Iraq Through the Lens of 1882 (original) (raw)
Related papers
From the Egyptian Crisis of 1882 to Iraq of 2003
2005
This article compares and contrasts the alliance ramifications of the U.S. decision to "go to Baghdad" in 2003 with both the British intervention/occupation of Egypt in 1882 and the British (...)
Prestige, Prudence and Public Opinion in the 1882 British Occupation of Egypt
Australian Journal of Politics & History, 2010
This article challenges both the "gentlemanly capitalist" thesis and "official mind" interpretation of the 1882 British occupation of Egypt. The former fails to adequately consider the political character of the Anglo-French financial Control overturned by the Urabist revolt in February 1882. The latter overstates the significance of the Suez Canal as both trigger and justification for military intervention. The article argues that the primary motivation behind the Egyptian occupation was the vindication of British prestige, vis-à-vis the Continental Powers, but especially in India and in the "East" by suppressing the threat to "civilised" order posed by the Urabist revolt. The protection of the Suez Canal and British financial and trade interests were secondary and derivative.
2014
In the second half of the 19th century, the Iraqi provinces of the Ottoman Empire constituted a frontier of imperial contestation between the Ottoman and British empires. The Ottoman Empire sought establish political hegemony over these far-flung provinces through military conquest and a program of developmentalist and colonialist policies in order to defend against the expansion of British strategic interests in the Persian Gulf. Simultaneously, a network of British commercial and diplomatic interests in Iraq sought to create conditions favorable to British economic expansion into this region, adopting strategies of “informal empire.” This contestation is visible in repeated disputes over matters of commercial shipping and the public health policies of quarantine in the face of plague and cholera. Through records of incidents involving the Baghdad-based and British-owned Lynch Brothers shipping firm, I argue that neither the Ottoman nor the British empires achieved the level of dominance that they sought in the region.
By using data from the Records of Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of Asia, 1910-1929 and the Iraqi Administration Reports, in regards to the railway and pipeline infrastructure, along with integral secondary source material like Peter Sluglett’s Britain in Iraq: Contriving King and Country (2007, 2nd ed.), this study addresses the concept of identity among the Sunni Arab elite as well as Kurds within Iraq, who were embedded within this new imperial reality of oil and railways between 1920 and 1929. This study has found that the U.S. had a covert interest in the shaping of the Iraqi nation, while most research has focused on the British imperial agenda concerning railways. Furthermore, the question of Mosul implicated a desire of the British to include the former province in Iraq between the years 1920 to 1926. However, it seems through U.S. correspondence that the potential pipeline within the Mosul region, suggested prior to the settling of the Mosul question between Britain and Turkey that surveying the area was a paramount issue though much of the U.S. correspondence, though British Iraqi Reports cite it rarely. The methodology employed within this research project consists of both the imperialist agenda of Britain and the U.S. embryonic interests in Iraq, while conveying the consciousness of those imperialized and/or colonized. Therefore, this had implicated that there was a vested interest in the creation of Iraq, and more specifically the railways and pipelining were a burgeoning concern for these imperial powers throughout the primary source documentation. This interest in surveying the newly fashioned Iraq led to what one scholar terms as an “emerging fault line” among the ethnically heterogeneous populations throughout the former vilayets, which had not existed prior to the formation of the Iraqi nation.
Turkish Journal of History, 2019
The British occupation of Egypt in 1882 meant a breakaway from the Anglo-French entente's control over Ottoman financial system and the end of the Liberal Government's 'reluctant' imperialism. When the Liberal ministry began in 1880, the cabinet immediately focused on foreign policies towards the Ottoman Empire subsequent to Gladstone's campaign during the Bulgarian Agitation which had already turned out to be a party question. The protection of the Suez Canal as well as the interests of the British bondholders and the prestige of the British Empire was vital, which united the Liberal ministry and the Conservatives under the same purpose. Despite late Ottoman approval, the occupation signified the edge of Anglo-Ottoman alliance during the nineteenth century. This study will analyse why the Egyptian question is important for British party politics and to what extend the Anglo-Ottoman relations was affected with these circumstances. Öz 1882 yılında İngilizler ’in Mısır’ı işgali gerek İngiliz Hükümeti’nin ‘gönülsüz’ emperyaliz- minin gerekse de Osmanlı ekonomisindeki İngiliz -Fransız kontrolünün sonu anlamına gelmekteydi. 1880 yılında Liberal parti göreve baslar başlamaz, William E. Gladstone’un 1876 yılında gerçekleş- tirdiği Bulgar Ajitasyonu kampanyasının bir devamı olan ve parti siyasetinde ana gündem maddesini oluşturmuş Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’na yönelik dış politikaya ağırlık vermişlerdi. Süveyş Kanalı’nın korunması, İngiliz tahvil sahiplerinin çıkarları ve İngiliz İmparatorluğu’nun prestiji bu açıdan Liberal ve Muhafazakârları ayni amaçta birleştirmişti. Osmanlı’nın geç onayıyla, 19. yüzyıl boyunca suren Osmanlı-İngiliz İşbirliği’nde işgal köşe taşlarından biri olmuştur. Bu çalışma, Mısır Sorunu’nun İngi- liz parti politikasında önemi ve Osmanlı-İngiliz ilişkilerini bu şartlar altında ne derecede etkilediğini analiz edecektir.
Iraq Between Occupations: Perspectives from 1920 to the Present
Iraq Between Occupations: Perspectives From 1920 to the Present (Eds. Amatzia Baram, Achim Rohde, Ronen Zeidel (New York: Palgrave Macmilan, 2010), 2010
A fresh look at Iraqi history through the twentieth century until today, this book identifies continuities and breaks in the Iraqi experience. It combines chapters that provide each an expansive bird's-eye view of a key issue spanning a century with chapters that focus on more specific case studies that have been largely overlooked so far but such that are of great significance for Iraq's present and future. Some of the events and developments discussed were enforced from the outside and some grew out of particular and historically changing configurations within Iraqi society, but all are highly relevant to the understanding of contemporary Iraq. Written by leading scholars in the field, the chapters focus on such topics as the changing features of the of Iraqi identity, the rise of Iraqi nationalism alongside competing identities, ethnic and sectarian communalism, the role of women, Iraq's military history, the Iraqi economy, state building after the 2003 invasion, and a comparative discussion of the British and U.S. colonial adventures and the implications of those developments for the future of the country. The volume raises some pertinent questions on the way Iraqi history and present are interpreted and adds knowledge to the existing scholarship.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE BRITISH INVASION OF EGYPT (1882) THROUGH THE LENS OF VICTORIAN PARTY POLITICS
Turkish Journal of History, 2019
The British occupation of Egypt in 1882 meant a breakaway from the Anglo-French entente's control over Ottoman financial system and the end of the Liberal Government's 'reluctant' imperialism. When the Liberal ministry began in 1880, the cabinet immediately focused on foreign policies towards the Ottoman Empire subsequent to Gladstone's campaign during the Bulgarian Agitation which had already turned out to be a party question. The protection of the Suez Canal as well as the interests of the British bondholders and the prestige of the British Empire was vital, which united the Liberal ministry and the Conservatives under the same purpose. Despite late Ottoman approval, the occupation signified the edge of Anglo-Ottoman alliance during the nineteenth century. This study will analyse why the Egyptian question is important for British party politics and to what extend the Anglo-Ottoman relations was affected with these circumstances.