European Imperialism in the Muslim World 1907–21

In 1907, the Ottoman Empire was declining and there was an increasingly nationalistic sentiment amongst the Arab states in the Middle East and, in India, there was the rise of the All-India Muslim League. Increasingly, the occupying European imperialists were worried about threats to their interests, particularly in the Middle East, fearing the obstruction of its main trading routes to Europe, India and Asia. Rising hostility against the British presence in Ottoman-controlled Egypt, jeopardized access to the Suez Canal where the British and French had controlling interests. This, and the expansion of the House of Saud into Hejaz and Najd, caused the British Prime Minister to advocate the creation of a Jewish homeland in the region, which would act as a buffer against a unified Arabia. In 1921, the British created Palestine out of Syria (British Mandate) and encouraged Jewish immigration, causing violent Jewish-Arab tensions.