMahon-Hussein), but had also separately and contradictorily agreed with France to divide the area up amongst the European powers (Sykes-Picot). A further complication came when under the Balfour Agreement, the British promised support for the creation of "a national home for the Jewish people" (who had made up 3-5% of the population of the area). Lots of promises made to lots of people. The promised land.

Areas under Palestinian Administration

Oman

After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese occupied the port of Muscat in Oman for 143 years (1507-1650). About 100 years after they were driven out by locals, the current ruling dynasty cemented power in 1744. Holding a strong strategic position at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Omani Empire competed with Portugal and Britain for influence in the Indian Ocean from the late C17th. Oman's colonial focus was the Swahili Coast. The Omanis ejected the Portuguese from Zanzibar and the other areas north of Mozambique. Zanzibar became the main slave market. Slavery was outlawed in Oman in 1970 after Sultan Qaboos ousted his father in a palace coup. Oman remains an absolute monarchy, but gradual reforms have been introduced. Unlike most of its neighbours, it only has modest oil reserves and so doesn't have an oil-dependent economy.

Swahili Coast

Lebanon

Civilisation in Lebanon predates recorded history. The Canaanites and Phoenicians were a maritime culture that did exceptionally well exploring and setting up colonies before Colonialism became an ism. In antiquity, City-states would set up colonies. Rather than inheriting... you set new stuff up from scratch. Under the Roman Empire (who gradually tolerated the spreading middle eastern Abrahamic religion), the area became one of the key centres of Christianity until the region was conquered by Arab Muslims (another of the Abrahamic religions). A monastic tradition was established in Mount Lebanon by the Maronites. The biggest group of Maronites outside of Lebanon live in Brazil. The region was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516-1918 before becoming a French Mandate after World War I. The mandate system was supposed to be different from colonialism with a "sacred trust of civilisation" to develop the area for the native people rather than being exploitative.

League of Nations Mandates

Jordan

'Divide and Rule' was a strategy used by Empires to subjugate other groups while 'recognising' their self-determination. For 'The People' to rule you have to determine a homogenous group, but as soon as a common external enemy disappears, internal disagreements and groups will develop. Think of the Partisan nature of most modern democracies. The Ottoman Empires fall was partly inspired by 'The Great Arab Revolt' which aimed to create a single Arab state. Islamic theory talks of an 'Ummah' which creates one state regardless of ethnicity or race. When the Ottoman Empire was partitioned by Britain and France after World War I, there were various claimants for who should rule the new race-based nation. No one agreed... so divide and rule. The 'Emirate of Transjordan' was established in 1921, as a protectorate of Britain, and it became the independent state of Jordan in 1946. Although a constitutional democracy, the King holds legislative and administrative powers. The country is host to over 2 million Palestinian and 1.4 million Syrian refugees.

Arab Revolt - 1916

Israel

The Kingdoms of Israel & Judah emerged in the Iron Age before being destroyed by a 300 year Mesopotamian, Neo-Assyrian Empire (911BC - 609BC). Three more Empires took turns (Babylonian, Persian & Hellenistic) before the next taste of independence from 110BC- 63BC. That taste was inspired by the Maccabean Revolt against Hellenistic control requiring the worship of Greek Gods. It ended as a client state of Rome. Later widespread Jewish revolts (66-136CE) led to destruction, expulsion and renaming the area. These Roman-Jewish wars turned the Jewish population from a significant local group to a scattered and persecuted minority. The Byzantine Empire lost the Levant to Muslim control in 634. Then, about 450 years later, came the Crusades. A series of wars sanctioned by the Catholic Church to claim the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Arguably the birth of European attempts to rule lands far from their centre of control. The East & Western Church had split in 1054, and the two centuries of Crusades which followed was part a Civil War Own Goal, weakening the East sufficiently to fall. The Crusades were a failure and the Ottoman Empire took Constantinople in 1453. The Ottoman Empire was divided after World War I as a British controlled mandate from 1920-1948. The Israeli declaration of Independence came following World War II in 1948. The country is now at the very centre of discussions around democracy, self-determination, racism, apartheid, land rights and nationalism.

Israel & Judah

Assyria

Roman Empire

Ottoman Empire 1683

Bahrain

Although we conquered the seas long ago (ask the Polynesians), islands and water are useful tools for otherwise purely imaginary borders. Bahrain is an island country situated between the Qatar peninsula and Saudi Arabia. It has a similar size population to Swaziland but is about 1/3rd the size. Bahrain declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1971, and Swaziland in 1968. Both are still monarchies. The Al Khalifa family moved from Qatar to Bahrain in 1799. In 1820, they were recognised as rulers of the island by Britain. After discovery of oil in 1931 (which brought rapid modernisation), the British Royal Navy moved its entire middle eastern command to Bahrain in 1935. With the United States taking the baton as world power after WWII, Bahrain is now the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

U.S. Fifth Fleet

Cairo

Cairo, which now has a population of 9.5 million, has long been an important global city. It managed to avoid Europe's late middle ages stagnation, but being a key trade city, got hit by the Black Death more than 50 times between 1348 and 1517. This reduced the population to between 150,000 and 300,000. Then a new route around the Cape of Good Hope was opened which allowed spice traders to avoid the city. When the Ottoman Empire took control, Cairo became second fiddle to Constantinople/Istanbul. Napoleon arrived in 1798 and the population was still just 300,000. The joint British/Ottoman forces defeated the French in 1801. Although the British left, immense debt was built up in the public works to build modern Egypt. This was used as a pretext for British invasion in 1882. By the end of the 19th century, just 5% of the population were European, but they held most of the top Government positions. World Wars, Cold War, Energy Crises and rising Nationalism came next. Being an important city is volatile.

Cairo Citadel

Kuwait

It is a sad truth that most of us don't know much about the world beyond our world. One of the ways we learn about new countries is when they go to war. I learnt about Kuwait that way when I was 10 years old during the first Gulf War. Kuwait is about the same size as Swaziland, but has a population about the same as Croatia (4.3 million v Swaziland's 1.1 million). Kuwait is the 5th richest country by GDP per person (adjusted for how expensive things are) while Swaziland is 109th. The big difference is Oil - the black liquid gold some people were randomly born above. Kuwait had already done well as a centre for boat building in the Persian region, using a relationship with Britain to stay separate from the Ottoman Empire. But the Oil Boom led the Golden Era of 1946-1982, and Kuwait started the world's first Sovereign Wealth Fund in 1953 (The Kuwait Investment Authority) diversifying away from reliance on Black Gold.

Richest Countries by GDP per Capita

Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Saudi-Arabia

Large Scale Governments were originally forged through force and conquest. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was formed in 1932 after 30 years of conquest bringing together four regions. It is one of the few remaining Absolute Monarchies with hereditary power. Saudi Arabia is home to the two holiest places within Islam - Medina and Mecca. Muhammad was requested to come to Medina to act as a peace maker between bitter warring tribes. Thought to be the world's first, the constitution of Medina committed the tribes to mutual co-operation under his leadership. Mecca is home to the Kaaba and is the direction Muslims face during prayer. More than 15 million pilgrims visit the spiritual focal point each year.

The Kaaba

Remaining Monarchies in the World

Red (Absolute) Orange (Semi-Constitutional)

Dark Green (Constitutional), Light Green (Commonwealth)

Pink (Sub-national Monarchies)

Iran

With Kingdoms starting to form around 3200-2800 BC, Iran was first unified under the Median Empire of 678-549 BC. Under Cyrus the Great, Iran reached its largest Geographic incarnation as the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) as we started experimenting with centralised bureaucracy, postal systems, road systems and official languages. It's peak population was about 44% of those on the planet. After several Empires came and went, the Arab Rashudin Caliphate brought Islam. The blossoming of literature, medicine, art and philosophy saw Iran at the centre of the Islamic Golden Age. In the 12th century, it is estimated that about three quarters of the population died in the Mongol Invasions of Genghis Khan. In the 1500s, Ismail I led a conversion to Shia Islam and Modern Iran is the only official Shia nation in the world. An Anglo-American sponsored coup in 1953 put Iran at the centre of the cold war. In 1979, the Islamic Revolution led to Iran becoming an officially Islamic Republic.

Scholars at the Abbasid Library