ABSTRACT
THERE has been a tendency for those who study the policy of the Germany of Wilhelm II in the Middle East to concentrate their attention unduly upon the Berlin-Baghdad Railway scheme. It is true that· this grandiose project was of great significance not only from an economic point of view but also because it symbolized Germany's far-reaching political and territorial ambitions in Asiatic Turkey. But Germany's economic penetration of parts of the Middle East involved far more than the construction of a railway to Baghdad. This famous line engaged the attention of diplomats, and so accounts of the negotiations concerning the project appear in political histories. Other factors, however, deserve examination if the significance of Germany's economic penetration of the Middle East in 1870-1914 is to be appreciated. Irrigation and other public works, farming, trade, cotton, oil and settlement come into the picture as well as railways.
