What the British Did: Two Centuries in the Middle East

385 Pages·2016·4.814 MB·English

by  Peter Mangold

Peter Mangold is a Visiting Academic at the Middle East Centre, St
Antony’s College, Oxford. He is a former member of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office Research Department and the BBC Arabic
Service. He has written extensively on British foreign policy and is the
author of The Almost Impossible Ally: Harold Macmillan and Charles de
Gaulle and Britain and the Defeated French: From Occupation to Liberation
1940–1944, winner of the 2013 Edith McLeod Literary Prize (both
I.B.Tauris).
‘What the British Did is an enjoyable and profitable read’
– Wm. Roger Louis, Professor of History, University of Texas, Austin
‘This book is a major contribution to the existing literature on Britain’s
encounter with the Middle East. It is unique in offering a comprehensive
survey of over two centuries of history. And it has the added merit of
exploring many different aspects in Britain’s relationship with this complex,
volatile, and endlessly fascinating region.’
– Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
For Meridel Holland
What the British Did
Two Centuries in the Middle East
Peter Mangold
Published in 2016 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright © 2016 Peter Mangold
The right of Peter Mangold to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this
book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
ISBN: 978 1 78453 194 2
eISBN: 978 0 85772 909 5
ePDF: 978 0 85772 704 6
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Typeset by Freerange
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations ix
Maps x
Introduction: ‘The Pedigree of a White Stallion’ 1
PART ONE: LINES OF INCURSION, 1798–1922
1 Persia’s Doubtful Friend: 1800–1914 15
2 Toeholds in Arabia: The Gulf and Aden, 1798–1914 29
3 Mediterranean Approaches: Egypt, Syria and Palestine, 41
1798–1882
4 Unintended Consequences: Egypt, 1882–1914 54
5 The Battle for the Middle East: On the Defensive, 1914–16 67
6 The Battle for the Middle East: Onto the Offensive, 1916–18 79
7 ‘Present at the Creation’: Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, Palestine 89
and Persia, 1918–21
PART TWO: ON BORROWED TIME, 1922–45
8 ‘An Inferior Independence’: Egypt, 1918–39 109
9 Client Kings: Iraq and Transjordan, 1921–39 120
10 ‘Riding Two Horses at Once’: Palestine, 1921–39 137
11 Strong-men, Borders and Oil: The Gulf and Aden, 1918–39 149
12 Egypt and World War II 162
13 Holding the Middle East: World War II, 1939–45 172
what the british did
PART THREE: DISSOLUTION, 1945–71
14 Complex Adjustments: Nationalism, Oil and Decline 187
15 A Sea of Troubles: Palestine, Bases and Iran, 1945–54 196
16 The Road to Suez: Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, 1954–6 210
17 Still Fighting Nasser: Eastern Mediterranean, Iraq and Yemen, 222
1957–70
18 Oil, Force and Bases: The Gulf and Aden, 1945–71 232
PART FOUR: POST-IMPERIAL, 1971–2016
19 Just a Trading Nation: Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, 251
1971–9
20 A Return to the Gulf: Iraq, the ‘Arab Spring’ and ISIS 263
PART FIVE: PERSPECTIVES
21 Matters of Scruple 279
22 How Did the British Do? 291
Notes 301
Select Bibliography 347
Index 361
vi
List of Maps and Illustrations
Map 1. The Middle East before 1967 x
Map 2. Arabia and the Persian Gulf, 1916 xi
Map 3. The Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916 for the xii
Partition of Arab Inhabited Territory
Figure 1. The Shah returning to Tehran from a European visit, 1904 24
(Middle East Centre Archive [henceforth abbreviated as
MECA], Richards Collection)
Figure 2. ‘British Triumphalism, 1882’ (MECA, Grenfell Collection) 52
Figure 3. Egypt’s last Proconsul. Sir Miles Lampson, later Lord 115
Killearn (MECA, Freya Stark Collection)
Figure 4. A British-appointed King. Feisal I of Iraq (MECA, Bell 122
collection)
Figure 5. Friendly Game. General Sir John Glubb and Abdullah I 135
(MECA, Glubb collection)
Figure 6. Law and Disorder. Jaffa riots, 1933 (MECA, Faraday 142
Collection)
Figure 7. Coming Man, Ibn Sa’ud, December 1915 (MECA, 150
Bell Collection)
Figure 8. Less impressive than they look. British aircraft carriers 219
during the Suez operation (Imperial War Museum)
Figure 9. Sultan Qabus of Oman, shortly after coming to power in 238
a British-engineered coup in 1970 (MECA, Butt
Collection)
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Clare Brown, Professor Raymond Cohen, John Eidinow,
Roger Hardy, Dr Meridel Holland and Valerie Yorke for taking the
time and trouble to read all or parts of the manuscript (though, needless
to say, responsibility for the final text is my own). At St Antony’s College,
Oxford I am most grateful to the librarian the Middle East Centre, Mastan
Ebtehaj, for her patience as I discovered more and more relevant volumes,
and to the archivist, Debbie Usher, for guiding me through the Centre’s
fascinating collection of photographs. I am also grateful to Lester Crook
at I.B.Tauris for his support for the project. I should also acknowledge one
other considerable debt, to the late Philip Windsor of the London School
of Economics, who supervised the thesis which many years later led to
this book.
Abbreviations
AIOC (previously APOC) Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
APOC Anglo-Persian Oil Company
BJMES British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
EEC European Economic Community
EU European Union
INS Intelligence and National Security
IPC Iraq Petroleum Company
ISIS Islamic State in Syria and the Levant
JIC Joint Intelligence Committee
JICH Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth
History
MECA Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony’s
College, Oxford
MES Middle Eastern Studies
MI5 Security service
MI6 (also SIS) Britain’s external intelligence-gathering
service
RUSIJ Journal of the Royal United Services Institute
SAS Special Air Service
UAE United Arab Emirates
UAR United Arab Republic