Mandate for Mesopotamia - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from British Mandate of Iraq) Proposed League of Nations Mandate for Iraq This article is about the instrument proposed by the League of Nations to grant Britain a mandate over Mesopotamia (Iraq). For the actual British rule in the region, see Mandatory Iraq.

Draft Mandate for Mesopotamia
Draft mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine as submitted for the approval of the League of Nations on 7 December 1920
Created	1920 (draft only)
Ratified	Not ratified
Author(s)	League of Nations
Purpose	Proposed creation of the territory of Mesopotamia. The Kingdom of Iraq was created instead

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History of Iraq

Prehistory Ubaid period Hassuna culture Halaf culture Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period Samarra culture (Eridu) Uruk period Jemdet Nasr Period
Bronze Age Early Dynastic Period Sumer Hamazi Assyria Akkadian Empire Gutian Dynasty Neo-Sumerian Empire Isin-Larsa period Simurrum Babylonia First Babylonian Empire Kassites Middle Assyrian Empire Neo-Assyrian Empire Neo-Babylonian Empire
Iron Age Achaemenid Assyria Seleucid Babylonia Parthian Babylonia Roman Mesopotamia Sasanian Asorestan
Middle Ages Islamic conquest Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate Hamdanids Buyid amirate of Iraq Marwanids Uqaylids Al-Mazeedi Ayyubids Seljuk Empire Atabegs of Azerbaijan Zengids Ilkhanate Jalairid Sultanate Timurid Empire Kara Koyunlu Aq Qoyunlu
Early modern period Safavids Ottoman Iraq Mamluk dynasty
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The Mandate for Mesopotamia (Arabic: الانتداب على بلاد ما بين النهرين, romanized: al-Intidāb ʿalā Bilād mā bayn an-Nahrayn) was a proposed League of Nations mandate to cover Ottoman Iraq (Mesopotamia). It would have been entrusted to the United Kingdom but was superseded by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, an agreement between Britain and Iraq with some similarities to the proposed mandate. On paper, the mandate lasted from 1920 to 1932.

The proposed mandate was awarded on 25 April 1920 at the San Remo Conference, in Italy, in accordance with the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement but was not yet documented or defined. It was to be a class A mandate under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. A draft mandate document was prepared by the British Colonial Office in June 1920 and submitted in draft form to the League of Nations in December 1920.

Immediately after the end of the First World War, Sir Arnold Wilson, the future High Commissioner to Iraq, recommended the annexation of Mesopotamia to India "as a colony of India and the Indians, such as the government of India administer it and gradually cultivate its vast plains, and settle the warrior Punjab races in it". In a memorandum written on 22 April 1918, Cox listed the social groups that the British should support: the Jewish community in Baghdad, the notables in Baghdad and Basara, the rich landowning Arabs and Jews, and the Shaikhs of sedentary tribes. Mosul was added to the region of British influence following the 1918 Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement.

The proposed mandate faced certain difficulties to be established, as a nationwide Iraqi revolt broke out in 1920 after which it was decided the territory would become the Kingdom of Iraq, via the Anglo-Iraq Treaty of October 1922. The Kingdom of Iraq became independent in 1931–1932, in accordance with the League of Nations stance, which stated such states would be facilitated into "progressive development" as fully independent states.

The civil government of British-administered Iraq was headed originally by the High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, and his deputy, Colonel Arnold Wilson. British reprisals after the murder of a British officer in Najaf failed to restore order. British administration had yet to be established in the mountains of northern Iraq. The most striking problem facing the British was the growing anger of the nationalists, who felt betrayed at being accorded mandate status.

Maps

Map presented by T.E. Lawrence to the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet in November 1918
British Map appended to 1921 CAB24/120 cabinet memorandum showing proposed mandates

References

^ The new Cambridge modern history. Volume xii. p.293.
Nadhmi, Wamidh Jamal Umar (1984). Al-Judhour al-Siyasiyya wal Fikriyya wal Ijtima'yya Lilharaka al-Qawmiyya al-'Arabiyya (al-Istiqlaliyya) fil 'Iraq [The Political, Intellectual and Social Roots of the Arab Nationalist (Independent) Movement in Iraq] (in Arabic). Markaz Dirasat al-Wihda al-'Arabiyya, Beirut. p. 399.
Nadhmi 1984, p. 275.
"Lawrence's Mid-East map on show". Archived from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2013-04-21.

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.

Dodge, Toby "Inventing Iraq" (2009)
Fieldhouse, David K. Western Imperialism in the Middle East, 1914–1958 (2006)
Fisk, Robert. The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, (2nd ed. 2006),
Simons, Geoff. Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam (2nd ed. 1994)
Sluglett, Peter. Britain in Iraq: Contriving King and Country, 1914–1932 (2nd ed. 2007)

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Former British Empire and Current British Overseas Territories

Legend: Former territory; Current territory; *Current Commonwealth realm; Current member of the Commonwealth of Nations

Europe
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Now Namibia
League of Nations mandate. British Cameroons is now part of Cameroon, while Tanganyika is part of Tanzania.
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- Federated States 1895–1946
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Maldives 1796–1965
Manila and Cavite 1762–1764
Mesopotamia 1920–1932
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Padang 1781–1784 and 1795–1819
Palestine 1923–1948
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- Crown Colony 1946–1963
Singapore 1946–1963
South Vietnam 1945–1946
Straits Settlements 1826–1946
Transjordan 1921–1946
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Weihai 1898–1930

Now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
League of Nations mandate. Iraq's mandate was not enacted and replaced by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty
Legitimacy of territorial establishment disputed

North America

Anguilla since 1650
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Oceania

18th and 19th centuries

20th century

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*Solomon Islands 1893–1978

Tonga 1900–1970
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*Australia 1901–1942
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Now Vanuatu
Now Kiribati and *Tuvalu

South America
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Now a department of Colombia Occupied by Argentina during the Falklands War of April–June 1982.

Antarctica and the South Atlantic
Saint Helena since 1658 Ascension Island since 1815 Tristan da Cunha since 1816 Falkland Islands since 1833 Australian Antarctic Territory (transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia) 1841–1933 Ross Dependency (transferred to the Realm of New Zealand) 1841–1947 British Antarctic Territory since 1908 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands since 1908
Since 2009 part of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; Ascension Island (1922–) and Tristan da Cunha (1938–) were previously dependencies of Saint Helena. Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1962; overlaps portions of Argentine and Chilean claims, borders not enforced but claim not renounced under the Antarctic Treaty. Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1985

v t e Mandates of the League of Nations (1919–1946)
Class A	Palestine Transjordan Syria and Lebanon Mesopotamia not enacted
Class B	Ruanda-Urundi Tanganyika British Cameroons French Cameroons British Togoland French Togoland
Class C	New Guinea Nauru South Seas Mandate South West Africa Western Samoa
See also: United Nations Trust Territories (post-1946)

Categories:

Maps

References

Further reading