Sinai (Chaos)

The Sinai was a thinly settled area in. 1441, it became part of the empire of the, together with.

Since 1550, the growing trade with n goods (although many were still forbidden, or at least scolded at) lead people to think about a possibility to take out the middle man (the Seljuks in the South, the ns in the North). In, it was suggested that a conquest of the Sinai would allow them to sail the spice routes.

This idea changed the French politics towards the Seljuks. After the, the Seljuks had to cede the Sinai to France, which cut their empire in two. 1605, France started building many ships in, making it a big trade center, started competing with Arabs for trade in the Indian Ocean.

After the, the Seljuks got Sinai, Palestine and back from France in the  1694, but since Egypt had already seperated from the empire, things weren't as they had been once.

France used the opportunity that the Seljuks had lost the, allied with and stroke against the Seljuks in the  1717-23. The French again occupied the Sinai and Aden.

1768, during the chaotic time of the, Egypt used the opportunity and took French Sinai back. France was cut off from Asia again.

The Sinai would get a completely new fate in 1835: After anti-Jewish pogroms in North Africa, a delegation of rabbis approached the New Roman emperor. He offered the Jews a home at the Sinai, as close to biblical Israel as possible without moving right in, to form a buffer against the Persian empire and to guard the. This marked the beginning of the Jewish state.