The British Mandate in Iraq and Transjordan, Case Study Example

After reading several books published over the last ten years, the history of the British Mandate related to the countries of Iraq and what was once called the Transjordan area continues to be of great interest to historians, mostly due to making it possible for the creation of the nation of Iraq and the long history of violence in the Middle East following Great Britain’s departure from Iraq or as some refer to it, Mesopotamia, the “Land Between the Two Rivers,” being the Euphrates and the Tigris which flows through the city of Baghdad. Also, after searching the Internet, several excellent sources were found that discuss this period in the history of the Middle East in-depth, one being “The British Mandate in Iraq, 1914-1932” which examines Britain’s involvement in Iraq over the course of eighteen years of struggle, warfare, and ultimately independence.

Great Britain’s Mandate in Iraq

The presence of Great Britain in Iraq can be divided into four separate stages–1), from the end of World War I in 1914 to about 1921 when the British government installed King Faisal as the monarch of Iraq; 2), the growth of mass protest by the “urban educated classes” against the British Mandate, circa 1923; 3), attempts to meet international commitments according to the League of Nations in 1927 in conjunction with increasing political pressure from both the British and Iraqi public; and 4), the independence of the nation of Iraq in 1932 which left the country unable to “defend itself against its neighboring states” like Jordan and Iran (Dodge 3). In the end, Great Britain failed to bring security to Iraq.

Two important reasons was that Great Britain did not possess the insight to realize that the world of the late 1930’s was transforming from an international system into self-determining states via the rise of strident nationalism or sovereign nation-states, and second, because of the First World War, the “powers of Great Britain, France and Germany were greatly reduced, leaving all three struggling to regain domestic stability and international influence” (Dodge 1).

Great Britain’s Mandate in Transjordan

In contrast to the Mandate of Iraq, the Transjordan Mandate concerned the development of the Arab Palestinian nation of Transjordan which was created in 1923 by “chopping off” 75% of the Jewish Palestinian homeland along the Mediterranean Sea and giving it to the Arab Palestinians. The other 25% west of the Jordan River remained in the hands of the Jews. Apparently, Great Britain assumed that dividing the land between these two groups would help to reduce the political tensions in Palestine; however, the Arab Palestinians were not satisfied and wanted all of the territory as their official homeland (“The Division of the Mandate for Palestine”).

But much like Great Britain’s problems with the Iraq Mandate, strident nationalism was on the rise in the Middle East which encouraged and incited the Arab Palestinians that remained in the Jewish section to launch “never-ending murderous attacks upon the Jewish Palestinians in an effort to drive them out” (“The Division of the Mandate for Palestine”), a situation that continues to this very day. As for Great Britain, the British government failed to maintain order in the Transjordan area, much like in Iraq, and when oil was discovered in the Middle East, the British ignored the situation between the Palestinian Jews and the Arab Nationalists. In the end, the Palestinian Jews were left to their own devices (much like in Iraq), thus beginning a decades-long struggle to regain what they considered as their birthright by fighting the Arab Nationalists and forcing the British to leave Palestine (“The Division of the Mandate for Palestine”).

Works Cited

Dodge, Toby. “The British Mandate in Iraq, 1914-1932.” The Middle East Online Series 2: Iraq1914-1974. 2006. Web. 27 December 2013.

“The Division of the Mandate for Palestine.” 2013. Web. 27 December 2013.