*Includes pictures
*Includes accounts of the campaigns
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars", was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months with little to no respite. Tens of millions of artillery shells and untold hundreds of millions of rifle and machine gun bullets were fired in a conflict that demonstrated man's capacity to kill each other on a heretofore unprecedented scale, and as always, such a war brought about technological innovation at a rate that made the boom of the Industrial Revolution seem stagnant.
Early in the war, the Ottomans knew the Dardanelles strait would most certainly be attacked and had prepared significant defenses. The plan drafted by the then First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, was meant to destroy Ottoman defenses along the Dardanelles. However, Allied forces comprised of British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand troops were unable to penetrate the Ottoman defenses, advancing only about 100 meters from the shores. The Ottomans, led by German General Liman von Sanders, further reinforced their positions. The later attempt of the British to establish a new beachhead was more successful, yet the British government refused to send significant reinforcements.
The successful defense of Gallipoli, however, convinced both Enver and Djemal that a second operation should be launched. Reinforcements arrived from Gallipoli and the Ottomans launched the second attempt in August 1916. British forces had, however, moved eastward toward Palestine, and they defeated the Ottoman forces at the Battle of Romani. The battle was the first clear British victory over the Ottomans and their German allies, resulting in a successful counter-offensive that led British General Edmund Allenby in Jerusalem. A final push with the Megiddo offensive and renewed campaign in Mesopotamia brought Entente forces even further into the Ottoman Empire.
The war to push the Ottoman Empire out of the Middle East ended up being a total success, and it has had far-reaching ramifications in the past 100 years. The Turks lost control of the Levant, the Saudi peninsula, and Mesopotamia, but now it was up to the victors to determine what should happen with the diverse populations of Arabs, Kurds, Jews, Sunnis, Shia, Christians, Druze, and various other groups that lived in this vast region. Even before final victory, the British and the French had come to an agreement about how to divide up the spoils. On May 16, 1916, British diplomat Mark Sykes and his French counterpart Francois Georges-Picot signed what has become popularly known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement. It divided the conquered lands into spheres of influence. The French got direct control of what is now Lebanon, coastal Syria, and portions of southern Turkey. The British got control of much of what is now Iraq, Kuwait, and the east coast of Saudi Arabia. Between these two areas were a French sphere of influence and a British sphere of influence. The Holy Land was made an Allied Condominium, ruled jointly by Britain and France under the advisement of the other Allies and the Sharif of Mecca.
The Middle East in World War I: The History and Legacy of the Biggest Campaigns in the Great War's Forgotten Theater examines the history of this crucial but often overlooked theater. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Middle East in World War I like never before.
