Review Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923

Karsh, Efraim and Karsh, Inari, Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923, Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press, 2003

 

Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923 by Efraim and Inari Karsh attempts to dispel conventional wisdom about the creation of the modern Middle East. Many historians focus upon western imperialism as the main force during this period. The Karshes want to look at how local actors like the Ottomans, Sharif Hussein of the Hijaz and his son Faisal shaped events in conjunction with European powers. Their thesis is that the Middle East had a long history of cooperation and conflict with Europe which gave rise to the end of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the Arab states after World War I.

Review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921

Townshend, Charles, When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921, London: Faber and Faber Limited, 2010

 

Charles Townshend wrote a very engaging history with When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921. What started out as a military expedition to protect England’s oil interests in Persia led to an extended campaign to seize as much Ottoman territory as possible in Mesopotamia during World War I. The whole time London never enunciated its goals or strategy and that continued after the war as well. It proved to be a classic example of mission creep with an unintended consequence of the new country of Iraq being created.

Churchill In His Own Words On Mesopotamia/Iraq

A recent article outlined how England’s War and later Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill’s main focus after World War I was to save money. England had expended a huge amount to fight the war, and then faced continued obligations and conflicts in Ireland, Palestine, Russia, Turkey, and Mesopotamia/Iraq. In the latter, the British had seized the Ottoman provinces of Basra and Baghdad as part of a strategy to attack the Turks from the east. After the war, it took Mosul as well. The question was then what to do with them.