In the early twentieth century, three important revolutions took place among the nations of the Middle East. In 1908, when the Shah of Iran tried to abolish the 1906 constitution, a resistance movement arose which eventually drove the Shah out of power. Unfortunately, Russia intervened and brought an early end to the revolution in Iran. Also in 1908, the "Young Turks" arose in Turkey to fight against Ottoman rule. In that revolution, the Ottoman sultan was driven out of the country and the Turks regained their constitution. However, the new government of Turkey soon proved to be even more repressive than the Ottoman Empire had been. In 1916, yet another revolution, known as the Great Arab Revolt, occurred. In that revolution, a coalition of Arabic nations drove the Ottoman Empire out of the region. British assistance had played an important role in the success of the Arab Revolt. Therefore, the Arab nations were shocked after the revolution, when the British began dividing the Middle East up between themselves and France.
These three revolutions all showed great promise in terms of their potential for establishing constitutional democracies in the Middle East. However, in each case, the positive aims of the revolutionary leaders were undermined in one way or another. In comparing these three revolutions, certain correlations can be found with the Russian Revolution of 1904-1905. In this paper, emphasis will be placed on the idea that the revolution in Russia provided a stimulus for the revolutions which occurred later in Iran, Turkey and the Arab nations.
One way in which the Russian Revolution influenced the later revolutions was by providing an inspiration. In 1904, Russia's attempt at imperialism in the Far East came to an end when the Russian navy suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Japanese. This defeat cause a "crisis of morale" among the people of Russia (Daniels, 1985, p. 90). As a result ...