ABSTRACT

The Middle East has always been a cross-roads for international commerce due to its geographical position between the more populated regions of Europe, South Asia and East Asia. Rather than being a barrier to trade, the deserts of the region have been like oceans, crossed by important trade routes such as that across the Sahara to Nigeria, over the arid lands of central Asia to China or through the Persian Empire to the cities of the Indian sub-continent. The spread of Islam and the Arab conquests served to develop intra-regional trade, as did the spread of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. Initially the great European powers were to view the region as strategically important for transit trade with the East, a process that would result in the construction of the Suez Canal and its opening in 1869. By the twentieth century, with the discovery of oil the European countries saw the region as an important trading entity in its own right, whose resources were vital for modern industry and commerce.