British Empire - Middle East + Iran

By seamusgallagher

  • Baron de Reuter buys major Iranian rights

    A businessman that privately bought rights to Iranian banks, currency, infrastructure and communications.

  • Shah of Iran sells Iran's tobacco industry to the British

    British businessman under Imperial Tobacco paid £15,000 for all of Iran's tobacco shops.

  • Shah sells oil rights to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company

    George Reynolds had purchased the rights to all Iranian oil for £20,000. The Anglo Iranian Oil Company would have all rights to Iranian oil on a 60 year lease. National discontent followed, prompting the creation of the Majlis Parliament.

  • British government buys majority share in Anglo-Iranian Oil Company

    51% share for £2 million, allowing the British Navy to use Iranian oil

  • McMahon begins corresponding with Hussein

    British High Commissioner in Egypt and ruler of Mecca and the Hejaz. McMahon aimed to incite an Arab uprising that would undermine the Ottomans, turning the war in Britain's favour.

  • Sykes-Picot Agreement

    Divided the Middle East, allocating Palestine and Jordan to Britain, northern Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to the French. Undermined McMahon's promise of Arab independence. Also arbitrarily drew Iraq's borders.

  • British troops capture Baghdad

    A front had been opened in Mesopotamia against the Ottoman Empire. The British occupied Iraq and received a League of Nations mandate for the territory after the war.

  • Balfour Declaration

    In an attempt to gain financial support from the European Jewish community, Foreign Secretary Balfour declared to the Rothschilds that Britain would support the Zionist effort. Despite Montagu's opposition, this declaration would catalyse inter-war Jewish immigration to Palestine.

  • Britain granted mandate of Palestine

    Guaranteed British support for religious and civil liberties for all sects of Palestinian society.

  • Attempt to set up civilian government in Palestine

    Led by High Commissioner Herbert Samuel, this attempt failed because of the divide between the pro-Jewish British government and the pro-Arab British civil servants in Palestine.

  • Iraqi Revolt begins

    A fatwa decreed that Muslims should not be ruled by non-Muslims, and violence broke out between the British and Iraqis. Kurds rebelled, seeking independence, and 1,000 British and 10,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed.

  • Cairo Conference begins

    Iraq would have some self-determination and be ruled by the sympathetic Hashemite family. British influence remained.

  • Anglo-Iraqi Treaty signed

    Recognised the Muslim Faisal I as the Hashemite King of Iraq. British advisors eld Iraq's government and British troops ran military bases and the Iraqi army, though in effect Iraq was a sovereign state.

  • Anglo-Iraqi Treaty

    Agreed on co-operation between Britain and Iraq in military and foreign affairs. Britain could use Basra's air bases and keep troops in Iraq for 25 years.

  • Jewish population in Palestine reaches 17%

    Hitler's persecution of the Jews boosted Jewish immigration to Palestine. There were inter-communal tensions as land purchases were recommended to be controlled.

  • Iraq achieves independence

    The mandate expired, but British influence remained strong. Their 50% stake in the Iraq Petroleum Company, military bases and political advisors ensured a sympathetic Iraq.

  • Peel Report recommends partition in Palestine

    Seeing 400,000 Jews in Palestine, this report suggested partition as a solution. However, Arab opposition and Palestine's status as a mandate made this impossible.

  • Quotas introduced on Jewish immigration to Palestine

    15,000 Jews a year, for five years, was permitted. Zionist paramilitaries e.g Haganah and the Stern Gang emerged, carrying out terror attacks and assassinations on figures such as Lord Moyne, the British Minister for the Middle East

  • Lehi (Stern Gang) founded

    Officially the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, this Zionist paramilitary sought to remove British authorities from Palestine through violent means. They even offered their collaboration to Nazi Germany until 1942, when they sided with the Soviet Union. Numbering only a few hundred, the Lehi assassinated UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, and carried out the Deir Yassin massacre on 107 Palestinian Arabs.

  • Britain and USSR invade Iran

    Iranian leader had show sympathies with Nazi Germany

  • Jewish population in Palestine reaches 30%

    Up from 17% in 1931, demonstrated the persecution of Jews in Europe.

  • UN Palestine Partition Plan

    Accepted by Jewish leaders as it gave them a majority share, the Arab leaders' rejection prompted the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the subsequent Nakba. Arab-Jewish relations worsened during the inter-war years and the feeble British could not control Jewish migration and the insistence of President Truman to let further Jews in. The partition aimed for Jerusalem to remain under international control.

  • Mohammed Mossadegh becomes Iranian Prime Minister

    Accompanied by the rise of the Soviet-backed Tudeh party, Mossadegh pledged to nationalise the Iranian oil industry. As the US negotiated an oil deal with Saudi Arabia for 50% profits, the IRanians felt they were being exploited by the British. The British took an 80% profit share whilst under-reporting profits. Iran nationalised the industry, Britain respoding by banning international tankers from taking Iranian oil.

  • Iranian coup d'etat deposes Mossadegh

    CIA and British collusion accompanied the more anti-communist elections of Eisenhower and CHurchill. The shah replaced Mossadegh, and British Petroleum and Shell succeeded the rights to Iranian oil.