IGCSE History

• Home
• Introduction to IGCSE
• The Road to Affluence: USA 1917 - 1941 (A9)
  • 1917 - 1929
    • The impact of the First World War
    • Immigration
    • Henry Ford and mass production
    • Farming in the 1920s
    • The Stock Market Boom
  • 1929 - 1941
    • The Wall Street Crash
    • The Depression
    • The policies of Hoover
    • Roosevelt and the New Deal
    • Reactions to the New Deal
• International Relations 1919-1939 (A8)
  • Collective Security
    • The Versailles Settlement
    • The Foundation of the League of Nations
    • Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations
    • Successes and failures of the League of Nations
    • Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
  • Appeasement
    • Manchuria
    • The Disarmament Conference
    • Abyssinia
    • Hitler and the League
    • Appeasement in action
• Revolution in China 1949 - 1996 (A14)
  • 1949 - 1976
    • China under Mao
    • Reform under Liu and Deng
    • The reasons for the Cultural Revolution
    • The impact of the Cultural Revolution
    • China 1971 - 1976
  • 1976 - 1996
    • The defeat of the Gang of Four
    • China under Deng Xiaoping
    • Reforms of the economy
    • The Democracy Movement
    • China in the 1990s
• South-East Asia 1945 - 1900 (A15)
  • Indo-China
    • The end of the French Empire
    • Vietnam 1954 - 1965
    • US involvement in Vietnam
    • The unification of Vietnam
    • Laos and Cambodia
  • South-East Asia
    • The struggle for control of Malaya
    • The creation of Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Suharto and Indonesia
    • Sukarno and Pancasila
• Conflict and Crisis is the Middle East 1946 - 1996 (A16)
  • Unit overview
  • 1946 - 1967
    • The creation of Israel
    • The impact of the war of 1948 - 1949
    • The Suez Crisis
    • Superpower involvement in the Middle East
    • The Six Day War
  • 1967 - 1996
    • International terrorism
    • The war of Yom Kippur
    • The Palestinian Liberation Organisation
    • Lebanon and the occupied territories
    • Successes and failures from Camp David to Oslo
• The First World War (B4)
  • The Schlieffen Plan
  • Deadlock on the Western Front
  • Gallipoli
  • The Somme and Passchendaele
  • The War at Sea
  • The defeat of Germany
• The USA 1917-1929 (B7)
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • Advertising and consumerism
  • New forms of entertainment
  • Prohibition
  • Gangsterism
  • Hollywood
• China under Mao Zedong 1949 - 1959 (B10)
  • The creation of the Communist State
  • Land Reform
  • Communist society
  • The First Five Year Pan
  • The 100 Flowers
  • The Great Leap Forward
• The Changing Nature of Warfare (C3)
  • Unit overview
  • Warfare at the beginning of the 20th Century
  • Land warfare
  • Sea and aerial warfare
  • Atomic and nuclear weapons
  • Warfare at the end of the 20th Century
• Links

The impact of the war of 1948 - 1949

There is a podcast on this topic here http://dhahranbritish.com/Podcasts/podcast.xml

The Arabs expected to destroy Israel very quickly. In theory they outnumbered the Israelis 80 to 1, but the differences between the armed forces of the two sides were much less significant. In fact the Arab armies were stopped and then driven back and Israel occupied all the territory of Palestine.

The numbers of soldiers on both sides were about equal, but the Haganah, which was the basis of the Israeli army, was well trained and used to fighting. On the other hand, the Arab armies were inexperienced and divided. Each of the countries had its own battle plans and aims. Israel’s opponents made separate truces the first in January 1949 and the last in July 1949.

Israel’s forces were also much better armed and supplied than those of the Arabs. The Israelis had been able to buy large supplies of modern equipment from abroad, particularly from the USA. There was great support for the new state of Israel in the USA. A very large number of Jews had emigrated there and dominated some areas in New York City. Jewish influence was very strong and played a very important role in business. The Jewish vote was also very important in presidential elections.

The Israelis defended their country and occupied more territory. They took over all of the areas that the United Nations had set aside for Arabs. Arabs living in the areas occupied by Israel began to leave. Altogether about 800,000 Arabs left the new state of Israel. This created the Palestinian refugee problem, which was to be at the heart of Middle Eastern affairs for the next fifty years. As more Jewish immigrants began to arrive, new settlements were begun to house the new immigrants. Many of these were in areas that Israel had occupied during the war of 1948-9. This was a further source of anger for Arabs.

6,000 Jews had been killed during the war. But there were no peace treaties afterwards, so it was clear that this was no more than a cessation of hostilities. Another attack could be expected at any time. Israelis were well aware that they had to be on their guard against another attack. Israel became a country on a permanent war footing. The Israeli government tried to encourage more immigration in an effort to increase the Israeli population. In 1950, the Law of Return gave every Jew the right to return to Israel. The population rose rapidly as a result.

For the Arab states, the most lasting problem created by the war was the Palestinian refugees. Altogether about 800,000 Arabs fled from Palestine to neighbouring countries, where they lived in squalid refugee camps. The refugee camps became the training grounds for the freedom fighters or 'Fedayeen'. Attacks began almost immediately upon targets in Israel. In 1951, 137 Israelis were killed and in 1955 238 were killed.

The war increased Arab suspicion of the West and particularly of the USA, which had recognised Israel immediately.  For the first time the Arab states began to look towards the Soviet Union. In the Middle East, the war led to increased support for Arab nationalists such as Nasser in Egypt and led to the downfall of King Farouq of Egypt.

As the war was only ended by a series of truces, the borders of Israel were not fixed but marked by armistice lines. Over the next few years there were repeated incursions from either side and constant artillery bombardments.

The Suez Crisis

Links