By John Allen
Eighty-five years ago, at the end of the First World War, America set out to rescue the Middle East from oppression and set it on the path to democracy. To do this, the country relied on the power of history — or at least historians — and UW classics professor William Westermann led America's effort.
Read the
Treaty of Sèvres and the
Treaty of Lausanne, which imposed a settlement on Turkey and the Middle East after World War I.
When the Inquiry passed into history, it didn't completely disappear. From its ashes rose the
Council on Foreign Relations.
See more
old maps of the Middle East — and other locations around the world.