Why I haven't written

The Middle East becomes a much more complicated area of study after the end of WWI. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, three centers of authority--Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Iran--controlled the region. To be sure, European powers exercized various degrees of influence within each of these centers, but Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran were the capital cities for most of the inhabitants of the Middle East. however, following the peace settlement and the establishment of the mandates, a new regional state system came into existence. Three central authorities expanded to ten, each with its own domestic and foreign policy. But the policies of most of these new states were determined by European occupiers, and so for most of the interwar period, Arab political activity was primarily devoted to acheiving independence from foreign control. Other considerations, such as land reform or social welfare, recieved little attention until after WWII and in the case of both Iran and Egypt it came in the form of socialism.....BLAH BLAH BLAH

Back to work I go...