HIST 105 Lecture 10: The British Mandate in Iraq
Document Summary
Sectarianism: three groups cannot" get along (ie. sunni and shi"a muslims). The safavid empire was the one before the ottoman empire. Safavid vs ottoman is interchangeable with shi"a vs sunni. When the ottomans win against the safavids, they create three provinces in the area where modern iraq is (mosul, baghdad, & basra). They try to establish sunni dominance (note that the majority of the population was shi"a). The ottomans place the sunni in power, which creates a new elite. The tanzimat centralized power/control, and iraq was one of the areas that had a lot of autonomy (ottomans had little control). Growing importance of oil at this time - there were many locations of iraq that britain wanted because of the (uncon rmed) presence of oil. Very close to or part of syria. Trying to recreate ancient mesopotamia, so they shove the 3 provinces of mosul, Each had very di erent orientations; no cohesion.
