Middle East

The Middle East is a historical and cultural sub-region of Africa-Eurasia traditionally held to be the countries or regions in Southwest Asia together with Egypt. In other contexts, the region can include other parts of North Africa and/or Central Asia. In the western world, the Middle East is generally thought of as a predominantly Islamic region defined by frequent conflict.

Background
Before the rise of human civilization, the Ubar civilization would rise and fall with the cradle of the Middle East around where the present-day Rub' al Khali desert is located. The Ubar would be near completely forgotten until 1894 when archaeologist Lorenzo Cabot and his team would make a single expedition into the Rub' al Khali and would excavate the ruins of an Ubar temple filled with various artifacts. Cabot and his team would also discover an Ubarian sarcophagus and bring back a single artifact from that Ubarian corpse that would extend his life for over 400 years.

In 2052, the Resource Wars began. Many smaller nations went bankrupt as their economies collapsed from the high prices for fossil fuels, and the nations of Europe, dependent on oil imports from the petroleum-rich states of the Middle East, responded to their decision to rapidly raise oil prices with military action. This was the beginning of the long, drawn-out conflict between the European Commonwealth and the Middle East, the Resource Wars. In January 2054, a limited nuclear exchange in the Middle East raised fears throughout the world.

In 2053, a terrorist nuclear device destroyed the city of Tel Aviv. The European Commonwealth-Middle East War ultimately ended in 2060, as the oil fields in the region finally ran dry. With no more goal in the conflict, both sides were left in states of ruin.

Appearances
The Middle East is mentioned in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, the Fallout 76 add-on Wild Appalachia and the Fallout Bible, and was to play a role in the background story of the hypothetical Fallout: Resource Wars.