Empire of Sand

by Reid, Walter

• ISBN13: 9781843410539
• ISBN10: 1843410532
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-19
• Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

Summary

At the end of the First World War the modern Middle East was created by Britain and France, who carved up the old Ottoman possessions with scant regard for the wishes of those who lived there. Frontiers were devised and alien dynasties imposed on the populations as arbitrarily as in medieval times. It was destined from the outset to failure. Promises had been made to the Arabs during the War, but were not honored, and brief hopes for Arab unity were dashed, leading to a bitter belief in western perfidy that persists to the present day.Britain was quick to see the riches promised by the black pools of oil that lay on the ground around Baghdad, and when France too grasped their importance, bitter differences opened up between the two allies, and the areas became a focus of a return to the traditional enmity between them.With reference to a huge amount of primary and secondary sources, Walter Reid explores Britain's role in the creation of the modern Middle East and the rise of Zionism, from the early years of the twentieth century to 1948, when Britain handed over Palestine to UN control a process from which has flowed much of the instability of the region and of the worldwide tensions that threaten the 21st century.Walter Reid studied at the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and has written a number of highly acclaimed works of military history: To Arras, 1917 (Tuckwell Press, 2003), Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig (Birlinn 2006) and Churchill 1940 1945: Under Friendly Fire (Birlinn, 2008).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Illustrations	p. xiii
Maps	p. xv
Background
Introductory	p. 3
The Ottoman Empire	p. 8
The War
Turkey and the War	p. 21
India in the War	p. 27
Making Policy in the War	p. 30
Making Policy: The Arab Dimension	p. 39
The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence	p. 43
The Arab Revolt	p. 66
Kut and Beyond	p. 78
Sykes-Picot	p. 82
The Background to the Balfour Declaration	p. 92
Gestation of the Declaration	p. 104
The Birth of the Declaration	p. 109
Personalities	p. 119
The Stresses of Peace
The Entente under Pressure	p. 125
The End of Turkey's War	p. 140
Making Peace
Versailles	p. 147
The Balkans at Paris	p. 155
Britain and France Again	p. 158
The Meeting at the Rue Nitot	p. 161
Faisal at Versailles	p. 167
The Middle East Defeats Paris	p. 172
Mandates	p. 176
Palestine and Zionism	p. 181
Diplomacy by Conference
Resort Diplomacy: San Remo, Sèvres, Lausanne and Cairo. Introduction	p. 185
San Remo and Sevres	p. 187
Lausanne	p. 190
Preparing for Cairo: Churchill Takes the Reins	p. 202
Churchill's Durbar: The Cairo Conference	p. 210
Alternative Models: Egypt, Persia and Syria Egypt
Egypt	p. 221
Persia	p. 227
Syria	p. 234
Jordan under the Mandate
Jordan	p. 239
Iraq
Strategy	p. 251
Establishment	p. 261
Churchill and Mesopotamia	p. 265
Nation-Building	p. 268
British Iraq	p. 275
Moving Forward	p. 284
Palestine
'Mandatory of the World'	p. 293
Administration in Practice	p. 298
Churchill's Work	p. 303
Disturbances and Commissions	p. 311
Arab Reaction and the British Response	p. 317
More Commissions and the Approach of War	p. 321
War	p. 325
The End of British Palestine	p. 328
Bevin Starts Work	p. 334
Events	p. 337
Surrendering the Mandate	p. 339
After the Announcement	p. 342
Conclusions
Tentative Judgements	p. 349
Outline Chronology	p. 355
Hashemite Family Tree	p. 359
Notes	p. 361
Select Bibliography	p. 379
Index	p. 385
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