SW Asia Unit Exam Study Guide Answers

  1. Iran
  2. Saudi Arabia
  3. Israel
  4. Turkey
  5. Afghanistan
  6. Iraq

2. 1) Suez Canal

2). Red Sea

3) Strait of Hormuz

4) Persian Gulf

5) Tigris River

6) Euphrates River

7) Arabian Sea

3. Syria and Iraq nearly joined forces and went to war with Turkey when it built dams upstream on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and reduced the flow of water. Countries may fight over water in the future due to population growth and lack of water.

4. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq (Kuwait)

5. 1) Gaza Strip

2) Israel

3) The West Bank

6. Water pollution, unequal distribution of water (some countries have a lot and others very little in a desert environment), and fighting over water supplies. Many countries have low population density due to lack of water. Wealthy countries like Saudi Arabia have invested in desalination plants to covert salt water to fresh waster

  1. Having sources of oil should result in a higher standard of living for the country’s citizens. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran produce the most and export almost all of it to world markets. NOTE: Egypt, Syria, and Yemen do not have oil
  1. Most people in the Middle East live close to water supplies for drinking, irrigation of crops, and industrial use
  1. An ethnic group is a group of people who share cultural ideas and beliefs that have been a part of their community for generations. The characteristics they may have in common could include a language, a religion, a shared history, types of foods, and a set of traditional stories, beliefs, or celebrations. A religious group shares a belief system in a god or gods, with a specific set of rituals and literature. People from different ethnic groups may share the same religion, though they may be from very different cultures.
  1. They all are from Southwest Asia, share a common history, their culture is similar, and most speak Arabic. NOTE: Iranians are considered to be Persians in ethnicity. Remember! Jews are both an ethnic and religious group!
  1. Almost all Middle Eastern Jews live in Israel because they have been driven out of or not allowed to live in other countries of the Middle East
  1. Shia Muslims believe the successor to Muhammad should be a wise Muslim related to him while Sunnis believe the successor should just be the most qualified Muslim
  1. When a country invests in the education, training, and health care of its workers and provides physical capital in the form of factories as well as infrastructure improvements (ports, highways, railroads, airports, electricity, water, sewage) its economy should increase
  1. In a unitary form of government the power is held by the national authority/government (at the top)
  1. In the countries we study in the Middle East, authoritarian government (by one leader) is least common. This is due to people having a desire to share power. However, in the Middle Eastern countries, it is very common due to warfare or from a monarchy.
  1. A Parliamentary Democracy has a unitary form of government in which the legislators (law makers) are elected and then they choose the leader of the government (the Prime Minister), they write the laws, tax and spend money, and appoint judges. In a Presidential Democracy the President is elected separately from the legislators and power is shared among different branches of government
  1. Citizens do not participate in an autocratic form of government: they do what the government tells them to do
  1. Saudi Arabia’s leadership and the personal freedoms of its citizens are most closely related to its religion, Islam. Iran, would be considered a second country like this with its theocratic government bases largely on Islam.
  1. In an oligarchy a small group of citizens (usually the wealthy or land owners) rule the country. Other citizens have little say in the governance of their country
  1. The Prime Minister of Israel holds the most power in Israel’s government
  1. A command economy has the government deciding what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom to produce it. In a mixed economy the government has some restrictions (taxes, regulations) but allows market forces to determine how to answer the economic questions listed above
  1. The government of Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with an autocratic king as ruler. Israel is a democracy while Iran is a theocratic republic (Islam-based rule with voting allowed for Parliament and President)
  1. Israel has a Parliamentary Democracy in which the citizens vote for a party and the winning party’s leader is made Prime Minister.
  1. Most Middle Eastern countries specialize in the production of oil and natural gas and trade with other countries who need oil in order to get what they need for their economies
  1. An embargo is a when a country stops trading with another, usually as a political weapon to get that country to change policies
  1. Turkey’s economy is similar to Saudi Arabia’s in that it also produces oil although not nearly as much. Turkey focuses on refining oil into gasoline
  1. The economy of Saudi Arabia is based upon oil and natural gas production with very little economic diversity. Note: It is mixed with a large amounts of command with the King making so many decisions
  1. With specialization a country produces what it makes best and trades with other countries for what it needs. Along the Nile river irrigation is used to grow a lot of food: this is specialization
  1. OPEC (Organization of Oil Exporting Countries) main purpose is to regulate the price and production of oil to maintain a steady supply of oil for the world markets. A cut in oil production causes increased prices.
  1. Currency exchange is a system in which one country converts their money into another’s to be able to pay for goods and services they need from another
  1. After WW I European countries drew borders and laid claim to countries of the Middle East, mainly to control oil and water supplies
  1. The Ottoman Empire fell when is allied itself to Germany and they lost the war. It was already teetering on collapse due to unrest and mismanagement by the government
  1. Israel was established as a nation due to Zionism (the desire to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestine) and the Holocaust in WW II led the victorious Allies to allow it
  1. The Zionist movement was/is a desire to create the nation of Israel in the area it began as a nation thousands of years ago (modern day Palestine)
  1. The establishment of Israel and the refugees created from four wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors has created tension and conflict in the Middle East
  1. Investment in Human Capital is when a country invests in the education, training and health care of its workers to increase productivity and the GDP
  1. Iran might have a low standard of living because it has a huge population and while it has large oil supplies, the government interferes in the economy by directing large parts of it
  1. Anti-Semitism is the hatred or strong dislike of Jews that began in Europe in the 1900s
  1. Islam is the main religion in the Middle East and it impacts all parts of life there, particularly government. NOTE: Iran is a theocracy and does not allow religious freedom- only Islam
  1. The desire to see the end of the state of Israel by the surrounding Muslim countries creates conflict there
  1. The United Nations (UN) stopped Iraq from taking over Kuwait after it had invaded itbecause Kuwait produced a large amount of oil that the world markets depended upon
  1. The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to defeat the Taliban government who was sheltering Osama bin Ladin, the leader of Al Qaeda who directed the attacks on the US at the world trade center and the Pentagon
  1. The stated reason for the US to invade Iraq in 2003 was to stop Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) production. In reality it was to overthrow Saddam Hussein and to establish an democracy in Iraq