TE Lawrence and the Turks and Arabs

World geography Magnet / Lawrence , a photo by trudeau on Flickr.

The Ottoman Empire was headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, and controlled the entire Middle East. The people were Muslim Turks.

The Arabs were known as the Bedouins; they were nomadic tribes scattered across the Arabian peninsula.

The Bedouins wanted to push the Turks out of Arabia. Lawrence and the British agreed with that goal and gave military aid to the Bedouins.

By 1918 the Bedouins reached Damascus and pushed the Ottoman Turks out of Arabia.

Then, however, control of the Middle East was grabbed by the French and British.