We will examine the major events and forces that shaped the entire Middle East from the late 19th century to the founding of Israel in 1948 to provide context for all ensuing programs.

Theodore Herzl spearheaded the movement to establish a Jewish state in Palestine in response to the rise of virulent antisemitism in Europe and Russia.

The building of the Suez Canal which linked Europe, Africa and Asia, had an enormous and transformative strategic and economic impact on the world and it remains a significant conduit for international trade.

Perhaps no event in the history of the Middle East has had a greater impact on international history.

For Europeans, WWI was perhaps the most devastating event of the 20th Century. But it would also have significant geopolitical consequences that still resonate in the Middle East today.

The Ottoman Empire had ruled the Middle East for centuries. Its collapse would set the stage for the multiple conflicts that still dominate the region.

Between 1894 and 1924, the Ottoman Turks waged geocidal violence against its Christian populations of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks.

We will examine the role of the British government in its role in trying to control the initial decades of the conflicts between Arabs and Jews in Palestine.

Between 1920 and 1932, the British Empire tried unsuccessfully to construct a modern western-style democratic state out of three former provinces of the Ottoman Empire with disastrous consequences that still reverberate in the region to this day.