Image of the Middle East from space (NASA)
An understanding of today’s Arab-Israeli world needs to be rooted in a knowledge of how the geography changed and developed over time. Various efforts have been made throughout history to divide or partition these lands, with differing results. Using maps and documents, Ralph Nurnberger, who taught history and international relations at Georgetown University, highlights how the countries in this area have shifted boundaries over hundreds of years—and how those changes have affected their inhabitants’ views of their own histories.
Maps reveal the conflicting proposals made by the British concerning the post-World War I future of the Ottoman Empire’s holdings in the Middle East; decisions by France that had far-reaching consequences for Lebanon and Syria; and how the League of Nations helped in establishing the British Mandate of Palestine, which gave rise to the current nations of Jordan and Israel. Nurnberger also looks at how the territories Israel gained after the 1967 six-day war further altered the region, and concludes with a review of maps currently under discussion to determine how these might impact potential future boundaries.
