For me, the fall of the Ottoman Empire spelled the end of the Old World, and the advent of modernism. The territories of the "sick man in Europe" included: Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Jordan; North Africa and the Balkans. Most famously, the millet system the Ottoman's employed, saw modern day Israel under the control of another nation. THE SET-UP The end of World War I saw "The Eternal State" partitioned by the British Empire, and beyond the financial advisory of Arthur Millspaugh, America was largely absent from the Middle Eastern theatre. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration was publicly issued by the British government. [For more on this, read my article, "The Creation of the State of Israel"]. In 1921, Iran saw the coup of Reza Khan successful and the old Qajar Dynasty ousted. Both these events, The Balfour Declaration and the coup of Reza Khan, had British-influence permeating it's history. I thought of the Bible's Cyrus and God influencing...