Do Middle Eastern countries exist today because they "happen" to have oil?

Question

Is oil the only thing that keeps them afloat in this world? Why are there no Islamic majority superpower nations?

My guess is if they didn't have oil, we wouldn't have trouble.

Way to go Ryan.

Answer 1

From an economic perspective, the Middle East would be as poor if not poorer than Sub-Sahara Africa if it did not have oil.

This is why a good strategy for defeating Islamic terrorism involves finding new sources of energy that can replace oil. If you eliminate global oil dependency or significantly lessen it, the Middle East would become a lot poorer.

Answer 2

And it was developed countries like the USA and others like UK, France, Germany that got the oil out of the ground for them.
So I guess we made them the money and now we have the situation to deal with.

Answer 3

They exist, in part, because the British decided it was a good idea to actually make them countries after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Answer 4

They exist because they live there. They don't see superpower the same as us, theirs is a nation of religion where Islam dominates. Their supper power is Allah.

Answer 5

No. not all middle eastern nations are big on oil.

Answer 6

this is sort of a stupid question, they are in the middle of a desert

of course they would not exist in the same fashion if there weren't oil there

that is obvious

Answer 7

probably, without oil just a third world backwater controlled by ottoman turks

Answer 8

pretty much..yeah..I mean,look at it this way....before oil,would you have ever heard of Qatar?..or Kuwait?..not in American schools anyway

Answer 9

Gee, I think you need to read up on the history of that region.

Answer 10

No.