Queen's Jubilee: 10 events that shaped the Middle East since 1952

When Queen Elizabeth II took to the throne in 1952, King Farouk ruled Egypt, Iran was undergoing an economic boom under the shah, while much of the Gulf remained impoverished and under British rule or influence.

The coming decades saw army officers topple monarchs in Libya, Egypt, and Iraq, an oil boom in the Gulf, and at least three wars between Israel and Arab states.

There were also numerous tragedies such as the occupation of the West Bank, brutal dictatorships established, war, and economic malaise.

We look at ten of the biggest events to shape the Middle East over the past 70 years.

1952 - Egypt's coup and the era of Arab nationalism

Shortly after Elizabeth became queen, a group of army officers in Egypt overthrew King Farouk and established a republic. The coup led to one of the most seismic political shifts in the Middle East, pitting Arab nationalist leaders against conservative regimes and monarchies.

Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egypt's second president in 1956 and his famous rhetoric, pan-Arabism, anticolonialism, and ambitious social and infrastructure projects made Arab nationalism the region’s most exciting ideology for some time. 

The UK and France's walk back during the Suez Crisis added to Nasser's appeal among the youth in the Middle East.

The shine soon faded after disastrous military campaigns against Israel, the failure of the United Arab Republic with Syria, mass human rights abuses, and his uncompromising dictatorship.

Nasser remains a romantic figure for many Arab nationalists in the region to this day.

1967 war

On 5 June 1967, Israel launched a surprise assault on neighbouring Arab states, decimating the Egyptian air force and quickly winning air supremacy. The rapid and unexpected Israeli assaults saw Egyptian and Syrian defences collapse. 

Over the next six days, Israel defeated Arab armies and captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem - Palestinian territories it still occupies today. Also lost to Israel was the Golan Heights, Syrian land illegally annexed by Israel. 

The existential impact of the humiliating defeat dealt a heavy blow to the Arab nationalism project and focused Syrian and Egyptian efforts on rebuilding their militaries. 

1973 war with Israel and Camp David

The 1973 war resulted in a major setback for Israel, which lost as many as 2,800 soldiers in the conflict. Despite commentators generally seeing the war as a win for Israel it was a less decisive than the one in 1967 and allowed Egypt to regain some damaged pride due to initial advances by its troops.

Saudi Arabia's oil embargo piled pressure on the West over its support for Israel and saw petrol prices skyrocket in Europe and the US.

It also led to the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978, which broke with Arab consensus on a united boycott of Israel.

The unilateral 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel led to Cairo's ostracisation and expulsion from the Arab League.

1975-1990 - Lebanon's civil war

The Lebanese civil war was a conflict shaped by the remnants of the colonial era and new battles between rival Arab regimes. The war saw sectarian militias and warlords carve out fiefdoms in Lebanon with sides changing throughout the conflict.

Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon and assaults on Beirut also led to thousands of dead and its later embarrassing retreat after sustained Hezbollah assaults. 

Syria's occupation of Lebanon continued until 2005, when mass protests forced Damascus to announce a full withdrawal of Syrian troops. The ramifications of the war are still being felt today with former warlords in leading political positions.

1979 – The Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq War

In 1979, anti-regime protests swept through Iran, forcing the shah to flee the country leading to the collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty.

The new government would soon be dominated by Islamist activists and clerics, paving the way for the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

The fiery rhetoric of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini saw Tehran being viewed as the primary threat to US interests in the region and Gulf monarchs. It also inspired other Islamist movements in the region, both Sunni and Shia.

An invasion by Iraq shortly after the revolution led to a bloody and protracted war between the two sides, costing around a million lives.

The blowback from the Iran hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq War provided Tehran with its own set of challenges, but the regime remains in place today.

1990-1991 Gulf War

In August 1990, after his self-proclaimed 'victory' against Iran and with Baghdad heavily in debt, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Hussein would name Kuwait as Iraq’s 19th province sparking panic in the Gulf region with fears an offensive on Saudi Arabia could be in the offing.

The US and its allies assembled its largest military build-up in the Middle East since World War II and retook Kuwait.

A devastating US air campaign killed thousands of retreating Iraqi soldiers, while Washington failed to protect an anti-government uprising in southern Iraq which was brutally suppressed by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Sanctions on Iraq were to also hit Iraq's civilian population hard and lead to shortages of essential medical supplies and other goods. 

1987-1993 - The First Intifada

Protests and civil disobedience against stifling Israeli occupation ignited across the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza from 1987, leading to the outbreak of the First Palestinian Intifada. 

Israel's brutal suppression of the protests led to workers' strikes and other civil actions against the occupation. The spontaneous mass uprising shook Israel, as its military used increasingly desperate and brutal measures to stop the protests.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who oversaw the clampdown, became known as 'the bone crusher' due to the army's ruthless tactics against stone-throwers. 

1996 - Al Jazeera launches

While newspapers have been an essential part of day-to-day life in the Arab world, the founding of Al Jazeera in 1997 was nothing short of a revolution for regional media.

The broadcaster became watched by millions across the Middle East due to its critical coverage of the US-led invasion of Iraq and Israel's oppression of Palestinians. 

It has also shed the light on dictatorships in the Arab world, including the brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests in Syria, Libya, Egypt and elsewhere.

So fierce have been efforts to suppress the broadcaster that Al Jazeera satellite links have been scrambled, journalists killed and imprisoned, and bureaus targeted.

2003 – US-led invasion of Iraq

In 2003, the US and UK illegally invaded Iraq, leading to a bloody insurrection and civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. 

The invasion not only ended the regime of Saddam Hussein but also led to Iran making in-roads within the new establishment. The new government and military were soon dominated by Tehran-linked elements. A later Islamic State group insurgency heaped further misery on the country, with a genocide against the Yazidis and thousands more slaughtered.

The unprovoked invasion and subsequent internal unrest left Iraq devastated with poverty, instability, and energy outages blighting the oil-rich country.

2011 – The Arab Spring

Mass protests in 2010 and 2011 led to the overthrow of dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya, offering hope for democratic change in the region. 

Beginning with anti-government demonstrations in Tunisia in 2010, the spontaneous pro-democracy movement saw dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali toppled as protests erupted across the Middle East.

In January 2011, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was overthrown leading to the country's first democratic presidential elections in 2012.

Dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in Libya in October 2011, while mass protests in Yemen led to Ali Abdullah Salah's regime being overthrown in 2012.

Pro-democracy movements in Syria were brutally suppressed by Bashar Al-Assad's regime, leading to an armed uprising against his rule, while the monarchies of the Gulf, Jordan, and Morocco remain in place.

All photos from Getty Images