Near_East

context: Near East (French: Proche-Orient) is a geographical term that roughly encompasses Western Asia. Despite having varying definitions within different academic circles, the term was originally applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire. The term has fallen into disuse in English, and has been replaced by the term Middle East.
qas: answers: text: Near East (French: Proche-Orient)
question: What is a geographical term that roughly encompasses Western Asia?

answers: text: Ottoman Empire
question: The term near east was originally applies to the maximum extent of what empire?

answers: text: English
question: The term Near East has fallen into disuses in what language?

answers: text: Middle East
question: What has replaced the term Near East?

context: The Encyclopædia Britannica defines the Near East as including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the West Bank, and Yemen. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines the region similarly, but also includes Afghanistan while excluding the countries of North Africa and the Palestinian territories. According to the National Geographic Society, the terms Near East and Middle East denote the same territories and are 'generally accepted as comprising the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Syria, and Turkey'.
qas: answers: text: The Encyclopædia Britannica
question: Who defines the Near East as including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt. Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Isreal, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the West Bank, and Yemen?

answers: text: Afghanistan
question: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also includes what Country in the definition of Near East?

answers: text: the National Geographic Society
question: What group believes the terms Near East and Middle East denote the same territories?

context: At the beginning of the 19th century the Ottoman Empire included all of the Balkan Peninsula north to the southern edge of the Hungarian Plain, but by 1914 had lost all of it except Constantinople and Eastern Thrace to the rise of Balkan nationalism, which saw the independence of Greece, Serbia, the Danubian Principalities and Bulgaria. Up until 1912 the Ottomans retained a band of territory including Albania, Macedonia and Thrace, which were lost in the two Balkan Wars of 1912–13.
qas: answers: text: the Ottoman Empire
question: What empire included all of the Balkan Peninsula north to the southern edge of the Hungarian Plain at the beginning of the 19th century?

answers: text: 1914
question: When did the Ottoman Empire lose all of it's empire except Constantinople and Eastern Thrace?

answers: text: the rise of Balkan nationalism
question: The rise of what saw the independence of Greece, Serbia, the Danubian Principalities and Bulgaria?

answers: text: 1912
question: Until what year did the Ottomans retain a band of territory including Albania, Macedonia and Thrace?

answers: text: the two Balkan Wars of 1912–13
question: When did the Ottomans lose the territory of Albania, Macedonia and Thrace?

context: The Ottoman Empire, believed to be about to collapse, was portrayed in the press as the sick man of Europe". The Balkan states, with the partial exception of Bosnia and Albania, were primarily Christian. Starting in 1894 the Ottomans struck at the Armenians on the explicit grounds that they were a non-Muslim people and as such were a potential threat to the Muslim empire within which they resided. The Hamidian Massacres aroused the indignation of the entire Christian world. In the United States the now aging Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, leaped into the war of words and joined the Red Cross. Relations of minorities within the Ottoman Empire and the disposition of former Ottoman lands became known as the "Eastern Question," as the Ottomans were on the east of Europe.
qas: answers: text: as the sick man of Europe
question: How was the Ottoman Empire portrayed in the press?

answers: text: Christian
question: The Balkan states were primarily what religion? 

answers: text: 1894
question: When did the Ottomans strike at the Armenians?

answers: text: the explicit grounds that they were a non-Muslim people
question: What are the grounds on which the Ottomans struck at the Armenians?

answers: text: The Hamidian Massacres
question: What aroused the indignation of the entire Christian world?

context: It now became relevant to define the east of the eastern question. In about the middle of the 19th century "Near East" came into use to describe that part of the east closest to Europe. The term "Far East" appeared contemporaneously meaning Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia and Viet Nam; in short, the East Indies. "Near East" applied to what had been mainly known as the Levant, which was in the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Porte, or government. Those who used the term had little choice about its meaning. They could not set foot on most of the shores of the southern and central Mediterranean from the Gulf of Sidra to Albania without permits from the Ottoman Empire.
qas: answers: text: middle of the 19th century
question: When did "Near East" come into use to describe the part of the east closest to Europe?

answers: text: the East Indies
question: In short, the term Far East appeared to name this area

answers: text: the Levant
question: "Near East" applied to this mainly known area

answers: text: the Ottoman Porte
question: What was the jurisdiction of the Levant in? 

answers: text: permits from the Ottoman Empire
question: What was needed to set foot on most of the shores of the southern and central Mediterranean? 

context: Some regions beyond the Ottoman Porte were included. One was North Africa west of Egypt. It was occupied by piratical kingdoms of the Barbary Coast, de facto independent since the 18th century. Formerly part of the empire at its apogee. Iran was included because it could not easily be reached except through the Ottoman Empire or neighboring Russia. In the 1890s the term tended to focus on the conflicts in the Balkan states and Armenia. The demise of the sick man of Europe left considerable confusion as to what was to be meant by "Near East". It is now generally used only in historical contexts, to describe the countries of Western Asia from the Mediterranean to (or including) Iran. There is, in short, no universally understood fixed inventory of nations, languages or historical assets defined to be in it.
qas: answers: text: North Africa west of Egypt
question: What was one region included that was occupied by piratical kingdoms?

answers: text: Barbary Coast
question: Where were the piratical kingdoms from? 

answers: text: because it could not easily be reached except through the Ottoman Empire or neighboring Russia
question: Why was Iran included in the collection of regions? 

answers: text: the conflicts in the Balkan states and Armenia
question: What did the term Near East focus on in the 1890s?

answers: text: of the sick man of Europe
question: The demise of what left considerable confusion as to what was to be meant by "Near East" 

context: The geographical terms "Near East" and "Far East" referring to areas of the globe in or contiguous to the former British Empire and the neighboring colonies of the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Germans, fit together as a pair based on the opposites of far and near, suggesting that they were innovated together. They appear together in the journals of the mid-19th century. Both terms were used before then with local British and American meanings: the near or far east of a field, village or shire.
qas: answers: text: the opposites of far and near
question: The terms "Near East" and "Far East" referring to areas of the globe in or contiguous to the former British Empire and the neighboring colonies fit together as a pair based on what? 

answers: text: the mid-19th century
question: When do the terms "Near East" and "Far East" appear together in journals? 

answers: text: the near or far east of a field, village or shire.
question: The term Near East and Far East were used in British and American meanings when referring to what? 

context: There was a linguistic predisposition to use such terms. The Romans had used them in near Gaul / far Gaul, near Spain / far Spain and others. Before them the Greeks had the habit, which appears in Linear B, the oldest known script of Europe, referring to the near province and the far province of the kingdom of Pylos. Usually these terms were given with reference to a geographic feature, such as a mountain range or a river.
qas: answers: text: The Romans
question: Who used the terms near Gaul?

answers: text: the Greeks
question: The appearance of what culture using the terms appears in Linear B?

answers: text: a geographic feature
question: Usually the terms were given when referencing what?  

context: Ptolemy's Geography divided Asia on a similar basis. In the north is "Scythia this side of the Himalayas" and "Scythia beyond the Himalayas." To the south is "India on this side of the Ganges" and "India beyond the Ganges." Asia began on the coast of Anatolia ("land of the rising sun"). Beyond the Ganges and Himalayas (including the Tien Shan) were Serica and Serae (sections of China) and some other identifiable far eastern locations known to the voyagers and geographers but not to the general European public.
qas: answers: text: Ptolemy's Geography
question: What divided Asia on a similar basis? 

answers: text: In the north
question: "Scythia this side of the Himalayas" is located where? 

answers: text: To the south
question: "India on this side of the Ganges" is located where? 

answers: text: In the north
question: "Scythia beyond the Himalayas" is located where? 

answers: text: on the coast of Anatolia
question: Where did Asia begin? 

context: By the time of John Seller's Atlas Maritima of 1670, "India Beyond the Ganges" had become "the East Indies" including China, Korea, southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific in a map that was every bit as distorted as Ptolemy's, despite the lapse of approximately 1500 years. That "east" in turn was only an English translation of Latin Oriens and Orientalis, "the land of the rising sun," used since Roman times for "east." The world map of Jodocus Hondius of 1590 labels all of Asia from the Caspian to the Pacific as India Orientalis, shortly to appear in translation as the East Indies.
qas: answers: text: 1670
question: When was John Seller's Atlas Maritima?

answers: text: the East Indies
question: What had "India Beyond the Ganges" become? 

answers: text: "the East Indies"
question: China, Korea, southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific were included in what? 

answers: text: "east"
question: What was only an English translation of Latin Oriens and Orientalis, "the land of the rising sun"?

answers: text: 1590
question: What year did Jodocus Hondius make his world map? 

context: Elizabeth I of England, primarily interested in trade with the east, collaborated with English merchants to form the first trading companies to the far-flung regions, using their own jargon. Their goals were to obtain trading concessions by treaty. The queen chartered the Company of Merchants of the Levant, shortened to Levant Company, and soon known also as The Turkey Company, in 1581. In 1582, the ship The Great Susan transported the first ambassador, William Harebone, to the Ottoman Porte (government of the Ottoman Empire) at Constantinople. Compared to Anatolia, Levant also means "land of the rising sun," but where Anatolia always only meant the projection of land currently occupied by the Republic of Turkey, Levant meant anywhere in the domain ruled by the Ottoman Porte. The East India Company (short for a much longer formal name) was chartered in 1600 for trade to the East Indies.
qas: answers: text: England
question: Where was Elizabeth I from?

answers: text: trade with the east
question: What was Elizabeth primarily interested in? 

answers: text: English merchants
question: Who did Elizabeth I collaborate with?

answers: text: obtain trading concessions by treaty
question: What was the goal of the first trading companies?

answers: text: The East India Company
question: What company was charted in 1600 for trade to the East Indies?

context: It has pleased western historians to write of a decline of the Ottoman Empire as though a stable and uncontested polity of that name once existed. The borders did expand and contract but they were always dynamic and always in "question" right from the beginning. The Ottoman Empire was created from the lands of the former eastern Roman Empire on the occasion of the latter's violent demise. The last Roman emperor died fighting hand-to-hand in the streets of his capital, Constantinople, overwhelmed by the Ottoman military, in May, 1453. The victors inherited his remaining territory in the Balkans.
qas: answers: text: to write of a decline of the Ottoman Empire
question: What has pleased western historians?

answers: text: The borders
question: What was always in question from the beginning of the Ottoman Empire? 

answers: text: the lands of the former eastern Roman Empire
question: What was the Ottoman Empire created from?

answers: text: fighting hand-to-hand in the streets
question: How did the last Roman emperor die?

answers: text: Constantinople
question: Where was the Roman emperor's capital?

context: The populations of those lands did not accept Turkish rule. The Turks to them were foreigners with completely different customs, way of life, and language. Intervals when there was no unrest were rare. The Hungarians had thrown off Turkish rule by 1688. Serbia was created by the Serbian Revolution, 1815–1833. The Greek War of Independence, 1821–1832, created modern Greece, which recovered most of the lands of ancient Greece, but could not gain Constantinople. The Ottoman Porte was continuously under attack from some quarter in its empire, primarily the Balkans. Also, on a number of occasions in the early 19th century, American and British warships had to attack the Barbary pirates to stop their piracy and recover thousands of enslaved Europeans and Americans.
qas: answers: text: Turkish rule
question: The populations did not accept what?

answers: text: 1688
question: The Hungarians had thrown off Turkish rule by what year? 

answers: text: the Serbian Revolution
question: What created Serbia?

answers: text: 1815–1833
question: When was the Serbian Revolution?

answers: text: 1821–1832
question: When was the Greek War of Independence?

context: In 1853 the Russian Empire on behalf of the Slavic Balkan states began to question the very existence of the Ottoman Empire. The result was the Crimean War, 1853–1856, in which the British Empire and the French Empire supported the Ottoman Empire in its struggle against the incursions of the Russian Empire. Eventually, the Ottoman Empire lost control of the Balkan region.
qas: answers: text: 1853
question: When did the Russian Empire begin to question the existence of the Ottoman Empire?

answers: text: 1853–1856
question: When was the Crimean War?

answers: text: the Ottoman Empire
question: During the Crimean War who did the British and French support?

answers: text: the incursions of the Russian Empire
question: What was the Ottoman Empire's struggle against in the Crimean War?

answers: text: the Balkan region
question: The Ottoman Empire eventually lost control of what region?

context: Until about 1855 the words near east and far east did not refer to any particular region. The far East, a phrase containing a noun, East, qualified by an adjective, far, could be at any location in the "far east" of the speaker's home territory. The Ottoman Empire, for example, was the far East as much as the East Indies. The Crimean War brought a change in vocabulary with the introduction of terms more familiar to the late 19th century. The Russian Empire had entered a more aggressive phase, becoming militarily active against the Ottoman Empire and also against China, with territorial aggrandizement explicitly in mind. Rethinking its policy the British government decided that the two polities under attack were necessary for the balance of power. It therefore undertook to oppose the Russians in both places, one result being the Crimean War. During that war the administration of the British Empire began promulgating a new vocabulary, giving specific regional meaning to "the Near East," the Ottoman Empire, and "the Far East," the East Indies. The two terms were now compound nouns often shown hyphenated.
qas: answers: text: 1855
question: Until what year did the words near east and far east not refer to any particular region? 

answers: text: The Crimean War
question: What brought a change in vocabulary?

answers: text: the Ottoman Empire
question: The Russian Empire became more militarily active against who?

answers: text: the British government
question: Who decided the two polities under attack were necessary for the balance of power? 

answers: text: the British Empire
question: What empire began promulgating a new vocabulary?

context: In 1855 a reprint of a letter earlier sent to The Times appeared in Littel's Living Age. Its author, an "official Chinese interpreter of 10 years' active service" and a member of the Oriental Club, Thomas Taylor Meadows, was replying to the suggestion by another interpreter that the British Empire was wasting its resources on a false threat from Russia against China. Toward the end of the letter he said:
qas: answers: text: 1855
question: When was a reprint of a letter sent to The Times appear in Littel's Living Age?

answers: text: Thomas Taylor Meadows
question: Who was the author of the letter sent to the Times?

answers: text: the suggestion by another interpreter
question: What was Thomas Taylor Meadows replying to?

context: Much of the colonial administration belonged to this club, which had been formed by the Duke of Wellington. Meadows' terminology must represent usage by that administration. If not the first use of the terms, the letter to the Times was certainly one of the earliest presentations of this vocabulary to the general public. They became immediately popular, supplanting "Levant" and "East Indies," which gradually receded to minor usages and then began to change meaning.
qas: answers: text: the letter to the Times
question: What was one of the earliest presentations of this vocabulary?

answers: text: Meadows' terminology
question: What was said must represent usage by that administration?

answers: text: Duke of Wellington
question: Who had formed the club that contained much of the colonial administration?

context: "Near East" remained popular in diplomatic, trade and journalistic circles, but a variation soon developed among the scholars and the men of the cloth and their associates: "the Nearer East," reverting to the classical and then more scholarly distinction of "nearer" and "farther." They undoubtedly saw a need to separate the Biblical lands from the terrain of the Ottoman Empire. The Christians saw the country as the land of the Old and New Testaments, where Christianity had developed. The scholars in the field of studies that eventually became Biblical archaeology attempted to define it on the basis of archaeology.
qas: answers: text: "Near East"
question: What remained popular in diplomatic, trade and journalistic circles?

answers: text: "the Nearer East,"
question: What variation soon developed among the scholars and the men of the cloth and their associates?

answers: text: the Biblical lands
question: There was a need to separate what from the terrain of the Ottoman Empire?

answers: text: the land of the Old and New Testaments
question: What did the Christians see the country as?

answers: text: on the basis of archaeology
question: How did the scholars attempt their definition? 

context: For example, The London Review of 1861 (Telford and Barber, unsigned) in reviewing several works by Rawlinson, Layard and others, defined themselves as making:
qas: answers: text: 1861
question: When was the London Review?

answers: text: The London Review of 1861
question: Rawlinson, Layard and others were reviewed in what?

answers: text: (Telford and Barber
question: Who wrote The London Review of 1861?

context: The regions in their inventory were Assyria, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Ethiopia, Caucasus, Libya, Anatolia and Abyssinia. Explicitly excluded is India. No mention is made of the Balkans.
qas: answers: text: India
question: What region was explicitly excluded?

answers: text: the Balkans
question: What region has no mention?

answers: text: regions in their inventory
question: Assyria, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Ethiopia, Caucasus, Libya, Anatolia, and Abyssinia were all what?

context: Hogarth then proceeds to say where and why in some detail, but no more mention is made of the classics. His analysis is geopolitical. His map delineates the Nearer East with regular lines as though surveyed. They include Iran, the Balkans, but not the Danube lands, Egypt, but not the rest of North Africa. Except for the Balkans, the region matches the later Middle East. It differs from the Ottoman Empire of the times in including Greece and Iran. Hogarth gives no evidence of being familiar with the contemporaneous initial concept of the Middle East.
qas: answers: text: where and why
question: What does Hogarth say in detail?

answers: text: the classics
question: Hogarth makes no mention of what?

answers: text: geopolitical
question: How is Hogarth's analysis?

context: In the last years of the 19th century the term "Near East" acquired considerable disrepute in eyes of the English-speaking public as did the Ottoman Empire itself. The cause of the onus was the Hamidian Massacres of Armenians because they were Christians, but it seemed to spill over into the protracted conflicts of the Balkans. For a time, "Near East" meant primarily the Balkans. Robert Hichens' book The Near East (1913) is subtitled Dalmatia, Greece and Constantinople.
qas: answers: text: the 19th century
question: When did the term "Near East" acquire considerable disrepute?

answers: text: English-speaking public
question: The term "Near East" acquired considerable disrepute in whose eyes?

answers: text: the Hamidian Massacres of Armenians
question: What was the cause of the onus?

answers: text: they were Christians
question: What was the cause of the Hamidian Massacres of Armenians?

answers: text: 1913)
question: When was Robert Hickens' book wrote?

context: The change is evident in the reports of influential British travellers to the Balkans. In 1894, Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet, a journalist, travelled to the Far East, afterwards writing a book called The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, which came out in 1895. By "Far East" he meant Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam and Malaya. As the book was a big success, he was off to the Balkan states with his wife in 1896 to develop detail for a sequel, The People and Politics of the Near East, which Scribners planned to publish in 1897. Mrs. Norman, a writer herself, wrote glowing letters of the home and person of Mme. Zakki, "the wife of a Turkish cabinet minister," who, she said, was a cultivated woman living in a country home full of books. As for the natives of the Balkans, they were "a semi-civilized people."
qas: answers: text: influential British travellers
question: Reports from who made the change evident?

answers: text: the Far East
question: Where did Sir Henry Norman travel in 1894

answers: text: The Peoples and Politics of the Far East
question: What book did Sir Henry Norman write after traveling to the Far East?

answers: text: 1895
question: What year did Sir Henry Norman's book come out? 

context: The book was never published. Instead the Normans whirled off to New York. Norman published the gist of his planned travel book curiously mixed with vituperation against the Ottoman Empire in an article in June, 1896, in Scribner's Magazine. The empire had descended from an enlightened civilization ruling over barbarians for their own good to something considerably less. The difference was the Hamidian Massacres, which were being conducted even as the couple traveled the Balkans. According to Norman now, the empire had been established by "the Moslem horde" from Asia, which was stopped by "intrepid Hungary." Furthermore, "Greece shook off the turbaned destroyer of her people" and so on. The Russians were suddenly liberators of oppressed Balkan states. Having portrayed the Armenians as revolutionaries in the name of freedom with the expectation of being rescued by the intervention of Christian Europe, he states "but her hope was vain." England had "turned her back." Norman concluded his exhortation with "In the Balkans one learns to hate the Turk." Norman made sure that Gladstone read the article. Prince Nicolas of Montenegro wrote a letter thanking him for his article.
qas: answers: text: New York
question: Where did the Normans go off to instead of publishing the book?

answers: text: June, 1896
question: When did Norman publish parts of his planned travel book?

answers: text: Scribner's Magazine
question: What magazine did Norman publish his work in?

answers: text: The Russians
question: Who were liberators of oppressed Balkan states?

answers: text: England
question: Who did Norman say "turned her back"?

context: Throughout this article Norman uses "Near East" to mean the countries where "the eastern question" applied; that is, to all of the Balkans. The countries and regions mentioned are Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina (which was Moslem and needed, in his view, to be suppressed), Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Romania. The rest of the Ottoman domain is demoted to just "the east."
qas: answers: text: the countries where "the eastern question" applied
question: What does Norman mean in the article when saying "Near East"?

answers: text: just "the east."
question: What is the rest of the Ottoman domain demoted to?

answers: text: The rest of the Ottoman domain
question: "The East" refers to what?

context: If Norman was apparently attempting to change British policy, it was perhaps William Miller (1864–1945), journalist and expert on the Near East, who did the most in that direction. In essence, he signed the death warrant, so to speak, of the Age of Empires. The fall of the Ottoman Empire ultimately enmeshed all the others as well. In the Travel and Politics in the Near East, 1898, Miller claimed to have made four trips to the Balkans, 1894, 1896, 1897 and 1898, and to be, in essence, an expert on "the Near East," by which he primarily meant the Balkans. Apart from the fact that he attended Oxford and played Rugby not many biographical details have been promulgated. He was in effect (whatever his formal associations if any) a point man of British near eastern intelligence.
qas: answers: text: 1864–1945
question: What was William Miller's life span?

answers: text: the Near East
question: What was William Miller an expert on?

answers: text: signed the death warrant, so to speak, of the Age of Empires
question: So to speak, what did William Miller do?

answers: text: Oxford
question: Where did Miller attend school?

context: These were fighting words to be coming from a country that once insisted Europe needed Turkey and was willing to spill blood over it. For his authority Miller invokes the people, citing the "collective wisdom" of Europe, and introducing a concept to arise many times in the decades to follow under chilling circumstances:
qas: answers: text: fighting words
question: Miller's words were considered what?

answers: text: Turkey
question: It was considered Europe needed what country?

answers: text: the "collective wisdom" of Europe
question: What was Miller citing?

context: If the British Empire was now going to side with the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire had no choice but to cultivate a relationship with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was supported by the German Empire. In a few years these alignments became the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance (already formed in 1882), which were in part a cause of World War I. By its end in 1918 three empires were gone, a fourth was about to fall to revolution, and two more, the British and French, were forced to yield in revolutions started under the aegis of their own ideologies.
qas: answers: text: Austro-Hungarian Empire
question: The Ottoman Empire had no choice but to develop their relationship with what country?

answers: text: the German Empire
question: Who supported the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

answers: text: the Russian Empire
question: Who did the British Empire side with?

answers: text: World War I
question: The formation of the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance partly caused what?

answers: text: 1918
question: By what year were three empires gone? 

context: By 1916, when millions of Europeans were becoming casualties of imperial war in the trenches of eastern and western Europe over "the eastern question," Arnold J. Toynbee, Hegelesque historian of civilization at large, was becoming metaphysical about the Near East. Geography alone was not a sufficient explanation of the terms, he believed. If the Ottoman Empire had been a sick man, then:
qas: answers: text: 1916
question: What year was Arnold J toynbee becoming metaphysical about the Near East?

answers: text: Arnold J. Toynbee
question: Who was the Hegelesque historian of civilization?

answers: text: Geography alone was not a sufficient explanation of the terms
question: Arnold J Toynbee believed what?

context: From the death of the Near East new nations were able to rise from the ashes, notably the Republic of Turkey. Paradoxically it now aligned itself with the west rather than with the east. Mustafa Kemal, its founder, a former Ottoman high-ranking officer, was insistent on this social revolution, which, among other changes, liberated women from the strait rules still in effect in most Arabic-speaking countries. The demise of the political Near East now left a gap where it had been, into which stepped the Middle East.
qas: answers: text: new nations
question: What was able to rise from the death of the Near East?

answers: text: the Republic of Turkey
question: What notable nation was able to rise from the ashes of the Near East?

answers: text: with the west
question: How did the Republic of Turkey align themselves?

answers: text: Mustafa Kemal
question: Who was the founder of the Republic of Turkey?

answers: text: Mustafa Kemal
question: Who was a former Ottoman high-ranking officer?

context: The term middle east as a noun and adjective was common in the 19th century in nearly every context except diplomacy and archaeology. An uncountable number of places appear to have had their middle easts from gardens to regions, including the United States. The innovation of the term "Near East" to mean the holdings of the Ottoman Empire as early as the Crimean War had left a geographical gap. The East Indies, or "Far East," derived ultimately from Ptolemy's "India Beyond the Ganges." The Ottoman Empire ended at the eastern border of Iraq. "India This Side of the Ganges" and Iran had been omitted. The archaeologists counted Iran as "the Near East" because Old Persian cuneiform had been found there. This usage did not sit well with the diplomats; India was left in an equivocal state. They needed a regional term.
qas: answers: text: the 19th century
question: When was the term middle east common as a noun and adjective?

answers: text: archaeology
question: The middle east was not common in diplomacy and what other context?

answers: text: Ptolemy's "India Beyond the Ganges."
question: Where did the "Far East" derive from? 

answers: text: the eastern border of Iraq
question: Where did the Ottoman Empire end?

answers: text: because Old Persian cuneiform had been found there
question: Why did archaeologists count Iran as "The Near East"?

context: The use of the term Middle East as a region of international affairs apparently began in British and American diplomatic circles quite independently of each other over concern for the security of the same country: Iran, then known to the west as Persia. In 1900 Thomas Edward Gordon published an article, The Problem of the Middle East, which began:
qas: answers: text: in British and American diplomatic circles
question: Where did the use of the term Middle East as a region of international affairs begin?

answers: text: Persia
question: What was Iran known as to the west?

answers: text: 1900
question: When did Thomas Edward Gordon publish "The Problem of the Middle East"?

answers: text: The Problem of the Middle East
question: What article did Thomas Edward Gordon publish?

answers: text: Thomas Edward Gordon
question: The problem of the Middle East was published by who?

context: The threat that caused Gordon, diplomat and military officer, to publish the article was resumption of work on a railway from Russia to the Persian Gulf. Gordon, a published author, had not used the term previously, but he was to use it from then on.
qas: answers: text: resumption of work on a railway
question: What threat caused Gordon to publish his article?

answers: text: Gordon
question: Who was a diplomat and military officer?

answers: text: Gordon
question: Who had not used the term middle east previously in publications?

context: A second strategic personality from American diplomatic and military circles, Alfred Thayer Mahan, concerned about the naval vulnerability of the trade routes in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, commented in 1902:
qas: answers: text: Alfred Thayer Mahan
question: Who was a member of American diplomatic and military circles?

answers: text: the naval vulnerability of the trade routes
question: What was Alfred Thayer Mahan concerned about?

answers: text: 1902
question: When did Alfred Thayer Mahan comment on the trade routes?

context: Apparently the sailor did not connect with the soldier, as Mahan believed he was innovating the term Middle East. It was, however, already there to be seen.
qas: answers: text: the sailor
question: Who did not connect with the soldier?

answers: text: the term Middle East
question: What did Mahan believe he was innovating?

answers: text: the term Middle East
question: What had already been there to be seen?

context: Until the period following World War I the Near East and the Middle East coexisted, but they were not always seen as distinct. Bertram Lenox Simpson, a colonial officer killed eventually in China, uses the terms together in his 1910 book, The Conflict of Color, as "the Near and Middle East." The total super-region consisted of "India, Afghanistan, Persia, Arabistan, Asia Minor, and last, but not least, Egypt." Simpson (under his pen-name, Weale) explains that this entire region "is politically one region – in spite of the divisions into which it is academically divided." His own term revives "the Nearer East" as opposed to "the Far East."
qas: answers: text: the period following World War I
question: The Near East and the Middle East coexisted until what period?

answers: text: Bertram Lenox Simpson
question: Who was the colonial officer killed in China?

answers: text: Bertram Lenox Simpson
question: Who wrote the 1910 book 'The Conflict of Color'?

answers: text: Weale
question: What was Simpson's pen-name?

context: The basis of Simpson's unity is color and colonial subjection. His color chart recognizes a spectrum of black, brown and yellow, which at the time had been traditional since the late 19th century. Apart from these was "the great white race", which the moderate Simpson tones down to simply the white race. The great whites were appearing as late as the 1920s works of James Henry Breasted, which were taught as the gospel of ancient history throughout the entire first half of the 20th century. A red wavelength was mainly of interest in America. The eastern question was modified by Simpson to "The Problem of the Nearer East," which had nothing to do with the Ottomans but everything to do with British colonialism. Simpson wrote of the white man:
qas: answers: text: color and colonial subjection
question: What is the basis of Simpson's unity?

answers: text: the 1920s
question: The great whites were appearing as late as what time?

answers: text: James Henry Breasted
question: In whose works were the great whites appearing?

answers: text: A red wavelength
question: What was mainly of interest in America?

context: These regions were occupied by "the brown men," with the yellow in the Far East and the black in Africa. The color issue was not settled until Kenya became independent in 1963, ending the last vestige of the British Empire.
qas: answers: text: the brown men
question: These regions were occupied by who?

answers: text: the Far East
question: Where where the yellow?

answers: text: Africa
question: Where were the black?

answers: text: 1963
question: When did Kenya become independent?

answers: text: Kenya became independent
question: The color issue was not settled until when?

context: This view reveals a somewhat less than altruistic Christian intent of the British Empire; however, it was paradoxical from the beginning, as Simpson and most other writers pointed out. The Ottomans were portrayed as the slavers, but even as the American and British fleets were striking at the Barbary pirates on behalf of freedom, their countries were promulgating a vigorous African slave trade of their own. Charles George Gordon is known as the saint of all British colonial officers. A dedicated Christian, he spent his time between assignments living among the poor and donating his salary on their behalf. He won Ottoman confidence as a junior officer in the Crimean War. In his later career he became a high official in the Ottoman Empire, working as Governor of Egypt for the Ottoman khedive for the purpose of conducting campaigns against slavers and slavery in Egypt and the Sudan.
qas: answers: text: the slavers
question: The Ottomans were portrayed as what?

answers: text: Charles George Gordon
question: Who is known as the saint of all British colonial officers?

answers: text: assignments living among the poor and donating his salary
question: What did Charles George Gordon spend his time between?

answers: text: as a junior officer in the Crimean War
question: When did he win Ottoman confidence?

answers: text: a high official in the Ottoman Empire
question: What did he become in his later career?

context: The term "Near and Middle East," held the stage for a few years before World War I. It proved to be less acceptable to a colonial point of view that saw the entire region as one. In 1916 Captain T.C. Fowle, 40th Pathans (troops of British India), wrote of a trip he had taken from Karachi to Syria just before the war. The book does not contain a single instance of "Near East." Instead, the entire region is considered "the Middle East." The formerly Near Eastern sections of his trip are now "Turkish" and not Ottoman.
qas: answers: text: a few years before World War I
question: When did the term "Near and Middle East" hold stage?

answers: text: The term "Near and Middle East,"
question: What proved to be less acceptable to a colonial point of view?

answers: text: 1916
question: When did Captain T.C. Fowle write of a trip he had taken from Karachi to Syria?

answers: text: (troops of British India
question: Who were the 40th Pathans?

answers: text: "the Middle East.
question: In the book Fowle wrote, what is the entire region considered?

context: Subsequently with the disgrace of "Near East" in diplomatic and military circles, "Middle East" prevailed. However, "Near East" continues in some circles at the discretion of the defining agency or academic department. They are not generally considered distinct regions as they were at their original definition.
qas: answers: text: "Middle East"
question: What prevailed with the disgrace of "Near East"?

answers: text: Near East
question: What continues in some circles at the discretion of the defining agency or academic department?

answers: text: Near East
question: What term was disgraced in diplomatic and military circles?

context: Although racial and colonial definitions of the Middle East are no longer considered ideologically sound, the sentiment of unity persists. For much, but by no means all, of the Middle East, the predominance of Islam lends some unity, as does the transient accident of geographical continuity. Otherwise there is but little basis except for history and convention to lump together peoples of multiple, often unrelated languages, governments, loyalties and customs.
qas: answers: text: sentiment of unity
question: What sentiment persists even though racial and colonial definitions of the Middle East are no longer ideologically sound?

answers: text: racial and colonial definitions
question: What definitions of the Middle East are no longer ideologically sound?

answers: text: no longer considered ideologically sound
question: What are racial and colonial definitions of the Middle East considered?

context: In the 20th century after decades of intense warfare and political turmoil terms such as "Near East", "Far East" and "Middle East" were relegated to the experts, especially in the new field of political science. The new wave of diplomats often came from those programs. Archaeology on the international scene, although very much of intellectual interest to the major universities, fell into the shadow of international relations. Their domain became the Ancient Near East, which could no longer be relied upon to be the Near East. The Ottoman Empire was gone, along with all the other empires of the 19th century, replaced with independent republics. Someone had to reconcile the present with the past. This duty was inherited by various specialized agencies that were formed to handle specific aspects of international relations, now so complex as to be beyond the scope and abilities of a diplomatic corps in the former sense. The ancient Near East is frozen in time. The living Near East is primarily what the agencies say it is. In most cases this single term is inadequate to describe the geographical range of their operations. The result is multiple definitions.
qas: answers: text: the 20th century
question: When were terms such as "Near East", "Far East", and "Middle East" relegated to the experts?

answers: text: the new field of political science
question: Where did the new wave of diplomats often come from?

answers: text: the shadow of international relations
question: Where did archaeology on the international scene fall into?

answers: text: independent republics
question: What replaced the fallen empires of the 19th century?

context: The United States is the chief remaining nation to assign official responsibilities to a region called the Near East. Within the government the State Department has been most influential in promulgating the Near Eastern regional system. The countries of the former empires of the 19th century have in general abandoned the term and the subdivision in favor of Middle East, North Africa and various forms of Asia. In many cases, such as France, no distinct regional substructures have been employed. Each country has its own French diplomatic apparatus, although regional terms, including Proche-Orient and Moyen-Orient, may be used in a descriptive sense. The most influential agencies in the United States still using Near East as a working concept are as follows.
qas: answers: text: The United States
question: What is the chief remaining nation to assign official responsibilities to a region called the Near East?

answers: text: the Near Eastern regional system
question: What has the state department been most influential in promulgating?

answers: text: The countries of the former empires of the 19th century
question: Who has abandoned the term Near East?

context: The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, a division of the United States Department of State, is perhaps the most influential agency to still use the term Near East. Under the Secretary of State, it implements the official diplomacy of the United States, called also statecraft by Secretary Clinton. The name of the bureau is traditional and historic. There is, however, no distinct Middle East. All official Middle Eastern affairs are referred to this bureau.
qas: answers: text: the United States Department of State
question: The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs is a division of what?

answers: text: The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
question: What is perhaps the most influential agency to still use the term Near East?

answers: text: statecraft
question: Secretary Clinton also calls the implementation of official diplomacy of the United States what?

context: Working closely in conjunction with the definition of the Near East provided by the State Department is the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA), an educational institution of the United States Department of Defense. It teaches courses and holds seminars and workshops for government officials and military officers who will work or are working within its region. As the name indicates, that region is a combination of State Department regions; however, NESA is careful to identify the State Department region. As its Near East is not different from the State Department's it does not appear in the table. Its name, however, is not entirely accurate. For example, its region includes Mauritania, a member of the State Department's Africa (Sub-Sahara).
qas: answers: text: the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA)
question: Who works closely with the definition of the Near East?

answers: text: an educational institution of the United States Department of Defense
question: What is NESA?

answers: text: It teaches courses and holds seminars and workshops
question: What does NESA Teach?

context: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) is a non-profit organization for research and advice on Middle Eastern policy. It regards its target countries as the Middle East but adopts the convention of calling them the Near East to be in conformance with the practices of the State Department. Its views are independent. The WINEP bundles the countries of Northwest Africa together under "North Africa." Details can be found in Policy Focus #65.
qas: answers: text: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
question: What is WINEP?

answers: text: the Middle East
question: What is WINEPS target countries as?

answers: text: under "North Africa."
question: How does WINEP bundle the countries of Northwest Africa?

context: The Library of Congress (LoC) is an institution established by Congress to provide a research library for the government of the United States and serve as a national library. It is under the supervision of the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Library and the Librarian of Congress. The Near East is a separate topic and subdivision of the African and Middle Eastern division. The Middle East contains a Hebraic section consisting of only Israel for a country, but including eleven modern and ancient languages relating to Judaism, such as Yiddish, a European pidgin language. The Near East is otherwise nearly identical to the Middle East, except that it extends partly into Central Asia and the Caucasus, regions that the State Department considers to be in Asia.
qas: answers: text: The Library of Congress
question: What does LoC stand for?

answers: text: an institution established by Congress to provide a research library for the government
question: What is the Library of Congress?

answers: text: the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Library
question: The Library of Congress is under whose supervision?

context: The United Nations formulates multiple regional divisions as is convenient for its various operations. But few of them include a Near East, and that poorly defined. UNICEF recognizes the "Middle East and North Africa" region, where the Middle East is bounded by the Red Sea on the west and includes Iran on the east. UNESCO recognizes neither a Near East nor a Middle East, dividing the countries instead among three regions: Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. Its division "does not forcibly reflect geography" but "refers to the execution of regional activities." The United Nations Statistics Division defines Western Asia to contain the countries included elsewhere in the Middle East. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) describes its entire theatre of operations as the Near East, but then assigns many of its members to other regions as well; for example, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey are in both the European and the Near Eastern regions. Its total area extends further into Central Asia than that of most agencies.
qas: answers: text: The United Nations
question: Who formulates multiple regional divisions as is convenient for its various operations?

answers: text: UNICEF
question: Who recognizes the "Middle East and North Africa" region?

answers: text: the countries included elsewhere in the Middle East
question: The United Nations Statistics Division defines Western Asia to contain what?

answers: text: the Near East
question: The Food and Agriculture Organization describes its entire theater of operations as what?

context: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a quasi-independent agency of the United States Government. It appears to have multiple leadership. On the one hand its director is appointed by the president. It plays a significant role in providing the president with intelligence. On the other hand, Congress oversees its operations through a committee. The CIA was first formed under the National Security Act of 1947 from the army's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which furnished both military intelligence and clandestine military operations to the army during the crisis of World War II. Many revisions and redefinitions have taken place since then. Although the name of the CIA reflects the original advised intent of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, the government's needs for strategic services have frustrated that intent from the beginning. The press received by the agency in countless articles, novels and other media have tended to create various popular myths; for example, that this agency replaced any intelligence effort other than that of the OSS, or that it contains the central intelligence capability of the United States. Strategic services are officially provided by some 17 agencies called the Intelligence Community. Army intelligence did not come to an end; in fact, all the branches of the Armed Forces retained their intelligence services. This community is currently under the leadership (in addition to all its other leadership) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
qas: answers: text: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
question: What is a quasi-independent agency of the United States Government?

answers: text: multiple leadership
question: The CIA appears to have what?

answers: text: the president
question: Who appoints the director of the CIA?

answers: text: Congress
question: Who oversees the operations of the CIA?

context: Under these complex circumstances regional names are less useful. They are more historical than an accurate gauge of operations. The Directorate of Intelligence, one of four directorates into which the CIA is divided, includes the Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis (NESA). Its duties are defined as "support on Middle Eastern and North African countries, as well as on the South Asian nations of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan." The total range of countries is in fact the same as the State Department's Near East, but the names do not correspond. The Near East of the NESA is the same as the Middle East defined in the CIA-published on-line resource, The World Factbook. Its list of countries is limited by the Red Sea, comprises the entire eastern coast of the Mediterranean, including Israel, Turkey, the small nations of the Caucasus, Iran and the states of the Arabian Peninsula.
qas: answers: text: The World Factbook
question: The Near East of the NESA is the same as the Middle East define in what?

answers: text: Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis
question: What does NESA stand for?

answers: text: (NESA)
question: Whose duties are defined as "support on Middle Eastern and North African countries?"

context: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an independent agency under the Department of State established in place of the Marshall Plan for the purpose of determining and distributing foreign aid, does not use the term Near East. Its definition of Middle East corresponds to that of the State Department, which officially prefers the term Near East.
qas: answers: text: U.S. Agency for International Development
question: What does USAID stand for?

answers: text: USAID
question: What is the independant agency under the Department of State for the purpose of determining and distributing foreign aid called?

answers: text: the term Near East
question: What term does USAID not use?

context: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of United Kingdom recognises a Middle East and North Africa region, but not a Near East. Their original Middle East consumed the Near East as far as the Red Sea, ceded India to the Asia and Oceania region, and went into partnership with North Africa as far as the Atlantic.
qas: answers: text: a Middle East and North Africa region
question: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of United Kingdom recognizes what?

answers: text: Near East
question: What region does the Foreign and Commonwealth office of United Kingdom not recognize?

answers: text: Their original Middle East
question: What consumed the Near East as far as the Red Sea?

context: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Greece conducts "bilateral relationships" with the countries of the "Mediterranean – Middle East Region" but has formulated no Near East Region. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey also does not use the term Near East. Its regions include the Middle East, the Balkans and others.
qas: answers: text: "bilateral relationships"
question: What does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Greece conduct?

answers: text: Near East
question: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey does not use what term?

answers: text: Republic of Turkey
question: The Middle East, the Balkans and others are included in what republic?

context: The Ancient Near East is a term of the 20th century intended to stabilize the geographical application of Near East to ancient history.[citation needed] The Near East may acquire varying meanings, but the Ancient Near East always has the same meaning: the ancient nations, people and languages of the enhanced Fertile Crescent, a sweep of land from the Nile Valley through Anatolia and southward to the limits of Mesopotamia.
qas: answers: text: The Ancient Near East
question: What is a term of the 20th centrury intended to stabilize the geographical application of Near East to ancient history?

answers: text: the Ancient Near East
question: The ancient nations, people and languages of the enhanced Fertile Crescent will always refer to what?

answers: text: Fertile Crescent
question: What is the sweep of land from the Nile Valley through Anatolia called?

context: Resorting to this verbal device, however, did not protect the "Ancient Near East" from the inroads of "the Middle East." For example, a high point in the use of "Ancient Near East" was for Biblical scholars the Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament by James Bennett Pritchard, a textbook of first edition dated 1950. The last great book written by Leonard Woolley, British archaeologist, excavator of ancient Ur and associate of T.E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans, was The Art of the Middle East, Including Persia, Mesopotamia and Palestine, published in 1961. Woolley had completed it in 1960 two weeks before his death. The geographical ranges in each case are identical.
qas: answers: text: Texts relating to the Old Testament
question: James Bennett Pritchard wrote what?

answers: text: 1950
question: When did James Bennett Pritchard write his textbook?

answers: text: Leonard Woolley
question: Who was a British archaeologist?

answers: text: Leonard Woolley
question: Who excavated ancient Ur?

context: Parallel with the growth of specialized agencies for conducting or supporting statescraft in the second half of the 20th century has been the collection of resources for scholarship and research typically in university settings. Most universities teaching the liberal arts have library and museum collections. These are not new; however, the erection of these into "centres" of national and international interest in the second half of the 20th century have created larger databases not available to the scholars of the past. Many of these focus on the Ancient Near East or Near East in the sense of Ancient Near East.
qas: answers: text: library and museum collections
question: What do most universities teaching liberal arts have? 

answers: text: the collection of resources
question: What has had parallel growth of in the 20th century?

answers: text: for scholarship and research
question: What are these resources collected for?

context: One such institution is the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents (CSAD) founded by and located centrally at Oxford University, Great Britain. Among its many activities CSAD numbers "a long-term project to create a library of digitised images of Greek inscriptions." These it arranges by region. The Egypt and the Near East region besides Egypt includes Cyprus, Persia and Afghanistan but not Asia Minor (a separate region).
qas: answers: text: Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
question: What does CSAD stand for?

answers: text: Oxford University
question: Who founded the CSAD?

answers: text: Great Britain
question: Where is Oxford University?

context: A large percentage of experts on the modern Middle East began their training in university departments named for the Near East. Similarly the journals associated with these fields of expertise include the words Near East or Near Eastern. The meaning of Near East in these numerous establishments and publications is Middle East. Expertise on the modern Middle East is almost never mixed or confused with studies of the Ancient Near East, although often "Ancient Near East" is abbreviated to "Near East" without any implication of modern times. For example, "Near Eastern Languages" in the ancient sense includes such languages as Sumerian and Akkadian. In the modern sense, it is likely to mean any or all of the Arabic languages.
qas: answers: text: university departments named for the Near East
question: Where did a large percentage of experts on the modern Middle East began their training?

answers: text: Middle East
question: What is the meaning of Near East in numerous establishments and publications?

answers: text: Expertise on the modern Middle East
question: What is almost never mixed or confused with studies of the Ancient Near East?

answers: text: Near Eastern Languages
question: What includes such languages as Sumerian and Akkadian?