The area that we know as the Middle East was controlled at the beginning of the 20th century by the Ottoman Empire. But they found it hard to keep a lid on the situation. Different groups from the Arabs to the Persians fought for independence.

When the Ottoman Empire joined the Axis powers in World War One, the Arabs and Persians saw this as an opportunity to get independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The British and the French offered these groups independence to groups who rebelled against the Ottomans. But they lied. In the Sykes and Pieot agreement 1916, the British and the French divided the area between them.

Arabs were put together without regard to cultural or religious differences. The Arabian Peninsula rebelled and got independence in 1922. Iraq was created with a Shi'ite/Shia majority but a Sunni ruling class.

The Kurds who were promised a state were divided between 4 other areas. Turkey in the north-west, Iran in the North-East, Iraq in the South-East and Syria in the South-West.Syria and Lebanon were ruled by the French. Lebanon got its independence in 1943 while Syria got is independence in 1961.

Since then there have been many dictatorships (where a country's government has absolute power) and wars in the Middle East which has made the region unstable and left those living there with no other choice but to migrate.