In fact, events in today’s Middle East continue to be shaped by the radical changes brought about after World War I. Previously, most Arabs had been grouped together under various caliphates. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, two nation-states (Iran and Turkey) emerged, while the Arabs were distributed among 22 new countries, generally under British or French colonial domination.
事实上，如今的中东事件仍受第一次世界大战后所发生的剧烈变化的影响。早前，大部分阿拉伯人生活在各种伊斯兰教国王统治之下。1923年奥斯曼帝国解体后崛起了两个民族国家（伊朗和土耳其），而阿拉伯人组成了22个新国家，这些国家大体上是根据英国和法国的殖民地划分的。