For over thirteen hundred years the Middle East has
struggled for control over their natural resources. During the fourth century A.D. the Romans
extended their empire around the entire Mediterranean Sea and part of the Bible
is the record of battles that occurred in the province of Israel. Emperors Constantine and Theodosius made
Christianity the state religion and "forbade the worship of ancient pagan
gods." Over the next eleven hundred
years, as the Roman Empire in the West was overwhelmed by barbarians, the
people of Turkestan accepted the Islamic religion, formed an alliance with
other Arabs and Muslims, and defeated half of the "Holy Roman
Empire." By the eighth century, just one hundred years after the death of
Mohammed, the Arabs had converted most of North Africa to the Muslim faith.
From the eighth to the fifteenth century, the Spanish Christians slowly pushed
the Muslims back, and during the reign of Queen Isabella in 1492 they drove the
Muslims off the peninsula. The Muslims ruled the east while the Christians slowly
gained control of the west. Battles continued to take place for hundreds of
years, by the end of the 19th century the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire,
France, England, Russia, China, and the United States have gained control in
the region (The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire). To maintain
superiority, control and influence over the region, the West has placed corrupt
Arab leaders into positions of power and supported the overthrow of those that
are not seen as favorable. This has also served to keep their populations at
bay, in return for militarization, power and personal wealth of the elite.
Sometimes this has been done in the name of fighting communism. The common
theme underlying it though has been the struggle to control access to important
resources such as oil.
