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The Birth of the Arab Federation
By the summer of 1942 the French army had pushed deep into Persia and had successfully split the country in two.
However, by this point the French Empire was also administering almost the entirety of the Arab world and had definitely started to feel the strain.
The tens of millions of Arabs who had found themselves forcibly placed under the empire’s administration had initially been relatively peaceful about the situation - due in part due to the French policy of not interfering with conquered Arab territory other than to disarm the local garrisons and to halt the collection of taxes (the confiscated national treasuries of Egypt and Arabia were more than enough to cover the costs of the military operations).
However, such a situation was by its very nature temporary and after nine months of occupation the population of Egypt was growing restless.
With no desire in Bordeaux to witness or to have to deal with the consequences of a Third Great Arab Revolt, plans made well in advance of the war were finally put into place. At the very heart of the solution to the “Arab question” was the simple desire to gain access to the vast resources of the Middle East (particularly the recently discovered oil) without having to face the same difficulties of keeping down a hostile population which had proved fatal to the Ottoman Empire.
Therefore, on the 10th of July 1942 Emperor Napoleon IV signed in Cairo a treaty declaring the independence of the Pan-Arabic Federation encompassing the former states of Egypt, Arabia and the Arab majority areas of Persia.
The initial government imposed on what is commonly referred to as the Arab Federation was a Shura, or council, of a hundred Arab nationalist intellectuals and those who the French defined as ‘moderate’ imams, who were to be the legislative body of the Federation and who would appoint ministers to run constitutionally defined ministries and departments to administer the day to day affairs of the nation. Members of the Shura were members for life and, in the event of a vacancy, new members of the Shura could only be appointed by the remaining members of the Shura.
This highly undemocratic system (which would not be altered until the ‘Arab Summer’ of the mid 1990s) was deliberately chosen by the French as a system of government which combined Islamic and Arabic cultural tradition with a system where there could not be any risk of anti-French popular sentiment harming French interests and where the lack of a single head of state would prevent any risk of a national figurehead turning the Arab Federation away from the interests of France.
This system, imposed at gunpoint, proved relatively popular amongst the Arab population as it was presented as a government of respected, wise, leaders in a traditional Islamic fashion (as opposed to an attempt to westernise the Middle East) and as returning self-rule to the Arabs and finally achieving the Arab nationalist goal of a single Arab nation.
From France’s point of view, this was a master stroke designed to ensure that instead of being seen as another imperialist power, France would be seen as friends to the Arabs, and to create a powerful ally which could be easily influenced by France and counted upon to favour French interests in what promised to be one of the largest oil producing regions of the world.
This, coupled with reforms to grant increased rights and status for Arab populations within the newly annexed territories of the Sudan and Libya, also effectively allowed the French to redraw the borders of what was considered the Arab world in order to make sure that the territories within the French Empire would now be seen by most Arabs as ‘African’, thus removing the threat of Arab nationalists to French rule in those regions.
Despite the high hopes in Bordeaux for this radical, non-imperialist approach to the future of the Middle East, French soldiers were put on high alert for months following the declaration of Arabic independence with drastic preparations made to handle the expected civil unrest - including the purchase of ten thousand coffins. In reality, however, the transition passed mostly peacefully.
Just two days later Persia surrendered and had a friendly government imposed upon it - unlike with the Arabs, Napoleon IV had no intention of making the Persian nation a near-equal.
Following a transitional period of three months, the French military presence in the Middle East was gradually reduced to a presence aimed mainly at showing the flag and at training the nascent Pan-Arabic Army - an organisation which was bolstered by the retention of many former Egyptian and Arabian officers and soldiers.
The exception to this withdrawal of French presence, however, was the use of French troops to mount rapid invasions of Oman and Yemen which succeeded, within days, of annexing them into the Pan-Arabic Federation.
After centuries of occupation by various empires, most Arabs were now united in one nation.
What followed for the Arab Federation was a period of unprecedented peace, stability and economic growth as French administrators helped the new government establish basic universal health and education systems and economic aid programmes to effectively buy Arab loyalty to the new government by improving the standard of living.
Despite this however, France continued to profit handsomely from the new status-quo in the Middle East with the propaganda coup of Jerusalem being made a semi-independent Free City open to all religions (the closest the French felt able to come to matching the Papal request of placing the city under the rule of the Catholic Church without causing another Arab Revolt) and a steady flow of oil and other resources to the empire at prices well below the market price.
Additionally, a heavy emphasis was placed on French as a second language in urban areas within the Arabic Federation and it became common for many wealthy Arabs to send their children to French universities - ensuring that the next generation of Arab rulers would be well-disposed to France.
Finally, in the Sudan and in Libya, the French adopted a system very similar to that used by the Roman Empire. Local strongmen and clan leaders and their immediate families were made French citizens, with their children entitled to generous scholarships to study in France, in order to bind existing sources of authority to the empire while, for the majority of the inhabitants of the empire’s new prizes, life would continue much the same as it had before aside from an occasional French military presence and the adoption of French as the language of regional administration.
All in all, the actions of the Third Empire in this chapter in its history would ultimately prove highly successful and profitable, gaining France new land, resources and manpower for a relatively small cost in lives and treasure. More importantly, the large population of the Pan-Arabic Federation and the French influence within it would greatly strengthen the French hand in the upcoming internal struggles within the Catholic League - an organisation which would not hold that name for very much longer.
By the summer of 1942 the French army had pushed deep into Persia and had successfully split the country in two.
However, by this point the French Empire was also administering almost the entirety of the Arab world and had definitely started to feel the strain.
The tens of millions of Arabs who had found themselves forcibly placed under the empire’s administration had initially been relatively peaceful about the situation - due in part due to the French policy of not interfering with conquered Arab territory other than to disarm the local garrisons and to halt the collection of taxes (the confiscated national treasuries of Egypt and Arabia were more than enough to cover the costs of the military operations).
However, such a situation was by its very nature temporary and after nine months of occupation the population of Egypt was growing restless.
With no desire in Bordeaux to witness or to have to deal with the consequences of a Third Great Arab Revolt, plans made well in advance of the war were finally put into place. At the very heart of the solution to the “Arab question” was the simple desire to gain access to the vast resources of the Middle East (particularly the recently discovered oil) without having to face the same difficulties of keeping down a hostile population which had proved fatal to the Ottoman Empire.
Therefore, on the 10th of July 1942 Emperor Napoleon IV signed in Cairo a treaty declaring the independence of the Pan-Arabic Federation encompassing the former states of Egypt, Arabia and the Arab majority areas of Persia.
The initial government imposed on what is commonly referred to as the Arab Federation was a Shura, or council, of a hundred Arab nationalist intellectuals and those who the French defined as ‘moderate’ imams, who were to be the legislative body of the Federation and who would appoint ministers to run constitutionally defined ministries and departments to administer the day to day affairs of the nation. Members of the Shura were members for life and, in the event of a vacancy, new members of the Shura could only be appointed by the remaining members of the Shura.
This highly undemocratic system (which would not be altered until the ‘Arab Summer’ of the mid 1990s) was deliberately chosen by the French as a system of government which combined Islamic and Arabic cultural tradition with a system where there could not be any risk of anti-French popular sentiment harming French interests and where the lack of a single head of state would prevent any risk of a national figurehead turning the Arab Federation away from the interests of France.
This system, imposed at gunpoint, proved relatively popular amongst the Arab population as it was presented as a government of respected, wise, leaders in a traditional Islamic fashion (as opposed to an attempt to westernise the Middle East) and as returning self-rule to the Arabs and finally achieving the Arab nationalist goal of a single Arab nation.
From France’s point of view, this was a master stroke designed to ensure that instead of being seen as another imperialist power, France would be seen as friends to the Arabs, and to create a powerful ally which could be easily influenced by France and counted upon to favour French interests in what promised to be one of the largest oil producing regions of the world.
This, coupled with reforms to grant increased rights and status for Arab populations within the newly annexed territories of the Sudan and Libya, also effectively allowed the French to redraw the borders of what was considered the Arab world in order to make sure that the territories within the French Empire would now be seen by most Arabs as ‘African’, thus removing the threat of Arab nationalists to French rule in those regions.
Despite the high hopes in Bordeaux for this radical, non-imperialist approach to the future of the Middle East, French soldiers were put on high alert for months following the declaration of Arabic independence with drastic preparations made to handle the expected civil unrest - including the purchase of ten thousand coffins. In reality, however, the transition passed mostly peacefully.
Just two days later Persia surrendered and had a friendly government imposed upon it - unlike with the Arabs, Napoleon IV had no intention of making the Persian nation a near-equal.
Following a transitional period of three months, the French military presence in the Middle East was gradually reduced to a presence aimed mainly at showing the flag and at training the nascent Pan-Arabic Army - an organisation which was bolstered by the retention of many former Egyptian and Arabian officers and soldiers.
The exception to this withdrawal of French presence, however, was the use of French troops to mount rapid invasions of Oman and Yemen which succeeded, within days, of annexing them into the Pan-Arabic Federation.
After centuries of occupation by various empires, most Arabs were now united in one nation.
What followed for the Arab Federation was a period of unprecedented peace, stability and economic growth as French administrators helped the new government establish basic universal health and education systems and economic aid programmes to effectively buy Arab loyalty to the new government by improving the standard of living.
Despite this however, France continued to profit handsomely from the new status-quo in the Middle East with the propaganda coup of Jerusalem being made a semi-independent Free City open to all religions (the closest the French felt able to come to matching the Papal request of placing the city under the rule of the Catholic Church without causing another Arab Revolt) and a steady flow of oil and other resources to the empire at prices well below the market price.
Additionally, a heavy emphasis was placed on French as a second language in urban areas within the Arabic Federation and it became common for many wealthy Arabs to send their children to French universities - ensuring that the next generation of Arab rulers would be well-disposed to France.
Finally, in the Sudan and in Libya, the French adopted a system very similar to that used by the Roman Empire. Local strongmen and clan leaders and their immediate families were made French citizens, with their children entitled to generous scholarships to study in France, in order to bind existing sources of authority to the empire while, for the majority of the inhabitants of the empire’s new prizes, life would continue much the same as it had before aside from an occasional French military presence and the adoption of French as the language of regional administration.
All in all, the actions of the Third Empire in this chapter in its history would ultimately prove highly successful and profitable, gaining France new land, resources and manpower for a relatively small cost in lives and treasure. More importantly, the large population of the Pan-Arabic Federation and the French influence within it would greatly strengthen the French hand in the upcoming internal struggles within the Catholic League - an organisation which would not hold that name for very much longer.
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Wow. Just wow. An amazing update as always. I look forward to the future... especially of the soon no-longer to be Catholic League.
Hooray for Pro-French Arab Federation! I hope that their armies and resources will be strong enough to help you defeat Germany.
Good update. I look forward to seeing what will happen with regards to the political arrangement of the Catholic League.
Good update. I look forward to seeing what will happen with regards to the political arrangement of the Catholic League.
Very nice update! One little nit-pick, though. "Imam" should be lower-case when referring to the prayer leaders at mosques, as Imam with a capital I refers to the eleven Shi'a saints believed to be the rightful claimants of the caliphate.
Except for Aden, Syria and North Iraq... and is Sudan going to stay a French colony?
Also that Ukraine frightens me.
Whoops, my bad. I'll fix it now.
I'm working on it as fast as I can!
And yes, Sudan is going to remain a French colony - part of France's attempt to redraw the boundaries of the Arab world to make sure that there aren't more arab independence movements within the empire.And yeah, that Ukraine frightens me as well :S
A worldmap would be nice at this point.
Also, is the Ottoman Empire allied to anyone right now?
Also, is the Ottoman Empire allied to anyone right now?
A world map will be provided soon then
And no, as it happens, the Ottomans aren't allied to anyone any more - I'm surprised that someone hasn't taken advantage of that fact yet 
Oh Dear, it seems that you are correct. The update seems to have partially vanished.More like half of the update went missing.
Woah, I don't know what's happened here but yeah, half the update is missing :s Fortunately I've got a back up though so I'll try and fix it on my lunch break.
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