Promises…pg. 175-182

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies…

Vocabulary• Allies• Diplomacy• Mandate system• Nationalism• Colonial• Autonomous• Entente• Central Powers• Caliphate• Armistice

The First World War in the Middle East (pg. 175)

• Often called the Great War• Often thought of as a European War• But many of the bloodiest battles were fought

on the Turkish-Russian frontiers• Middle East was strategic to both sides

Casualties…• Ottoman Military losses: 750,000, same wounded• Non-combatant losses (men, women and children):

2,150, 000– Famine, disease, population transfer (Armenians) included

as well– 1914-1922 Ottoman loss rose to 5 million

• WWI ended with the break- up of Ottoman Empire and caliphate– Arab-speaking: broke into smaller states– Turkish-speaking: established separately as Turkey– Palestine: designated as homeland for Jewish people

The Ottoman Empire joins the First World War

• August 2, 1914 (day after Russia joined war) secret agreement was signed b/w small group of Young Turk leaders and Germans to join war

• November 2 Ottomans entered the war and November 14 the Sultan declared “Holy War”

• Continue until the armistice of Mudros (Oct. 30, 1918)• War was a miscalculation (Thought involved only

Russia, Germany and Austira/Hungary)• Historiography usage: Avi Shlaim “was the most

significant in the history of the modern Middle East and first move in its remaking.” In regards to Ottomans entering on side of Germany

Allied Diplomacy: plenty of Promises (pg. 177)

• Allied concerns: Russians at risk (physically blocked sea route), brought Germany too close to Britain’s sphere of interest (Persia and India), spread the battle front

• Brought allied powers to negotiating tables (started dividing Ottoman before war was over)

• Historiography: Elisabeth Monroe, “expansionist bookings in advance.”

Promises:

– Russians –

wanted to keep them in war with Treaty of Constantinople signed in March 1915, gave Russians control of the Dardanelle Straits (access to port) and gave British and French control of Central Persia and Ottoman Territory

French

• talks led by George Picot (French diplomat) and Sir Mark Sykes (British Paliament), Sykes-Picot Agreement May 1916: divided area into direct and indirect control.

• Direct: establish administration• Indirect: supply Arab States with advisors and

functionaries at request of leaders• land divided: French took Lebanon and Syria the

British took Iraq and indirectly parts of Egypt

Italians

• to bring Italy into the war, Treaty of London April 1915 and eventually the Saint-Jean Maurienne Agreement Aug 1917, promising parts of the Ottoman Empire: Libya and Dodecanese islands (Greek Islands in Aegean Sea), portion of Anatolia, and Smyrna (city in Turkey)

Jew Promises

• in Sykes-Picot Palestine had been placed in international hands, but Zionist movement was pushing for a Jewish Homeland since 1897, British became sympathetic because of Russian Jewish support, US support and it would serve UK interests (close port access), Balfour Declaration (Nov. 1917) supported idea of placing Palestine under direct British control after war

Arabs

British hoping to incite an Arab revolt contacted Sharif of Mecca (Sharif Hussein) to support British against Ottomans, in hopes of Arab independence. (Hussein-McMahon correspondence). These promises were not honored, letters are controversial, perhaps confusion over frontiers and terminology, no agreements made and Hussein agreed to a temporary British occupation, both needed each other to accomplish what they wanted