London and the Invention of the Middle East: Money, Power, and War, 1902-1922

Abstract

Prologue: power and responsibility. Part 1 British ascendancy: the British in the 19th century London's architecture of power nine major cabinet ministers labelling the Middle the Middle and the 20th century. Part 2 status quo 1902-1905: London's mood after the Boer War Balfour at Downing Street Lansdowne's diplomacy ending diplomatic isolation Fleet Street and the Baghdad Railway Russia's defeat and the entente with France. Part 3 Diplomatic defensives 1905-1911: the Liberals in power, Grey at the Foreign Office Persia and the Anglo-Russian convention ignorance of languages and customs the young Turks finance, trade, and The Near East Cromer's Egypt. Part 4 Preparing for war 1911-1914: Lloyd George's budgets and Churchill's navy Turkish defeats Kitchener in Egypt and beyond railway settlements Persia and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Whitehall's war against the Turkish Empire war and censorship. Part 5 Great powerlessness 1914-1916: committees, Asquith, and Lloyd George, Westerner vs. Easterner strategy Dardanelles and Gallipoli Salonika and Baghdad the Arabs and secret diplomacy general staff opposition to Side Shows Northcliffe's press and cover ups. Part 6 War imperatives 1916-1918: financial dependence on the United States Lloyd George's manipulation of policy advancing to Baghdad & Jerusalem the Balfour declaration and war aims whither Russia? crises on the Western and Home Fronts armistices with Bulgaria and Turkey. Part 7 Mounting demands 1918-1922: Lloyd George's personal diplomacy Curzon and post-war Persia a Devil's Cauldron economic and Irish troubles impatience in Fleet Street and Westminster Churchill's Ungrateful Volcano facing Egyptian and Turkish nationalism. Epilogue: London's legacy.