As well as in Europe, WW1 was also fought in what we would today recognise as Iraq and Kuwait, as well as, Palestine, Israel. Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
First of all, let’s consider some of the towns and other places were specific fighting took place: the Suez Canal, Basra and its oilfields, Qurna (said to be the site of the Garden of Eden), Kut, Baghdad, the Mosul oilfields, Gaza, Beersheba, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Jericho, Beirut, Damascus and Aleppo. Ring many bells? MUNers will know where I’m going with this. Think about the Arab-Israeli wars, the Palestine question, Saddam Hussein, the Ayatollah Khomenei, the Gulf Wars and the Syrian War. Much of todays mess was decided in that fighting and in the post-war order for that part of the world decided first amongst the Entente Powers before being ratified by the Treaty of Sevres.
Following the Constantinople Agreement between Britain, France and Russia in March, 1915 in which it was agreed that Constantinople and the Straits would be given to Russian control, secret talks between the Britain and France, with the knowledge and agreement of Russia, discussed dividing the Ottoman Empire amongst the two of them at the successful conclusion of the war. So that, whilst Russia would gain its long-held goal of control of Constantinople and the Straits connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. France would gain control of northern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon (which had for some time been a part of Syria) and Jordon. Britain would keep control of Egypt and would also gain influence in Mesopotamia (essentially Iraq and Kuwait but eastern parts of Syria too and even a bit of Turkey). Palestine would be controlled by an international administration. This culminated in May, 1916 with the Asia Minor Agreement or the Sykes-Picot Agreement, after the two chief negotiators. Meanwhile, Britain and Russia had agreed separately to partition Persia (today’s Iran). Russia would gain control of the north, Britain of the south, though the internal disarray that followed the Russian revolutions of 1917 left Britain the dominant influence in the whole country (whilst Russia also lost out on Constantinople and the Straits).
However, this secret agreement didn’t stop the British agreeing with Sharif Hussein, the Sharif and Emir of Mecca, in October, 1915 that in return for Arab support against the Turks, Britain would recognise Arab independence in Mesopotamia (Iraq and Kuwait) and much of Syria, but not the areas lying west of Damascus, Hama, Homs and Aleppo (today’s Palestine, Lebanon as well as Israel). Whether or not Britain excluded Palestine would later be disputed.
Whilst another secret, and contradictory, agreement made the following year between Britain and France confirmed that Syria, though it would be a sovereign state, would be under French protection. France would also take control of Lebanon. Britain would control the ports of Haifa and Acre, and so control the bay that would be its Mediterranean terminal for oil coming from Mesopotamia. Palestine (which then included today’s Israel), but for Haifa and Acre, would fall under the joint protection of Britain, France and Russia. The British and French war effort in the Middle East had taken on a decidedly imperialist perspective. Yet it isn’t fair to blame the Entente Powers for seeking to profit from the war, it was more the case that they had set out to ensure they wouldn’t fall out with each other once Germany had been defeated, or more importantly, before it had.
So much for secret agreements made whilst the fighting continued. After the war, the Treaty of Sevres made Syria, which had hoped for independence, and the Lebanon separate French mandates. Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq and Kuwait) were mandated to Britain. Tans-Jordan (which later became known as just Jordan) was originally part of the Palestine mandate but in 1925 Britain recognised its independence (yet still keeping some control). But in an added complication, in the case of Palestine, the Balfour Declaration of November, 1917, promising the establishment of a Jewish homeland, was incorporated into the mandate. Jews were invited to emigrate to the region and, within two decades the number of Jews living there had grown ten-fold: from 50,000 to 500,000. With regard to Iraq, which had been ruled as three separate Turkish provinces, it now became a unified state under the British mandate. And as we have noted, Persia (today’s Iran) also came under British control. As for the Arabian states largely beyond the control of the Turks before the war, Yemen, Oman, Muscat and the various small states that today make up the UAE, all remained independent whilst the huge mass of land beyond their borders became Saudi Arabia.
The mandates, as well as the other “settlements”, however, became very messy. Iraq was a tribal society and becoming a unified state, never mind that it was under the British, did not sit easy with a tribal culture. Britain also scrapped the idea of creating a separate Kurdistan for the Kurds which has had tragic repercussions before and during Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq, and right up to today. Also, Sunni Muslims have largely dominated a country in which the majority are Shiite Muslims. In Palestine-Jordan, the British, made a clumsy attempt to appease Abdullah bin Al-Hussein. He had played a key role in the Arab Revolt against the Turks which had helped the British during the war, but he wanted to rule Syria (mandated to the French). So, the British compensated him with Trans-Jordan, which was then separated from the Palestinian mandate, thereby splitting in half the land that would eventually become Israel. It didn’t end well for Abdullah. He was assassinated in 1951 whilst attending Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem by a Palestinian who thought he was going to make peace with Israel. Meanwhile in Iran, Britain struggled to control Arab nationalism whilst exploiting the country’s oil reserves. Eventually the Americans took over the role but in the process the Shah of Iran became too westernised and fell victim to the Ayatollah Khomeini-inspired revolution of which there are still repercussions today.
This is just a desperately brief glimpse at Gulf politics since WW1, and how it has been affected by the war and decisions made in the settlements that followed. But it might be useful should you face an essay that asks you to consider the impact or effects of the war. It takes us away from a Euro-dominated perspective and that can only be good for those of you aiming “high”.