The very complicated role of imperialism and war in the Middle East

1. Muddle in the Middle East
And Everywhere Else
World Map 1914

2. Main Military Campaigns in the Middle East
Gallipoli Campaign: Ottoman Victory
Mesopotamian Campaign: Baghdad seized 1917
Sinai and Palestine Campaign: Jerusalem taken 1917
Persian Campaign: Invasion of Iran
Caucasus Campaign: Russia and Ottoman with
Armenian Genocide and Russian Revolution
Oct. 1918 Armistice of Mudros ends hostilities in Middle East
Ottoman Empire no more. How to carve it up?
Minor campaigns include
Senussi Campaign,
Arab Campaign,
South Arabia Campaign

3. Ottoman Empire and Going East
October 1914 Ottoman Empire joined Central Powers: Fateful Decision
1915 Gallipoli Campaign.
Australians and Turkish Friendship narrative created. And nationalist myths.
Armenians mass deportations and massacres:
“so savage as to verge on genocide.”
Michael Howard, 92
Respect to Mehmetçik Monument at Pine Ridge, Gallipoli
Anzac soldier injured in the arms of Turkish soldier
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/december/14488
88400/mark-mckenna-and-stuart-ward/anzac-myth

4. Ottoman Empire prior to, during, and after the First World War.

6. War as Opportunity: Target Youth

8. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3385856/What-difference-
century-makes-Maps-reveal-long-takes-travel-world-1914-2016.html
Being far away from the western front not such a bad idea?

9. The Meaning of Basra
Battle of Basra (November 1914) British “capture” but so much more!
Inversion of Imperialism?
Priya Satia, “Developing Iraq” (2007)
“Technocratic Developmentalism” (233)
“Arabian Nights” fantasy v. Trenches
Old heroic values still matter; made war
romantic and meaningful again
“Saving Mesopotamia” made war a
just cause
Focus on building infrastructure
Transportation key: Boats and Indian
Shipyards
And what about Indian?
Ashar Creek and bazaar, c. 1915

10. Sinai and Palestine Campaign
Jan. 1915 unsuccessful grab for the Suez Canal by German-
backed Ottoman forces
British troops on the march in Mesopotamia, 1917
Handley–Page 0/400 of No. 1 Squadron,
Australian Flying Corps

11. Arab Revolt of 1916
Arab nationalism and mixed signals by British on independence
1916-1918 Arab Revolt. Library of Congress photo
T. E. Lawrence at Rabegh,
north of Jeddah, 1917

12. Arab Revolt 1916
Lawrence of Arabia after the Battle of Aqaba

13. Romance Versus Reality
Yigal Sheffy, “Chemical Warfare and the Palestine Campaign,
1916-1918” (2009) Non-European “side-shows”
Moral issues of chemical warfare and diminishing ethical
restraints (p. 809)
Gaza—again, and again, and again
Officers of the regiment that successfully
defended Gaza during the first battle. March 1917Australian prisoners captured at Shellal

14. Battle of Beersheeba (1917)
The Lighthorsemen
(Australian, 1987)
Battle of Megiddo (1918)
Calvary and camels
The camel corps at Beersheba during the Sinai and Palestine
Campaign, February 1915.
6th Army field HQ
Mesopotamian campaign, 1915

15. Camels and Such
Camel cacolet of the 2nd Australian Light Horse (2ALH) Camel
Field Ambulance, used for transporting seriously sick and
wounded troops over desert and roads impassable to vehicles.

16. Third Time a Charm?
• Second Battle of Gaza April 1917
• Third Battle of Gaza November 1917
Ottoman machine gunners

17. J. L. Gray (aka Donald Black) Red Dust (1931)
http://www.lighthorse.org.au/the-mounted-soldiers-of-
australia-2/
www.awm.gov.au/wartime/44/page54_bou

18. Capture of Baghdad March 1917
Sir Frederick Stanley Maude leads the Indian Army into
Baghdad. Redemption after the humiliation of the surrender at
Kut, April 1916
1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron
Baghdad 1917

19. Battle of Jerusalem
British Empire's "Jerusalem Operations" against the Ottoman
Empire, 17 November - 30 December 1917
Secured final objective of the Southern Palestine Offensive
during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign
Ottoman trenches along the shores of the Dead Sea, 1918

20. Capture of Jerusalem 1917
"The 94th Heavies that Shelled the Turks in Capture of the City"
(Jerusalem, 1917)
General Sir Edmund Allenby entering the Holy City
of Jerusalem on foot 1917 to show respect for the holy place

21. Oil and gas pipelines in the Middle-East

22. British Interests in Palestine
Long-lasting consequences
British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour’s November
1917 letter endorsed "the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people." Cautioned that
"nothing shall be done that may prejudice the civil and
religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine."
No one local consulted.
In 1922 League of Nations officially endorsed British
administration of Palestine.
British policies after World War I lay groundwork for
1947 UN partition of Palestine between Arab and Jewish
states — and everything that followed.
https://www.vox.com/a/world-war-i-maps

23. Sykes-Picot and the breakup of the Ottoman empire
In 1916, on a map, French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot and
British Sir Mark Sykes divided Ottoman Empire's Middle Eastern
territory.
Create British and French zones of control.
British and French authorities divide up their zones, new Arab
countries — Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan.
Borders and political institutions fail to reflect ethno-sectarian
makeup and realities.
Sykes-Picot borders major factor in the chaotic state of the
Middle East in the decades since then.
https://www.vox.com/a/world-war-i-maps

24. The original secret Sykes-Picot map of 1916: "A" would go to
France, "B" to Britain.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25299553

25. German Colonial Holdings in Africa
German East Africa, German South-West Africa, Togoland and
Cameroon

26. Aug. 1914 German colonies in Africa and Pacific
German trenches in Garua (Cameroon)

27. Battle of Coronel: Worst British Defeat at Sea
German squadron, leaving Valparaiso, Chile,
November 1914, following the Battle of
Coronel.

28. Conquest of German South West Africa
1916 Conquest of German South West Africa (Namibia) by
troops from South Africa (British colony).
South African prime minister Louis Botha began mobilizing
forces in September 1914; Germans surrendered in July 1915.
Japanese joined Allies’ side and captured the German-held
port of Tsingtao (now Chinese city of Qingdao) in November
1914.
Germany's East African colony was only major colony to resist
Allied control throughout the war, but the territory was still
divided among victorious European powers at the end of the
war.
https://www.vox.com/a/world-war-i-maps

30. General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870-1964)
Lettow-Vorbeck leading African soldiers. "Colonial Warriors'
Donation“ with facsimile of Lettow-Vorbeck's signature
Lettow-Vorbeck at a parade in Berlin in 1919

31. Map of the World.
Made in Japan, 1914