Unit-14

Why is the Middle East an important world region?

(14.1-14.6)
Middle of what, east of where?
• One of the reasons why this region is so important is that it is located
where the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa meet.
• It can also be called Southwest Asia.
• The term the ‘Middle East’ was first used by European colonialists in the
nineteenth century.
• Traders used it as a way of distinguishing this area from India and the Far
East (Southeast Asia and China).
• After the Second World War, ‘Middle East’ became the dominant term for
the whole region.
• Important economic region that is rich oil.
• It is also a region in turmoil, often in the news because of war and conflict.
Main physical zones
• Divided into two physical zones
• Pontic and Taurus Mountains of Turkey
• Zargros and Elburz Mountains of Iran
• Much of the rest of the region is made up of lowlands areas of desert
• The dominant feature of the region is the Arabian Peninsula, mainly
covered by the Arabian Desert and the Rub’ Al khali or Empty Quarter.
• There are three major river basins in the north and west: the Nile,
Euphrates and Tigris.
How does plate movement affect the Middle
East?
• The earthquakes have occurred in the Middle East over 116 years.
• The Arabian Plate was part of the African Plate about 500 million
years ago.
• These two plates have slowly spread apart, leading to the formation
of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Persian Gulf.
• The Red Sea is lined with volcanoes.
• The Arabian Plate has been moving northward, currently at 3 cm a
year, and colliding with the Eurasian Plate.
• This collision has created fold mountains in the north of the Middle
East.
Climate zones
• There are two main climatic zones in the Middle East:
• Desert to the south and a Mediterranean climate to the north.
The south
• The Arabian Peninsula is predominantly desert.
• Rain comes mainly between May and September but there is only
light, brief rainfall in most of the region and in some areas it never
rains at all.
• In the desert, the daytime temperature often rises to more than 52°C.
• At night the deserts are cool or even cold.
The north
• A Mediterranean climate has two distinct seasons: hot dry summers
when the weather is similar to a desert, and warm and wetter
winters.
• This mainly arid (dry) climate in the region creates major problems of
water scarcity,
• Countries in the region are trying to find new sources of water and
make better use of this precious resource.
Why is the population of the Middle East so
diverse?
• The Middle East has a population of about 410 million people.
• The population is very uneven and is clearly linked to physical
geography.
• The vast deserts of the region are sparsely populated.
• The north of the region and the fringes of the Middle East,
particularly along the coasts, are more densely populated and Egypt
contains the most densely populated areas.
 Why is the population so diverse?
• It is at the junction of trade routes that have existed for over 5,000 years connection
Europe, Asia and Africa, and all the cultures of the Mediterranean.
• It is complicated region, with many languages, cultures and religions.
• While the majority of the inhabitants of the region speak Arabic, there are several
countries in the Middle East that are not majority Arabic speaking, including Turkey, Iran,
and Israel.
• The region is the birthplace of the three main religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
• Islam is the most practiced religion across the region, although this can vary by country.
• 40% of the population of Lebanon are Christians, and in Israel 70% are Jewish.
• There are many different ethnic groups in the region.
• Arabs are the majority group in almost every Middle East country.
• The exceptions are Israel, Turkey and mostly –Persian Iran.
• The ethnic Kurds have no country of their own but big communities in Iran, Iraq, Syria and
Turkey.
Crude oil reserves in the region
• The Middle East is the source of the world’s largest and most
important reserves of crude oil.
• The Arabian plate currently holds 48% of the world’s oil reserves and
43% of the world’s natural gas.
• This wealth of oil and gas is the result of the slow continual
movement of the Arabian plate.
• The Arabian plate experienced around 570 million years of nearly
uninterrupted sedimentation, an ideal setting for the creation of
hydrocarbons, the compounds that make up crude oil.
The importance of oil

• The discovery of oil has revolutionized the economy of the region.

• Over 50% of this crude oil comes from the Middle East.
• Although oil has stimulated great economies are still reliant on one
product-oil.
How has the United Arab Emirates
developed?
• Governments across the Middle East face a diverse set of challenges
that can hold back economic development, including:
• An arid environment that can lead to water scarcity
• An overreliance an oil exports creating a need to find ways to diversify
their economy, to protect them from falling oil prices, or oil running
out
• High unemployment, particularly among a growing population of
young people
• Unrest and conflict among the many ethnic groups in the region.
How has the United Arab Emirates
developed?
• UAE was formed in 1971. it is a group, or federation, of seven
emirates-land ruled by a monarch called an emir.
• Abu Dhabi, the largest and most important emirate, covers 85% of the
country.
• Dubai is the most populated: 35% of UAE’s population.
• Oil reserves are the seventh largest in the world.
• Natural gas reserves are the seventeenth largest in the world.
• Second largest economy in the Middle East.
• Since its formation the economy has grown 231 times.
 How is the economy diversifying?
• A strong and consistent government, since 1971, has been very successful
at diversifying the economy to reduce the dependence on oil exports.
• Dubai has been particularly successful at this, becoming a global city.
• Oil revenue has been invested in developing modern ports, airports and
airlines, turning Dubai into a world communication hub.
• Dubai promotes itself as ‘a gateway to global trade, as a dynamic and
diverse economy at the crossroads of the world’. The city’s assets,
including its architecture, modern transport system, high-class hotels,
shopping malls, theme parks, year-round sunshine, beaches and deserts
are all the result of economic investment using oil revenue.
• As a consequence, the city has developed into the fifth largest world
tourist destination.
How is the population of UAE changing?
• Only 1.4 million people in UAE are emirati as the country has one of
the largest proportions of migrant, mainly male, workers in the world.
• This has had a distorting effect on the population structure of the
country.
• Immigrants make up 90% of the workforce.
• The biggest numbers of workers come from the nearby countries of
India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Philippines, but also a small minority
from Europe including, in 2012, 240,000 from Britain.