Charles River Editors - The Mandate for Mesopotamia and Mandate for Palestine: The History of the Former Ottoman Territories Administered by the British after World War I

A British map of the region in 1921

The United Nations is one of the most famous bodies in the world, and its predecessor, the League of Nations, might be equally notorious. In fact, President Woodrow Wilsons pet project was controversial from nearly the minute it was conceived. At the end of World War I, Wilson's pleas at the Paris Peace Conference relied on his Fourteen Points, which included the establishment of a League of Nations, but while his points were mostly popular amongst Americans and Europeans alike, leaders at the Peace Conference largely discarded them and favored different approaches. British leaders saw their singular aim as the maintenance of British colonial possessions. France, meanwhile, only wanted to ensure that Germany was weakened and unable to wage war again, and it too had colonial interests abroad that it hoped to maintain. Britain and France thus saw eye-to-eye, with both wanting a weaker Germany and both wanting to maintain their colonies. Wilson, however, wanted both countries to rid themselves of their colonies, and he wanted Germany to maintain its self-determination and right to self-defense. Wilson totally opposed the war guilt clause, which blamed the war on Germany.

Wilson mostly found himself shut out, but Britain and France did not want American contributions to the war to go totally unappreciated, if only out of fear that the U.S. might turn towards improving their relations with Germany in response. Thus, to appease Wilson and the Americans, France and Britain consented to the creation of a League of Nations.

Too many were skeptical of the Treaty, especially given Europe's inability to adopt the remainder of Wilsons Fourteen Points. As a result, ironically, the United States didnt join the League of Nations, which would last only about 25 years. While it would attempt to resolve some territorial disputes, it simply proved too weak to prevent international aggression, primarily among the Axis Powers in the buildup to World War II. Thus, the Leagues greatest legacy ended up being its dismal failure to prevent World War II and ensure that World War I had truly been the war to end all wars, as originally intended.

Although the League of Nations was short-lived and clearly failed in its primary mission, it did essentially spawn the United Nations at the end of World War II, and many of the UNs structures and organizations came straight from its predecessor, with the concepts of an International Court and a General Assembly coming straight from the League. More importantly, the failures of the League ensured that the UN was given stronger authority and enforcement mechanisms, most notably through the latters Security Council, and while the League dissolved after a generation, the UN has survived for over 70 years.

One of the Leagues most lasting legacies was the manner in which it handed over administrative control of land in the Middle East to the victorious Allied Powers, namely France and Britain. The Ottoman Empire quickly collapsed after World War I, and its extensive lands were divvied up between the French and British. While the French gained control of the Levant, which would later become modern day nations like Syria and Lebanon, the British were given mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine. The British Mandate for Palestine gave the British control over the lands that have since become Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, while Mesopotamia covered modern Iraq.

British interest in supporting Arab nationalist aspirations at the onset of the war were clearly premised on the wider strategic objectives of defeating the Ottomans, and notwithstanding the McMahonHussein Correspondence, the concept of a single, unified Arab state under Hashemite rule would never come to fruition. By way of unintended consequences, however, Arab nationalism took root with the fall of the Ottomans, which would sow the seeds of many of the problems that the British would subsequently face in the Middle East, in particular in Mesopotamia. The British, like so many others since, failed to grasp the full complexity of Arab sectarianism and the cross-currents of internal politics, and with a policy premised on their own broad strategic interests, they simply laid the groundwork of future political catastrophe for Iraq and the Middle East in general. Thus, while the intention of the mandate system was to have the administrators peacefully and gradually usher in independent states, and both European powers eventually attempted to withdraw from the region, anyone with passing knowledge of the Middle Easts history in the 20 th century knows that the region has seen little peace.

During 1920, riots broke out in the Mandate that inflamed tensions between the Jews and Arabs. In response, in 1921 the British carved a large section out of the Mandate to establish the state of Transjordan, better known today simply as Jordan. Jordan comprised over 75% of the lands of the British Mandate.

In 1947, the British delegated the issue of partitioning the British Mandate to the United Nations, and the U.N. General Assembly set up the Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). UNSCOP eventually came up with what is now known as the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 . The Partition Plan carved up two strange looking states, but their motive was to create an Israel in which the Jewish population was a 55% majority, while Palestine had an over 90% Palestinian Arab majority. Meanwhile, the city of Jerusalem would be administered internationally, due to the sensitive religious concerns of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. In addition to several Christian holy spots, Jerusalems Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam, and it is situated right next to the Western Wall, the Jews holiest remaining site.

The proposed plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency, which represented the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine. However, it was rejected by Palestinian leaders in the Mandate, and it was also rejected by the newly formed Arab League, a confederation of Middle Eastern Arab states led by Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen. Although the partitioned state of Israel would have had a Jewish majority, the remainder of the British Mandate after the partition of Jordan had a population that was about 67% Palestinian, so they viewed the plan as being unfairly advantageous to the Jews.

The British were still in control of the Mandate, and they accepted the U.N. Partition Plan, but they had no interest in attempting to enforce the partition of the two states, especially not over the objections of one side after British forces had already been subjected to violence by Jewish groups. And without the British, there was no way for the United Nations to enforce the partition. Therefore, in September 1947, the British announced that they would be wiping their hands clean of the entire Mandate on May 14, 1948.