ADVANCES IN MILITARY TECHNOLOGY AND MIDDLE EASTERN SOCIETY
This research paper discusses the impact of advances in military technology on the organization of society in the pre-modern, early modern and modern Middle East. Pre-modern Middle Eastern states accommodated as they needed to developments in military technology through the 16th century. As, however, the preeminent military power in the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire thereafter fell behind the West in important areas of military technology in the early modern period, the resulting reforms profoundly reshaped the bases of the empire's power and led, together with other factors, ultimately to its disintegration. One advance in military technology, the conversion of navies from coal to oil power increased the importance of the Middle East; however, the new regimes that emerged in the region after the colonial period found themselves ill-equipped to catch up with advances in military technology elsewhere and their largely futile attempts to reduce the shortfall distorted the political organization of their societies and weakened their economies.
Military Technology in Pre-Modern Times
Prior to the invention of gunpowder and its widespread use by armies in the 16th century, the technology of land warfare changed only interstitially over time. These improvements included the switch from stone to metal weapons, the development of disciplined infantry tactics, the use of cavalry and reforms in military doctrine. According to Cleveland, "over the course of centuries, improvements in agricultural and military technology, in transportation and communications, and in social and administrative organization enabled empires to dominate increasingly extensive territories" (1-2). The remarkable Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. were due not to innovations in military technology, but rather to the superior elan, courage and endurance of the conquering armies and thei...