Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq |
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Christopher Catherwood
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Pages: 267 (Paperback)
ISBN: 078671557X
Pub: Carroll & Graf Publishing
Pub date: 2005-04-28
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 248790
Reader Reviews:
Inquiry into the creation of Iraq (12/13 people found this helpful)
The most enduring legacy of the First World War was the decision by the victorious Allies to dismember the Ottoman Empire. Stripping the Turks of their domination of the Middle East had a seductive logic to it, particularly for European Powers who wanted to restore their own hold on empire. They posed as liberators, as the guarantors of civilisation and modernism, freeing the Arab peoples from the oppression and darkness represented by a decaying, barbaric Ottoman Empire.
Catherwood here dissects the assumption that the Arabs wanted freedom from Turkey - he argues that most of them remained loyal throughout the war, but that a handful of prominent families saw an opportunity to seize power and secure British and French support for their political coups.
Churchill was colonial secretary in 1921. He assumes direct responsibility for the creation of what would become Iraq - a decision which has returned to haunt British politicians in the 21st century. He was convinced that the Hashemites were popular rulers, and welded together a number of Ottoman provinces to provide them with the kingdom of Iraq. From the start, this was an artificial country, impossible to reconfigure as a nation. It contained too many different peoples with too many different agendas for there ever to be unity or peace here.
Almost immediately, British troops and airmen were dragged into service to try to enforce national unity and prop up the regime and Hashemite dynasty. Catherwood pulls no punches in his denunciation of Churchill's role in this botched piece of colonialism. The incompetence, the lack of information, the misuse of information, and the ego and arrogance of the leading political figures provide a salutary lesson for history ... one which appears to have gone unread.
A fascinating, stimulating, and accessible account (despite the complexity of the subject), and an important corrective to many of the contemporary assumptions about the state of the Middle East.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Countries & Regions -> Asia -> Middle East -> Iraq
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Britain & Ireland
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History
Books -> Subjects -> History -> General
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback