The History of the Middle East in 90 Seconds

Here’s a link to an interesting animated overview of the history of the Middle East from Ancient Egypt to the present, which takes only 90 seconds to watch.

http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

A number of things are missing from this presentation.  

One is evolution of the empires in question after they reach their height, such as the division of the Roman Empire, and the subsequent shrinking of the Byzantine Empire.  The map shows the growth of empires at the expense of previous empires, but that creates an erroneous perspective.  To be truer to the martial nature of the history of the region, it would be better to at least see the territories of the empires fluctuate to symbolize border wars and territorial losses other than those inflicted by the next major power. For instance, in relation to the Roman example, it does not show the major territorial losses incurred during the barbarian migrations in Europe.  One thus gets an exagerrated sense of the power of the Byzantines as the Muslims emerge.  In truth, they had retreated to a smaller Eastern territory.

Another is the coexistence of empires over relatively long stretches of time.  For instance, one does not get the sense from the presentation that the Byzantines withstood the Muslim advance for 800 years, or that the Ottoman Empire was coexistent with a considerable Persian Empire that it could not conquer.  It would be good if the presentation paused at milestones other than the greatest extent of a particular empire, and showed the distribution of power at key times.  This would help capture one of the important factors in the history of the region: the existence of competing powers and cultures over long stretches of time.

Anyways, as far as oversimplifications go, it’s a good one.  You probably can’t do much more in 90 seconds!

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