Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the Ottoman experience in the Tigris-Euphrates basin during the early modern period and what has happened ever since. After deposing the Pashalik of Baghdad in 1831, the Ottoman state pursued ambitious projects to improve navigation and irrigation along the Tigris and Euphrates. This centralizing era ended before achieving all its goals due to the outbreak of World War I. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire gave rise to three nation-states in the Tigris-Euphrates basin—Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. The political divisions of the river basin have incentivized competition in the exploitation of water resources, to the detriment of the river system as a whole. The early modern experience of the Tigris and Euphrates, therefore, is instructive. Coordination in the management of river systems, the Ottoman Empire showed, can bring about a more efficient and sustainable use of resources.