A Peace To End All Peace: Creating The Modern Middle East 1914-1922

671 Pages·1989·27.645 MB·English

by  David Fromkin

Also by David Fromkin
The Independence of Nations
The Question of Government
David Fromkin
A PEACE
TO END ALL
PEACE
CREATING THE
MODERN MIDDLE EAST
1914-1922
Henry Holt and Company
New York
Copyright © 1989 by David Fromkin
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereof in any form.
Published in the United States by Henry Holt and Company, Inc.,
115 West 18th Street, New York, New York 1Q011.
Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited,
195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fromkin, David.
A peace to end all peace.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Great Britain—Foreign relations—Middle East.
2. Middle East—Foreign relations—Great Britain.
3. Middle East—Politics and government—1914-1945.
I. Tide.
DS63.2.G7F76 1989 327.41056 88-34727
ISBN 0-8050-0857-8
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10 9 8 7 6 5
“After ‘the war to end war* they seem
to have been pretty successful in Paris
at making a ‘Peace to end Peace.*”
Archibald Wavell (later Field Marshal Earl
Wavell), an officer who served under Allenby
in the Palestine campaign, commenting on
the treaties bringing the First World War
to an end

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Maps 10
Photo Credits 11
Acknowledgments 12
A Note on Spelling 14
Introduction 15
PART I At the Crossroads of History
1 THE LAST DAYS OF OLD EUROPE 23
2 THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT GAME IN ASIA 26
3 THE MIDDLE EAST BEFORE THE WAR 33
4 THE YOUNG TURKS URGENTLY SEEK AN ALLY 45
5 WINSTON CHURCHILL ON THE EVE OF WAR 51
6 CHURCHILL SEIZES TURKEY'S WARSHIPS 54
7 AN INTRIGUE AT THE SUBLIME PORTE 62
PART II Kitchener of Khartoum Looks Ahead
8 KITCHENER TAKES COMMAND 79
9 KITCHENER’S LIEUTENANTS 88
10 KITCHENER SETS OUT TO CAPTURE ISLAM 96
11 INDIA PROTESTS 106
12 THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE 111
PART III Britain is Drawn into the
Middle Eastern Quagmire
13 THE TURKISH COMMANDERS ALMOST LOSE THE WAR 119
14 KITCHENER ALLOWS BRITAIN TO ATTACK TURKEY 124
15 ON TO VICTORY AT THE DARDANELLES 130
16 RUSSIA’S GRAB FOR TURKEY 137
17 DEFINING BRITAIN’S GOALS IN THE MIDDLE EAST 146
18 AT THE NARROWS OF FORTUNE 150
19 THE WARRIORS 155
20 THE POLITICIANS 159
21 THE LIGHT THAT FAILED 163
7
8 CONTENTS
22 CREATING THE ARAB BUREAU 168
23 MAKING PROMISES TO THE ARABS 173
24 MAKING PROMISES TO THE EUROPEAN ALLIES 188
25 TURKEY’S TRIUMPH AT THE TIGRIS 200
PART IV Subversion
26 BEHIND ENEMY LINES 207
27 KITCHENER'S LAST MISSION 216
28 HUSSEIN'S REVOLT 218
PART V The Allies at the Nadir of Their Fortunes
29 THE FALL OF THE ALLIED GOVERNMENTS: BRITAIN AND FRANCE 231
30 THE OVERTHROW OF THE CZAR 239
PART VI New Worlds and Promised Lands
31 THE NEW WORLD 253
32 LLOYD GEORGE’S ZIONISM 263
33 TOWARD THE BALFOUR DECLARATION 276
34 THE PROMISED LAND 284
PART VII Invading the Middle East
35 JERUSALEM FOR CHRISTMAS 305
36 THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS 315
37 THE BATTLE FOR SYRIA 332
PART VIII The Spoils of Victory
38 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 351
39 BY THE SHORES OF TROY 363
PART IX The Tide Goes Out
40 THE TICKING CLOCK 383
41 BETRAYAL 389
42 THE UNREAL WORLD OF THE PEACE CONFERENCES 403
PART X Storm over Asia
43 THE TROUBLES BEGIN: 1919-1921 415
44 EGYPT: THE WINTER OF 1918-1919 417
45 AFGHANISTAN: THE SPRING OF 1919 421
46 ARABIA: THE SPRING OF 1919 424
47 TURKEY: JANUARY 1920 427
CONTENTS 9
48 SYRIA AND LEBANON: THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 1920 435
49 EASTERN PALESTINE (TRANSJORDAN): 1920 441
50 PALESTINE—ARABS AND JEWS: 1920 445
51 MESOPOTAMIA (IRAQ): 1920 449
52 PERSIA (IRAN): 1920 455
PART XI Russia Returns to the Middle East
53 UNMASKING BRITAIN’S ENEMIES 465
54 THE SOVIET CHALLENGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST 471
55 MOSCOW’S GOALS 475
56 A DEATH IN BUKHARA 480
PART XII The Middle Eastern Settlement of 1922
57 WINSTON CHURCHILL TAKES CHARGE 493
58 CHURCHILL AND THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE 515
59 THE ALLIANCES COME APART 530
60 A GREEK TRAGEDY 540
61 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE MIDDLE EASTERN QUESTION 558
Notes 569
Bibliography 607
Index 621
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
1 Lord Kitchener
2 Sir Mark Sykes
3 Enver
4 Talaat
5 Djemal
6 Crowds gather outside the Sublime Porte, 1913
7 Turkish soldiers at Dardanelles fort, 1915
8 Allied fleet at entrance to Dardanelles
9 Pictorial map of the Dardanelles
10 H.M.S. Cornwallis
11 Anzac beach
12 Australian troops at Gallipoli
13 Winston Churchill
14 Russian troop column
15 Russian advance-guard in Turkey, 1916
16 Russian occupation of Erzerum
17 Russian troops in Trebizond
18 British camel column in the Jordan Valley
19 British survey party in Palestine
20 Transport camels
21 View of Beersheba
22 The Hejaz flag
23 Prince Feisal
24 King Hussein of the Hejaz
25 T.E. Lawrence with Lowell Thomas
26 David Ben-Gurion
27 Vladimir Jabotinsky
28 Chaim Weizmann with Lord Balfour
29 Union Jack hoisted above Basrä
30 Street scene in Baghdad
31 Reading of General Allenby’s proclamation of martial law, 1917
32 Australian Light Horse entering Damascus, 1918
33 General Allenby enters Aleppo, 1919
34 Ottoman soldiers surrender, November 1918
35 British sentry, Constantinople, 1920
36 Admiral Calthorpe’s flagship, 1918
10