Hist 4339
Boundary-Making in the Middle East
British Interests in the Middle East
▪ Access to India
◦ initially, overland passage to India
◦ post-1869, a quicker route via the Suez Canal
▪ Protecting the Suez Canal: 1882 occupation of Egypt
▪ Rising influence of modernizing nationalist Young Turks
▪ 1915: Ottoman genocide of Armenians
▪ Turkey an Axis power during World War I
TE Lawrence: “Lawrence of Arabia” (1885-1935)
• WWI intelligence agent
• Active in Arab uprising
• Pushed for Arab independence
• Seen as a hero in Britain
• Fictionalized autobiographical accounts, e.g. Seven Pillars of Wisdom
World War I
▪ 1916: Britain and France’s Sykes-Picot Agreement
▪ 1920: Treaty of Sevres and end of Ottoman Empire
▪ Britain’s other conflicting World War I promises:
◦ 1915: McMahon-Hussein correspondence
◦ 1917: Balfour Declaration
▪ 1922: League of Nations “Mandates” granted
◦ France: Lebanon and Syria
◦ Britain: Iraq, Transjordan, Palestine
◦ Mandatory Powers held territory “in trust” for benefit of local population
Boundaries and Territory in the Middle East
• Post-WWI flurry of boundary-making
• Traditional Middle Eastern focus was on Muslim community (umma), not territory
• Local boundaries often fluid (e.g. dirah)
• Contrast with European concept of nation-state