It's a professionally presented, compact history of the Middle East during and after the First World War.
There's no particular point in outlining the events because they're far too complicated. The armistice that ended the war in Europe in November, 1918, did little to put an end to the regional conflicts in the Middle East, which continue to this day.
The overall impression left with the viewer is that the great powers more or less ruled the place while fighting each other and at the same time suppressing insurgencies based on regional, tribal, religious, and ethnic identities. In effect, following the war's end, Europe carved up the Middle East and handed the parts out to the victors. Then they withdrew their exhausted troops and what emerged was a kaleidoscope of shifting allegiances. Nobody trusted anybody else, not in the Middle East or in Europe. Clemenceau of France literally challenged Britain's Lloyd George to a duel. Betrayal of trust was so common as to be taken for granted.
The title, "Blood and Oil," gives the mistaken impression that oil was always as important in the Middle East as it is now. But it wasn't. Oil was certainly an important commodity at the time but not as much as it is today. The horses have disappeared from the streets of the West and the camels provide rides for children in the Middle East. Oil wasn't discovered in Arabia until the 1920s. There's something else going on -- in the Middle East as elsewhere. We look for explanations in philosophy and religion, but the root causes may lie with the reptilian brain.
It's a reasonably honest picture but perhaps blames the Western powers a little too much. Yes, Europe drew up the post-war map, but would any other map have prevented the kind of conflicts that have been going on since then? The impression the program left on me, aside from the glum mood, was that the sooner we find alternative energy sources, the better off we'll all be.
There's no particular point in outlining the events because they're far too complicated. The armistice that ended the war in Europe in November, 1918, did little to put an end to the regional conflicts in the Middle East, which continue to this day.
The overall impression left with the viewer is that the great powers more or less ruled the place while fighting each other and at the same time suppressing insurgencies based on regional, tribal, religious, and ethnic identities. In effect, following the war's end, Europe carved up the Middle East and handed the parts out to the victors. Then they withdrew their exhausted troops and what emerged was a kaleidoscope of shifting allegiances. Nobody trusted anybody else, not in the Middle East or in Europe. Clemenceau of France literally challenged Britain's Lloyd George to a duel. Betrayal of trust was so common as to be taken for granted.
The title, "Blood and Oil," gives the mistaken impression that oil was always as important in the Middle East as it is now. But it wasn't. Oil was certainly an important commodity at the time but not as much as it is today. The horses have disappeared from the streets of the West and the camels provide rides for children in the Middle East. Oil wasn't discovered in Arabia until the 1920s. There's something else going on -- in the Middle East as elsewhere. We look for explanations in philosophy and religion, but the root causes may lie with the reptilian brain.
It's a reasonably honest picture but perhaps blames the Western powers a little too much. Yes, Europe drew up the post-war map, but would any other map have prevented the kind of conflicts that have been going on since then? The impression the program left on me, aside from the glum mood, was that the sooner we find alternative energy sources, the better off we'll all be.
