In the past, Britain would certainly have spared no cost to keep the Middle East firmly in its own grasp. But since the 20th century, after the rise of a great power in the south, Britain had found its control over the Middle East increasingly beyond its strength.
Now, the Middle East had become a hunting ground for East Africa, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Britain, which still held interests in the Middle Eastern region, had become the "prey."
At the very beginning, Britain's competitor in this region had been almost exclusively Tsarist Russia. The Middle East had been one of Britain's strategic directions for containing Tsarist Russia.
At the end of the 19th century, German unification and the emergence of East Africa began to threaten Britain's interests in the region. Germany mainly did so by cozying up to the Ottoman Empire, while East Africa itself was a major power along the Indian Ocean, and the Indian Ocean would inevitably become the direction of East Africa's expansion after its rise.
The Ottoman Empire was the foremost power in the Middle East, and in the eyes of the great powers of the 19th century, it was the fattest piece of pork in the Middle Eastern region.
At that time, the Ottoman Empire had practically been a "plaything" of Britain and France. From the late 18th century to the Early 19th century, with the support of Britain and France, Egypt's Ali regime had at one point nearly defeated the Ottoman Empire and become the new regional hegemon.
Yet in the end, the Ottoman Empire had been able to stabilize the situation only by making concessions to those two countries.
Looking over nearly the entire century of the 19th century, it had been nothing less than a history of humiliation for the Ottoman