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[BLANK_AUDIO]Having said a few words about society,let's make a brief statement aboutthe economy of the Middle East, at thebeginning of the 19th century.First of all, we have to recognize that wedon't have reliablestatistics for the population of theMiddle East, for example, at that period.But we do know that it is estimated thattheMiddle Eastern population at that time wasabout 30 million.6 million in Iran.24 million in the various Ottomanterritories.And 3 and a half million in Egypt.Counted separately because of the separateway Egypt took in the 19th century.And we'll talk a bit more about that lateron.That figure, 3 and a half million inEgypt, is an interesting point to note atpresent.

Since then, the beginning of the 19thcenturycoming to the beginning of the 21stcentury today.Egypt's population has increased 25 timesover.If we can say that the Middle East and,in the early 19th century, was relativelyunder populated.The great problem of the middle-east todayand which we can see asa major reason for the outbreak of theArab Spring as it is called.

Is that the Middle East today is overpopulated.But, in the early 19th century, thingswere very different.This was a relatively under populated partof the world.Population was kept low because of thewars that broke out continuously betweenthe Ottomans and the Persians, between theOttomans and various European powers.Famine was frequent, disease, was verycommon.And there was also birth control, mainly

through abortion which kept the populationvery low.There were very dramatic losses of lifedue to famine in countries likeEgypt and Iraq, which were completelydependent on the flow of the great rivers.The Nile in Egypt and the Tigress and theEuphrates in Iraq.And when rain fall was low, populationssuffered from famine.

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And causing huge losses of life.Plague was another cause of very, verydramatic tragic losses of life.One sixth of the population of Egypt diedin 1785 because of the plague.Over 300,000 people died in Istanbulbecause of the plague in 1812.During the 19th century, there was arevolution of population size.Because of Western medicine, public healthmeasures, bettercommunications and transportation,increasedsecurity, reduced internal violence.All these led to an ever increasingpopulation, in the 19th century, whichincreased at a much faster rate, for thesame reasons, in the 20th century.There were also changes in the compositionof the population.The fact that the Ottoman empirewas gradually losing its Europeanprovinces alsomeant that the Ottoman Empire was

gradually losing much of its Christianpopulation.Provenances that were lost to Christianpowers led to theimmigration of Muslims from the eastplaces into the Ottoman Empire.The Ottoman Empire became ever more Muslimand ever less Christian during the 19thcentury.In the period between 1912 and 1923, thatis, the first quarter of the 20th century.It was a demographic disaster in theMiddle East.

20% of the population of Anatolia, whichis themajor land mass of Turkey, died in thatperiod.Due to wars and other inflictions.10% of them immigrated.During the 19th century and the emergenceof the nationalist idea, therewas a trend of what we can call theterritorialization of identity.It was not enough for indigenouscommunities to live in their particularlocations.

Under the impact of European ideas,these religious minorities sought aterritorial identity.In the form of a state.And the creation of these territorialidentities led to clashes.And bloody clashes, between differentreligious, national groups.The most tragic of all and the most wellknown of all is

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the terrible tragedy of the Armenians inTurkey of the first World War.Territorialization of identity, therefore,hadsome very nasty, unintended consequences.But because the population of the MiddleEast grew in the 19th century, on the eveof World War One, the Middle East was nolonger self-sufficient in food.And this is a problem that was onlyaggravated as time went by.This has become even more of a problem, inthe Middle East of today.Overpopulated and inca, incapable ofproviding its own needs, in terms of food.In terms of the economic relations betweentheMiddle East and the West, during the 19thcentury.Britain surpassed France as the leadingcommercial super power in the Middle East.At the end of the 19th century, mostof the Middle East's commerce was withEurope.

Middle East exports of raw materials andfood items went to Europe, while theEuropeans,as a result of their IndustrialRevolution, exportedfinished goods, from Europe to the MiddleEast.There was a massive flow of capital, fromEurope to the Middle East, and thecreationof a huge debt, both in the OttomanEmpire and of Egypt, to European countriesand banks.

All of the above was much slower.This connection with Europe, theseeconomic changes,were much slower in Iran, much furtherawayfrom Europe, far less in direct contactwithEurope, than in the Ottoman empire andEgypt.