Editing Arab world (section)

===Modern conflicts===
{{main|List of modern conflicts in the Middle East}}

====Unification of Saudi Arabia====
The [[unification of Saudi Arabia]] was a 30-year-long military and political campaign, by which the various [[tribe]]s, [[sheikhdom]]s, and [[emirate]]s of most of the [[Arabian Peninsula]] were conquered by the [[House of Saud]], or ''Al Saud'', between 1902 and 1932, when the modern-day [[Saudi Arabia|Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]] was proclaimed. Carried out under the charismatic [[Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia|Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud]], this process created what is sometimes referred to as the ''Third Saudi State'', to differentiate it from the [[First Saudi State|first]] and [[Second Saudi State|second]] states that existed under the Al Saud clan.

The Al-Saud had been in exile in [[Ottoman Iraq]] since 1893 following the disintegration of the Second Saudi State and the rise of [[Emirate of Ha'il|Jebel Shammar]] under the [[Rashidi dynasty|Al Rashid]] clan. In 1902, Ibn Saud recaptured [[Riyadh]], the Al Saud dynasty's former capital. He went on to subdue the rest of [[Nejd]], [[Al-Ahsa Oasis|Al-Hasa]], [[Jebel Shammar]], [[Asir]], and [[Hejaz]] (location of the [[Islam|Muslim]] holy cities of [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]]) between 1913 and 1926. The resultant polity was named the [[Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz]] from 1927 until it was further consolidated with Al-Hasa and [[Qatif]] into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

====Arab–Israeli conflict====
{{further|Arab–Israeli conflict}}
[[File:Egyptianbridge.jpg|alt=Egyptianbridge|thumb|240x240px|Egyptian vehicles crossing the [[Suez Canal]] on October 7, 1973, during the [[Yom Kippur War]]]]
The establishment of the [[Israel|State of Israel]] in 1948 has given rise to the [[Arab–Israeli conflict]], one of the major [[ongoing conflicts|unresolved geopolitical conflicts]].

The Arab states in changing alliances were involved in a number of wars with Israel and its western allies between 1948 and 1973, including the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]], the [[Six-Day War]] of 1967, and the [[Yom Kippur War]] of 1973.
An [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty]] was signed in 1979.

====Iran–Iraq War====
{{Main|Iran–Iraq War}}
[[File:Operation Chelcheragh (8).gif|thumb|The [[Iran–Iraq War]] (1980–1988) killed more than 500,000 people before a UN-brokered ceasefire ended it]]
The [[Iran–Iraq War]] (also known as the First Gulf War and by various other names) was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the second longest conventional war of the 20th century. It was initially referred to in English as the "Gulf War" prior to the "Gulf War" of 1990.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, and fears of Shia Islam insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution. Iraq was also aiming to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of the revolutionary chaos in Iran (see [[Iranian Revolution]], 1979) and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and were quickly repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive.

====Lebanese Civil War====
{{main|Lebanese Civil War}}
The [[Lebanese Civil War]] was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon, lasting from 1975 to 1990 and resulting in an estimated 120,000 fatalities. Another one million people (a quarter of the population) were wounded,{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} and today approximately 76,000 people remain displaced within Lebanon. There was also a mass exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.

====Western Sahara conflict====
{{main|Western Sahara conflict}}
The [[Western Sahara War]] was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi Polisario Front and Morocco between 1975 and 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords, by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, but not the sovereignty. In 1975, Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish Moroccan presence.

While at first met with just minor resistance by the Polisario, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, successively fought both Mauritania and Morocco. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the Polisario. The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989–1991. A cease-fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991.

====North Yemen Civil War====
{{main|North Yemen Civil War}}
The [[North Yemen Civil War]] was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam escaped to the Saudi Arabian border and rallied popular support.

====Somali Civil War====
{{main|Somali Civil War}}
The [[Somali Civil War]] is an ongoing civil war taking place in [[Somalia]]. It began in 1991, when a coalition of clan-based armed opposition groups ousted the nation's long-standing military government.

Various factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed, which precipitated an aborted UN peacekeeping attempt in the mid-1990s. A period of decentralization ensued, characterized by a return to customary and religious law in many areas as well as the establishment of autonomous regional governments in the northern part of the country. The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations, culminating in the establishment of the [[Transitional Federal Government]] (TFG) in 2004.<ref name="Eanbkois2"/>

In 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nation's southern conflict zones from the newly formed [[Islamic Courts Union]] (ICU). The ICU splintered into more radical groups, notably [[Al-Shabaab (militant group)|Al-Shabaab]], which have since been fighting the Somali government and its [[AMISOM]] allies for control of the region. In 2011, a coordinated military operation between the Somali military and multinational forces began, which is believed to represent one of the final stages in the war's Islamist insurgency.<ref name="Eanbkois2">{{cite news|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/east-african-nations-back-kenyan-offensive-in-somalia-132374053/147039.html|publisher=Voice of America|title=E. African Nations Back Kenyan Offensive in Somalia|first=Peter|last=Heinlein|date=22 October 2011|access-date=23 October 2011}}</ref>

====Arab Spring====
{{Main|Arab Spring|Libyan Civil War|Syrian civil war}}
[[File:Budaiya highway protest 08.JPG|thumb|[[2011 Bahraini uprising]]]]
The [[Arab Spring|popular protests throughout the Arab world]] of late 2010 to the present have been directed against authoritarian leadership and associated [[political corruption]], paired with demands for more democratic rights. The two most violent and prolonged conflicts in the aftermath of the Arab Spring are the Libyan Civil War and Syrian Civil War.