List and discuss the major contradictory promises surrounding the Middle East made by the British during WWI?
What will be an ideal response?
• Because the Turks were allied with the Germans, the British encouraged the Arabs to revolt against the Turks.
• If the Arabs would fight for the British, the British promised to move the caliphate from Istanbul to Mecca and to name an Arab as caliph.
• The military commander in Cairo, who promised to restore the caliphate, thought he was promising the Islamic equivalent of a pope and that secular, individual Arab states would continue to exist.
• He did not understand the nature of the caliphate.
• In return for a general Arab revolt against the Turks, the British agreed to support the creation of a united, independent Arab state at the close of the war.
• The British believed this to be sound foreign policy. They believed the nebulous understanding was not a promise of support to the Arabs.
• However, the Arabs felt they had received a promise for the ancient Arab realm of Islam.
• Although the British had gained an ally at little expense, the circumstances were ripe for resentments.
• The British made other promises.
• Partially in response to the Zionist movement and partially to keep the goodwill of American Jews, the British promised the Zionists a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
• The Balfour Declaration of November 1917 promised to create the state of Israel.
• It was backed by Protestant Christians who understood neither the nature of the caliphate nor the importance of Jerusalem (al Quds to Muslims) in Islam.
• Supporters of the Balfour Declaration were unaware that their promise directly contradicted the British commander's promise in Cairo, the promise to reestablish an Arab-dominated caliphate.
• All Arab Muslims would expect the caliphate to include the three most important cities in Sunni Islam: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.
• The Balfour Declaration threatened to transfer Jerusalem to the new state of Israel.
• The British also made promises to their allies.
• On the other side of the region, in ancient Persia (modern Iran), the British approached the Russians with another deal. Iran would be divided into three parts, a northern area controlled by Russia, a southern zone under British rule, and a neutral area in between.
• When the war ended in 1918, the entire Middle East was controlled by the British, French, and Russians, but it was a powder keg.
• Explicable in a time when national survival was threatened, these contradictory promises were nothing more than an extension of prewar British imperial policies.
• They did not alleviate the tensions between the Palestinian Arabs and the newly arrived Palestinian Jews.
• At the end of the war, the British created a series of Arab countries dominated by strong, traditional family groups.
• Far from representing a united Arab realm of Islam, the British division was challenged internally by rival families and externally by other Arab states.
• Each family and each of the Arab leaders wished to unite Islam under their own banner. Major states eventually emerged from this scenario: Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the Gulf States.
• Some of the new nations dreamed of a pan-Islamic region, but none was willing to let another run it.
• Other ethnic groups, like the Kurds, wanted autonomy; Christian Assyrians and Jewish settlers in Palestine also wanted independence.
• The Arabs also could not counter the continuing British influence, and neither a pan-Arabic realm nor a Jewish national state could develop under the watchful eyes of the British.
• Great Britain received permission from the League of Nations to create the Mandate of Palestine which came with a cost.
• It left neither Arab nor Jew satisfied; the Arabs believed they had received a false promise, and the Jews avidly demanded their right to a homeland.
You might also like to view...
________ constitute a governmental immunity from prosecution, a state guaranteed right to confidentiality for researchers if they are subpoenaed
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word
To provide guidance for police officers regarding the appropriate utilization of force, law enforcement agencies design _____.
A. a reasonable force model B. the resistive force theory C. a use-of-force matrix D. the normal force model
The recent increase in prison construction across that nation of late has failed to keep pace with the increase in prison populations
a. true b. false
In an effort to divert certain substance abusers to closely monitored treatment programs, courts have begun to develop the concept of _____________
a. Retribution b. nonjudicial punishment c. incapacitation d. the drug court