1108 The Formation of Iraq Part 1: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire

In 1918, after years of devastating warfare, the Ottoman Empire finally collapsed and the British, expanding into the Middle East, attempted to control the area. However, the area proved to be too vast and troublesome for the British Empire. The British suffered greatly in the war and could no longer maintain a tight grip over their holdings. The empire began to buckle. The British needed an Arab ally to rule as their proxy. After months of haggling and policy-making, the Cairo Conference of 1921 established the British Mandate of Mesopotamia with Faisal bin al-Hussein as its king. Secretary of State of the Colonies Winston Churchill called together some of the top minds in British Middle Eastern policy to establish such a friendly territory. Men such as Percy Cox, T.E. Lawrence, Gilbert Clayton, Arnold Wilson, and Churchill would become most responsible for creating Iraq, but they all relied on a single source of advice. Diplomacy was a man’s world during the early twentieth century, but one woman was present—a woman who had spent the last fifteen years in the Middle East and earned the trust of both Arab chieftains and British diplomats alike. Her name was Gertrude Bell and she demonstrated great influence in the creation of modern Iraq.