What if the Middle East Had Unified?

[Music] the Middle East is in a bit of a pickle lately let's just say the civil wars aren't really boosting the property levels there are many reasons to why the region is the way it is one major contributing factor goes back only a century to when the area was divided into the states we know today now if you're confused about what I'm talking about I discussed the entire history in debacle in this previous video it talks about how Britain and France what the Arab region into artificial states that's not a shameless plug if you don't know what I'm talking about go watch that or you'll be very confused okay again everyone caught up so as you know there was an agreement between the Arab rebels and the British during World War one if the Arabs revolted against the Turks then they would be able to have their own unified state in the aftermath the entire region was to be ruled by the Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali I want to imagine an alternate timeline where this original plan is actually upheld and the Europeans don't back out of it what if the Middle East at least the Arab part was truly unified so let's begin if we're going by this map of the original agreement this new state controls everything south of Turkey to the edge of the peninsula it will be between British Egypt and Iran and the state will simply call it the Arabian Kingdom because I'm not very original so you be the Arabian Kingdom exists everything is hunky-dory except that it isn't nothing ever is even if the Sharif is promised this land and the Arabian Kingdom internationally is recognized to control all of this land it doesn't mean that they actually would this is a good time to bring up that the House of Saud it still exists at the time the agreement was made the Saud controlled a sizeable chunk of the Eastern Peninsula they want it simply lose the land once the Arabian kingdom was made even if their land wasn't included the new arab state it's still very likely this fundamentalist in militaristic faction would compete with the larger hash my kingdom within the first decade of this new arab kingdoms life it probably fights a war against the House of Saud on like our own timeline the Charice state is large enough and connected enough that it can easily beat back any Saudi advancements perhaps just wipe out the song entirely with the help of the British simply by sticking with their original agreement the Sharif has a larger state to defend himself in the friendship between his kingdom and the British continued on to stop the sod from ever rising in the first place so let's move on further World War two happens and is over the Middle East was allied friendly for the most part with relationships growing between Arabia and America and the colonies of Britain and France being invaded by Germany after the war this in our timeline was a time of decolonization Syria Iraq Lebanon in Israel we're all born around the 40s as Britain and France's empires well died young this alternate timeline that doesn't happen of course because it's all one big unified state but it's still going to be a time of change the Arabs just like everyone else will be stuck in the new international reality that is the cold war in the Middle East however it isn't simply an ideological struggle between capitalism and communism but between traditional elements and social change this becomes even more prevalent when the Arab state uses modern technology to discover the vast oil supplies underneath the desert what does that mean everybody wants to be allies with Arabia or at least everybody wants to make Arabia their ally since this is alternate history and it's impossible for me to predict exactly who would win to make Arabia their friend I've decided this could go really three ways each is if a certain ideology influences the modern Arab state and how exactly it could go first what if the West influences the Arab state the closest comparison I can make to this is how America is allies with Saudi Arabia too throughout the United States and Saudi Arabia's history they have operated on a staunch anti-communist policy Assad would keep oil moving and the US would help them against communist revolutionaries trying to weaken the power of the monarchy in this alternate timeline this is the same type of relationship except larger and more profound to combat those communist influences the West might support largely religious and traditional figures in the state movements in the Islamic world that call for secularization in anti religious policies were usually socialist in nature and ironically were seen as against American foreign policy now for those thinking I'm attacking traditional beliefs and conservatism let me remind you I'm not talking about our Western version of conservatism when I say conservative I mean women separate from men whose job is mandatory Islamic conservatism if America influenced Arabia this alternate timeline in many ways is the closest to our own they are not religiously fanatical like the House of Saud but compared to the two other timelines the Arab state is more conservative in nature the good news is that when it remained this conservative forever the actual Hashemite kingdoms like Jordan are far more liberal societies than Saudi Arabia progress in the American timeline simply is over a longer period of time but because this is over this vast stretch of time this might be the safest alternate timeline as more traditional elements don't feel as threatened in a timeline where the Soviets won influence instead things would be far more dramatic and well more difficult the Soviets were atheist and that made them much more radical compared to the Christian West Soviet history in the region is less about cooperation and more about funding movements to destabilize the monarchy any other funding that would lead to save a complete revolution I predict would lead to a civil war within the state I think this is the least likely however so I don't want to focus too much on this possibility in this third alternate timeline this unified Arab state is taken over by buffest ideology some of you well most of you are probably thinking what is both ISM well the best thing I can say is that baathism is an ideology that is a strange blend of socialism and nationalism Baathists at least the original proponents in the 1950s believed that Arabs should unify and work together to make their societies just as modern as Asia in Europe simply put it was meant to bring on a second arab renaissance like the one of the medieval era that's actually what both means Renaissance now while this sounds hunky-dory and everything their idea of how to do this was to simply seize power have a one-party authoritarian rule and changed the Arab world by force anyway this ideology sort of devolved by the 1970s Iraqi Baath ISM was eventually just hijacked by Saddam Hussein and Syria's is actually still around today with Assad now in my opinion this could be the ideology that had the greatest chance to take hold in a unified Arab state it'd also be one that Arabs would use to combat the influence of both the west and of communism however this has some ramifications since baathism was about bringing the people into the modern day by force there will be some sort of overthrow of the Sherif or King and replace him with a new secular dictator keep in mind Lahab ism still would exist even if it didn't have political power so it's likely there'd be some form of conflict and social revolt between traditionalists and seculars if successful it'd be a strange third ideology that could stand against capitalist and communist influences and if successful is the key phrase when first writing this video I imagine that the Middle East might be a far more peaceful place if it was unified perhaps the land was richer and able to harness its oil to become wealthy like the West but I think I was kind of wrong there is one consistent theme throughout all of these scenarios the fate of the Middle East would be detrimental to both sides in the Cold War this means that even if arabia was unified it still might face civil wars revolutions and conflict just different kinds of conflict there would be fights over the change in arab society if the House of Saud had been defeated early in the 20th century Wahhabism doesn't have the financial influence to then spread amongst the Islamic world zealous Islamic militias still exist of course but I doubt they'd have as many numbers or as much support like today the conflicts are far more secular a unified Middle East story in the twentieth century is one trying to find out what it is there isn't competition between dictators of artificial states but competition between ideologies for the fate of the nation it might not be the peaceful world that you would imagine however it would lead to one thing change in this alternate timeline there could be actual change in the region instead of going back like it did in this century whose ideas would win in the end well who can say these are simply three possibilities for what I believe could have happened there is countless possibilities for what might have been and this is just me theorizing so what do you think would have happened this is Cody of alternate history hub [Music] Hey so this is an update you're probably wondering why my video schedule has been so infrequent to say the least for the last few months well I feel it's time to say what's been going on alternate history is at its core about stories and fiction it's a branch of science fiction that has been around for decades with each alternate history video I just scratched the surface of worlds that can be fleshed out in a full novel and now I'm happy to say that I'm writing an alternate history novel of my own yes this is actually happening publisher and all I always loved the concept of the Atlanta project the idea to dam up the Mediterranean and change the face of Europe I love the idea of it because it was conceived with so much optimism but if it was actually created it would have doomed everybody I'll announce more details about what this book is in a future video around the summer but I'm talking about it right now because this is why the schedule has been so infrequent this world that you're seeing through concept art is where my time lately has went to I'm sorry that the video schedule has suffered because of that but I feel like this is a story that will only be good if I give a hundred percent of my effort at least this is how it has been for the last few months since I had to figure out plot lines and characters and all that stuff now I finally know where the story is going how is going to end and now I can go back to the channel I just wanted to let you know this is what my 2018 has been and I can't wait for you guys to see more of it later this year this is Cody of alternate history of [Music]

Channel: AlternateHistoryHub

Views: 1,434,286

Keywords: AlternateHistoryHub, alternate history, middle east, sykes picot agreement, alternate history middle east, syria alternate history, history middle east, alternatehistoryhub, middle east unified, middle east history, syria history, what if the middle east unified, unified middle east, the decision that ruined the middle east

Id: 6JaSzIjR_V8

Length: 11min 55sec (715 seconds)

Published: Mon May 07 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/mandaloredash]

I'm guessing post-apocalyptic of some sort. Cody's idea of Atlantropa is that it would be built sometime between the two world wars, and devastate the continent.

I'm guessing it'll be set about 50 years after construction, around the 1970s/80s. Cold war politics in a devastated Europe.

[u/1Desk]

ennhhh, some of his videos are good until he talks about anything on the far-left, sometimes ignoring the actual history of states such as the USSR and Cuba in respective videos about them. So while I think he might make a good book if he set it in the pre-19th century, I'm not sure about this one. This is also a problem I have with other Alternate History writers too. But that's probably just due to my political bias.

[u/Carrot_the_dank]

Also something with Arabs.