In today's world, there will always be some countries that are classified as the same "national category" because of the same religion, language and culture, such as Slavic countries in Eastern Europe and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.
▲Flag of the Arab country
Arab countries are also an important category of human geography, with 22 Arab-dominated Arabic-speaking countries covering 13.13 million square kilometers of land and a population of about 430 million (2022), making them an important force to be ignored in the international political arena.
▲Arab countries
The cultural roots and national identity of Arab countries can almost always be traced back to the Arab Empire, and after the decline of the empire in the 10th century, the Arab nation experienced centuries of turbulent years, successively conquered and divided by other powerful peoples.
Today's Arab countries are largely independent of the first half of the 20th century. The two world wars not only profoundly shaped the international social order, but also rewrote the fate of the Arabs.
▲Arab world
Due to the different size of the country, in the context of the same clan and race, the powerful Arab countries all tried to play the role of the hegemon of the Arab countries.
After World War II, driven by the Cold War environment and external forces, the struggle for hegemony in the Arab world intensified. From Egypt, which first advocated Arab unity, to Iraq, which tried to dominate the Gulf, to Saudi Arabia, which controls Islam's two holy sites and important oil-producing areas; From diplomatic games to proxy wars, between light and dark, the struggle for Arab hegemony has never stopped.
Since modern times, what kind of wonderful and fierce confrontation has broken out between Arab countries for the position of regional hegemon? In the invisible smoke of gunfire, which countries have ascended to the throne of Arab hegemony?
▲ Meeting of the League of Arab States
I. Game - The birth of the Arab nation
The Arab peoples originated in the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, where the inland desert is extensive, and the population is concentrated in scattered oases inland and a small number of coastal plains on the east and west coasts of the peninsula.
The east and west coasts of the peninsula were important trade routes, connecting the two river valleys and the Iranian plateau to the east, and crossing the Mediterranean Sea to the west to the Roman Empire.
The Arabian Peninsula was brought to life by the prosperity of trade routes, and after the 1st century AD, a number of commercial towns represented by Mecca appeared on the peninsula.
▲Middle East terrain
In 610 AD, Muhammad, who came from the Hashemite family of Mecca, founded Islam. The monotheistic ideas of Islam clashed with the polytheism of the Arabian Peninsula at the time and were suppressed by the old aristocracy.
With the support of his followers, Muhammad eventually conquered Mecca in 630 AD, the exclusivity of Islam in the region was established, and the Arab Empire was established.
▲ Arab countries were established
Islam brought together the previously fragmented Arab tribes, and with religious fanaticism, Muhammad and the four subsequent caliphs (meaning "heirs") led the Arab Empire to attack on all sides.
In the north of the Arabian Peninsula, the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Persia were defeated in a war that lasted for nearly a hundred years, and the Arab army used it to destroy Sassanid Persia and Islamize the Two River Valley and the Iranian plateau.
Another great Arab army marched westward and conquered all of North Africa, including Egypt. Islam and the Arabic language have continued to permeate the soil of North Africa and have become the most basic and fundamental components of North African society.
▲ Empire expansion
The Two Rivers Valley is one of the core of Arab civilization, but from then on, the Iranian plateau has a deep history, although Islam (Shiites, rather than Sunnis, which Arabs generally believe) have been embraced, but the Persian language and traditional customs still dominate the region, and the Persians have not Arabized.
The Arabization of North Africa is very smooth, Egypt, the oldest culture, after hundreds of years of rule by foreign empires such as Macedonia and Rome, the foundation of ancient Egyptian civilization has long collapsed, and Arab civilization has become the latest spiritual background of Egypt.
▲ The rapid Islamization of West Asia and North Africa
In 661 AD, the caliph's elective system was replaced by hereditary system, and powerful local clans gained supreme power in the empire. The Umayyad and Abbasidian dynasties changed back and forth.
After the 10th century, due to power struggles and rulers being content with pleasure, local leaders in the empire supported themselves, the Iranian plateau, Egypt and other regions were successively separated from the control of the empire, and the Arab Empire fell into division.
▲ Empire split
Between the 10th and 14th centuries, numerous Arab regimes rose and died amid division and infighting. Turkic, Mongol and other peoples invaded West Asia and established power on the remnants of the eastern part of the Arab Empire. The Abbasid caliph of the Arab Empire was brought from Baghdad to Egypt and became a puppet of the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt.
From the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to North Africa, other Arab regimes fought back and forth with the Christian states of Europe in order to control land and wealth.
In the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire, which occupied Anatolia and the Balkans, grew stronger. In 1517, the Ottoman army moved south to conquer the Two Rivers Valley, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa.
The Ottomans are descendants of Turkic and local peoples in West Asia, speak Turkish, and do not belong to the Arabs. Although the Ottoman Empire also adopted Islam as its state religion, the Arabs had been reduced to a ruled people.
At its peak, the Ottoman Empire trembled Europe, and the conquered Arabs were powerless to resist. In 1683, the Ottoman army collapsed under the city of Vienna, and the Ottoman war of conquest, which lasted for more than two centuries, came to an end.
▲ Ottoman rise
In the Arabian Peninsula, the "land of dragons" of the Arabs, the Ottoman Empire emphasized control over the eastern and western coasts and religious holy cities such as Mecca, and the desert-wide interior of the peninsula was still dominated by Arab tribes.
A large area of the interior of the Arabian Peninsula is called Najd, and the Ottoman power cannot reach here, and some Arab regimes against the Turks were established here, and the Arabs in the Ottoman territory on the east and west sides of the peninsula oscillated between the empire and the national power.
In 1744, the Saud family established the capital Riyadh and gradually took control of Najd, starting a war with the Ottoman Empire.
▲First Saudi Kingdom
At the end of the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, not only was it frequently invaded and economically plundered by European powers, but its control over the internal provinces was also declining, and national independence movements in Greece, Serbia and other places also inspired the Arabs to resist.
The rise and expansion of the Saud family alarmed the Ottoman Empire, especially the loss of Mecca and Medina, which weakened the Ottoman Empire's religious influence in the Islamic world.
Egypt was also semi-autonomous at this time, and from the beginning of the 19th century, under the leadership of Muhammad Ali, Egypt carried out modernization reforms and formed a powerful Western-style army.
▲Ali
Nominally Egypt was still a province of the Ottoman Empire, and Ali decided to send troops to help the Ottoman Empire defeat the Arabs and seize control of the western part of the Arabian Peninsula.
Under the attack of the Turkish-Egyptian army, the First Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was declared destroyed, and the Saudi family had to flee into the depths of the desert, but Egypt and the Ottoman Empire broke out again because of interests.
The well-equipped Egyptian army defeated its former boss, but the European powers did not want to cede the fat of the Ottoman Empire to Egypt, and under pressure from Britain and France, Egypt spit out most of the newly occupied land and achieved de facto independence on the basis of recognizing Ottoman suzerainty.
▲ Egypt rises
The rising Britain saw Egypt as a fulcrum to British India, penetrating its administrative and economic systems, and by the end of the 19th century it had completely controlled Egypt, and the rest of North Africa was occupied by France and Italy.
Revival – The rise of modern Arab states
In 1914, the First World War broke out. The Ottoman Empire joined the German-Austrian Allies against the Entente dominated by Britain, France and Russia.
▲ Stand in line
After the outbreak of World War I, Egypt, with a population of 6 million, completely broke away from the Ottoman Empire under British control, and the population of the Ottoman Empire shrank to about 18 million.
Arabs were the second largest ethnic group in the Ottoman Empire (more than the Turks if Egyptians were included), and the empire also gave Arabs a high social status, but there were still a large number of Arab tribal elders and elites trying to secede from the Ottoman Empire.
▲Arabian Peninsula before World War I
As the war heats up, Britain and France sign the Sykes-Pico Agreement, preparing to divide the Two Rivers Valley (Arab settlements) under their rule after defeating the Ottoman Empire. British soldiers represented by "Lawrence of Arabia" entered the Middle East to assist the Arabs in launching a national uprising, always leading the Saudi family that was at odds with the Ottoman family.
Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab Rebels
When the curtain fell on World War I in 1918, the defeated Ottoman Empire was forced to surrender large swathes of territory, including the Two Rivers Valley and the east and west coasts of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Hashemite family (Muhammad's family), who had been pro-Ottoman and had long controlled the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, controlled the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula and established the Kingdom of Hejaz.
▲ The Ottoman Empire lost large areas of territory
The Saud family took control of the east-central part of the peninsula and established the Kingdom of Najd. The Levant, the Two Rivers Valley, and the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula became the protection areas of Britain and France, and the geographical map of the Middle East was reshuffled.
In the midst of the change, the Saudi family, which ruled Najd, took the lead in waging war against the Kingdom of Hejaz. With his previous work with the British, Najd received British support. The powerless Kingdom of Hejaz collapsed in 1925, and the Saud family merged Najd and Hejaz to form Saudi Arabia, the most powerful state on the Arabian Peninsula.
▲Saudi Army
At the same time, in order to alleviate the resistance of the locals, Britain gave Egypt, Iraq and other countries nominal independence, and modern Arab states were established one after another.
By controlling the two holy cities, Saudi Arabia has a strong religious influence in the Arab world. By the 30s of the 20th century, the US capital-controlled Aramco Company discovered huge oil fields in eastern Saudi Arabia, and oil revenues changed Saudi Arabia's traditional and backward agricultural and animal husbandry economy, and the increase in economic income further strengthened Saudi Arabia's position in the Arab world.
▲Oil wells in Saudi Arabia
However, limited by the desert terrain, Saudi Arabia's population in the 30s was only about 3 million, while Iraq had more than 5 million at the same time, and Egypt became the most populous country in the Arab world with a population of 16 million.
Before World War II, the Arab world was still under the control of Western capital and even direct colonial rule, and even independent Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries could not dominate the regional situation.
After World War II, in order to reshape the geopolitical pattern, the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union began to promote the dismantling of the colonial system of old empires such as Britain and France, and the Arab world broke the colonial shackles that had imprisoned them for more than a hundred years. Jordan and Syria in West Asia; Libya, Morocco and other countries in North Africa became independent one after another.
▲Arab family
In 1945, at the initiative of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other countries joined the League of Arab States. Due to Egypt's strongest comprehensive strength, the headquarters of the Arab League is located in Cairo, the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world.
▲The expansion of the Arab League
It is not only the Arabs who have gained national independence. In 1948, Jews, who had been in exile in Europe for more than a thousand years and had deep pockets, established Israel in their Canaanite homeland (Palestine) with Western support.
▲ Palestine is getting smaller and smaller
The Arabs believed that Israel had invaded their land, and Egypt quickly contacted Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon to declare war on the newly established Israel, and the first Middle East war broke out.
Saudi Arabia, in order to export oil to the West, did not declare war directly on Western-backed Israel. Egypt, which has the strongest economic and military strength among the coalition forces, has naturally become the leader of the coalition forces.
▲The First Middle East War
Israel eventually defeated the Arab coalition with the support of Western countries, but the Egyptians' heroism in the war made them increasingly prominent and influential in the Arab world, which is not what the Saudis wanted.
In 1952, the Egyptian Free Officers Organization overthrew the monarchy under Nasser's leadership. Nasser was a pan-Arabist who focused on the unity of the Arab world, and in the process, Nasser wanted Egypt to act as a leader and win the respect of all Arab countries.
▲ Nasser
Egypt's overthrow of the monarch aroused Saudi resentment, and Nasser's growing personal prestige reinforced Saudi Arabia's sense of crisis, and Saudi Arabia, which was large enough and had enough oil revenues, did not allow republican Egypt to become the leader of the Arab world.
Egypt advocates "pan-Arabism" and seeks to identify with Arab national identities in the hope of gaining leadership in the Arab world.
Saudi Arabia promotes "pan-Islamism" and emphasizes religious identity, hoping to spread radiation throughout the Islamic world through the two holy sites in its hands, thereby counteracting the influence of pan-Arabism.
▲8 Arab monarchies
III. Confrontation – The Arab Age of Two Heroes
In 1956, Egypt announced that it would nationalize the Anglo-French-controlled Suez Canal to boost revenue and national self-confidence. Unwilling to lose control of the canal, Britain and France united with Israel to launch a second Middle East war against Egypt.
The Egyptian army lost the battlefield to the British, French, and Israeli forces, but with the support of the United States and the Soviet Union, they regained control of the canal, and the canal revenue was used to buy weapons and build important projects such as the Aswan Dam. As Egypt's national power grew, so did Nasser's personal influence, becoming a banner for the Arab world.
▲ Fight for the Suez Canal
Under the influence of Nasser's charisma and pan-Arabism, Syria and Egypt signed a treaty in February 1958, forming the United Arab Republic (UAE). The following month, North Yemen announced its accession to the Arab Emirates.
In Egypt's plan, Iraq, which established a republic in 1958, would also join the Arab League. Even under the influence of pan-Arabism, more Arab countries should join the Union. If realized, the Egyptian-dominated country would have a population of 42 million and a GDP of $8 billion (1960 figures), 10 times and 3.2 times that of Saudi Arabia during the same period.
▲UAE League
Egypt's actions will impede the Saudi struggle for Arab hegemony and even threaten the Saudi monarchy. On the one hand, Saudi Arabia prevents Iraq and other countries from joining the Arab League, and at the same time supports proxies in Yemen and other places, and meets with the forces supported by Egypt there. Saudi Arabia also restricted Egyptians from making the pilgrimage to Mecca, punishing Egypt ever since.
In order to increase the weight, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia hugged their thighs. Saudi Arabia is strengthening its ties with the United States as it has always been.
After 1960, with the capital support of the United States, Saudi Arabia's oil production capacity was further improved, and oil revenue accounted for 90% of the country's revenue. Saudi Arabia has used this to build a modern national system and improve laws, medical care, education, etc. The deep-pocketed Saudi Arabia has also built a well-equipped army.
▲Kaaba in Mecca
Egypt does not have as many resources as Saudi Arabia, agriculture dominates the economy, and foreign financing is necessary to modernize the economy.
Thanks to American support for Israel, Egypt strengthened cooperation with the Soviet Union. From 1950 to 1970, the Soviet Union gave Egypt as much as $1.02 billion in aid and subsidies, and the Soviet Union built 70 projects in Egypt's first five-year plan alone, and the Egyptian army also obtained a large amount of Soviet-style equipment.
▲ Nasser and Khrushchev
In general, Egypt was superior in economic, demographic, military and political influence in the struggle for Arab hegemony in the 50s and 60s.
A large number of Arab countries, including Libya and Syria, established republics, and they looked to Egypt as a model for their own development and promoted Nasser as the leader of the Arab world.
Due to the conflict of real interests, countries such as Syria did not want to become vassals of Egypt, and the Egyptian-dominated Arab League dissolved in 1961. The League of Arab States initiated by Egypt and other countries has not played a role in uniting Arabs, and representatives of various countries often quarrel over interests.
▲Arab League headquarters is located in Egypt
However, Egypt's overall national strength is still stronger than that of Saudi Arabia. By leading the Arabs against Israel, Nasser was also more prestigious throughout the Arab world than the Saudi king.
In 1967, Israel raided Egypt and the Third Middle East War broke out. The Egyptian army lost the war unfavorably, the Sinai Peninsula was captured by Israel, and the Suez Canal was exposed to Israeli attack.
The defeat deeply wounded Nasser, and on September 28, 1970, Nasser, who had just organized an emergency meeting of the League of Arab States, died of a heart attack. The news of his death shocked the Arab world, and all other Arab heads of state except the Saudi king attended Nasser's funeral.
Egypt loses the Sinai Peninsula
The defeat of the war and the death of Nasser dealt a severe blow to Egypt, but the Saudi economy surpassed Egypt for the first time in 1972 to become the largest economy in the Arab world with its increased oil production and crude oil prices.
Saudi Arabia has never been directly involved in any war in the Middle East, avoiding the deterioration of relations with the West and the effects of defeat. Saudi Arabia also provided financial support to Palestinian resistance groups, and was not ostracized by its Arab brothers for avoiding war.
▲Saudi Arabia's total economy surpasses Egypt
In the 70s of last century, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other countries became independent from the United Kingdom. These countries are small and close to Saudi Arabia, and they are all monarchies, which are naturally under Saudi influence.
In 1973, Egypt launched the Fourth Middle East War in an attempt to retake the Sinai Peninsula, which was eventually defeated again by Israel. Recognizing that Israel could not be defeated by war, Egypt decided to reconcile with Israel.
▲The Fourth Middle East War
With the establishment of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Israel in 1980, Egypt gained a relatively peaceful surrounding environment, but it also offended other Arab countries. Egypt's membership in the League of Arab States was terminated and was not reinstated until 1989.
Egypt established the status of Arab leader by leading Arab countries against Israel, and with the Egyptian-Israeli reconciliation, Egypt's image collapsed, Egypt was regarded as a traitor to the Arabs, and its influence and status in the Arab world plummeted.
▲ Egypt and Israel were reconciled by the United States
Saudi Arabia's oil exports reached $180 billion in GDP in 1981, eight times that of Egypt. After Egypt's fall of loneliness, Saudi Arabia consolidated its power base by strengthening cooperation with the Arab monarchies in the Gulf region. At the same time, it has increased its influence in other Arab countries through religious influence and financial support.
But Saudi hegemony soon met a new rival – Iraq.
▲Topographic map of Iraq
IV. Challenge - A new situation in the struggle for Arab hegemony
Iraq is less than 20% of Saudi Arabia's area (438,000 square kilometers), but because it is located in the Two Rivers Valley, the rich Mesopotamian plain has been the center of human civilization since ancient times, and Iraq's total population has always been larger than Saudi Arabia. Iraq has also discovered large quantities of oil in its territory and its ability to earn foreign exchange through energy exports is not weak.
▲Iraq is rich in oil and gas reserves
In 1979, Saddam Hussein was elected president of Iraq. Iraq at this time. By 1980, Iraq's GDP was $27.8 billion, surpassing Egypt in terms of total economic output, ranking second among Arab countries; With a population of 14 million, it is also in second place in the Arab world, after Egypt.
Through oil earnings, Iraq has established a complete medical and education system. Sufficient manpower also gave Iraq the strength to compete for the leader of the Arab world, and as Egypt's image collapsed, Saddam Hussein wanted Iraq to replace Egypt.
▲ Saddam
In the same year that Saddam Hussein came to power, an Islamic revolution broke out in Iran and the original pro-American monarchy was overthrown. The United States began to aid Iraq against Iran, and Saddam Hussein used his territorial dispute with Iran to ignite the Iran-Iraq War.
The eight-year war, which resulted in more than 1.5 million casualties in both Iran, saddled Iraq with a heavy external debt. In order to extricate itself, Iraq annexed Kuwait by military force in 1990.
▲Iraqi armored forces
Kuwait is a creditor to Iraq with large oil reserves, and was part of Basra (present-day Iraqi province) during the Ottoman Empire.
Iraq's annexation of Kuwait had resulted in the cancellation of foreign debt, the expansion of its territory and coastline, and the acquisition of more abundant oil production capacity.
▲Oil and gas fields in the Gulf region
Saddam's inflated ambitions touched Saudi Arabia, which would never allow such a powerful Iraq to appear beside them.
The West sees Iraq as a threat to oil security, and the US-led Western forces launched the Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, using Saudi Arabia as a forward base. Iraq had a million troops of its own, but this quickly collapsed under the three-dimensional offensive of Western armies.
▲ Gulf War
Iraq, which once intended to compete for hegemony in the Arab world, has been devastated after two wars between Iraq and the Gulf. Although Saudi Arabia did not have the same influence Egypt had in the Arab world in the 60s, it has no strong opponents in the road to the hegemony of the Arab world.
In the 21st century, Iraq was once again invaded by the United States, bidding farewell to the struggle for Arab hegemony. Through the export of oil and gas resources, countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have invested funds to strengthen regional finance (such as Dubai) and other soft power, and have gained a certain status in the Arab world.
Qatar's Al Jazeera has become a media with global influence, and Qatar, which has sufficient financial resources, has also used money to open props to support pro-Qatari forces in the Arab world.
▲ Al Jazeera
Qatar even dared to confront Saudi Arabia head-on in terms of soft power, and finally summoned Saudi Arabia to lead Bahrain and other countries to launch a "severance of diplomatic punishment".
In fact, the amount of recipients is limited, and countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, although they have large oil and gas revenues, cannot challenge Saudi Arabia's position.
▲Inter-Arab States Organization
Algeria in North Africa is also an important Arab country, with the largest land area among Arab countries. The population and economic scale are among the highest in the Arab countries.
However, Algeria is far from the core of Arab civilization and has long been colonized by France, with a strong Europa imprint in its culture. Algeria, which lacks "legitimacy," does not seek to be an Arab hegemon, but only wants to maintain its influence in North Africa and the Mediterranean coast.
▲North Africa
Most Arab republics are dictatorships, such as Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya. Affected by economic stagnation and popular demands for a change of leadership, the "Arab Spring" swept through West Asia and North Africa in 2010.
As a result, there have been regime changes in Egypt, Libya and other countries, and tragic civil wars have broken out in Syria and other countries, and the aftermath has not yet been resolved.
Most of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia is a monarchy, and Saudi Arabia and other countries have used their "banknote ability" to pacify their own people and smoothly survive the Arab Spring.
The turmoil in countries such as Egypt has further weakened its influence in the Arab world, while Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries have taken the opportunity to fill the regional power vacuum created by the shrinking power of Egypt and other countries through financial assistance, expanding their influence in other Arab countries.
▲Arab Spring
As of 2022, Saudi Arabia's GDP reached $1.1 trillion, making it the first Arab country to break through the trillion mark. The large enough economy and the blessing of religious shrines such as Mecca have made Saudi Arabia's influence in the Arab world grow day by day.
▲Saudi Arabia's military expenditure ranks first in the Arab world, and Egypt ranks third
In 2023, Saudi Arabia's military expenditure exceeded $56 billion, ranking 8th in the world and 1st in Arab countries. Egypt, once an Arab military power, spent less than $5 billion on its military, lagging behind Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Iraq, ranking fourth among Arab countries.
▲Saudi Naval Base
But Saudi Arabia also has weaknesses, there are many branches of Islam, and the Sunni Wahhabi sect of Saudi Arabia is only one of them, not the sect common to the entire Arab world.
With a population of less than 36 million, Saudi Arabia ranks only 6th among Arab countries. Saudi monarchies also struggle to gain the affection of republican Arab states.
Egypt's comprehensive national strength is second only to Saudi Arabia, but its economy is weak and hit hard by the Arab Spring, and 100 million people have formed huge employment and food security problems.
▲Cairo, Egypt
In addition, Iraq, Syria and other countries are still at war; Bahrain, Qatar, etc. are smaller; Algeria and Morocco are far from the core of Arab civilization; Sudan, Somalia are not Arab "orthodox" (blacks, etc.).
The differences between the 22 Arab countries in terms of political systems, religious culture, and economic models also hinder in-depth cooperation among Arab countries.
Saudi Arabia has the potential to compete for Arab hegemony, but other Arab countries do not necessarily accept Saudi superiority. Coupled with the involvement of external forces, the struggle for Arab hegemony has never stopped.
▲ Arab countries where competition and cooperation coexist