Short answers, pulled from the story.
The term Middle East was coined by American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan in September 1902. Mahan published an article titled The Persian Gulf and International Relations to define the region as a strategic gateway to the Indian Ocean for the British Empire.
Before the early 20th century, the region was known as the Near East, which described the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire. The area stretching from Mesopotamia to Burma was simply considered the space between the Near East and the Far East.
The Near East was first largely unified under the Neo Assyrian Empire, followed by the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, and later the Roman and Byzantine Empires. The Romans stationed up to five or six of their legions in the region solely to defend it from Sassanid and Bedouin raids.
The six top languages in terms of numbers of speakers are Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Modern Hebrew and Greek. Arabic is the most widely spoken language, while Persian is the second most spoken and Turkish is the third most widely spoken.
The modern Middle East began after World War I when the Ottoman Empire was defeated and partitioned into separate nations under British and French Mandates. Other defining events included the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the departure of European powers by the end of the 1960s.
The Middle East generally has a hot, arid climate that requires major rivers like the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates to support agriculture in limited areas. Most countries bordering the Persian Gulf have vast petroleum reserves, making the region a major contributor to climate change while also relying heavily on the fossil fuel industry.