Making sense of this crazy world

Explaining the Cold War: The Context

Though there was a clear ideological divide, this hadn’t prevented the Soviet Union and the West uniting to defeat Hitler. So how was it that allies became enemies, and so quickly? How did Europe come to be divided by, in Churchill’s famous phrase, an ‘iron curtain’? Can we attach blame? Or was it mostly a terrible misunderstanding from both sides? This episode provides the context to this epoch-making momemt in history.

Two Incredible Women

I'm breaking away from my history of the Middle East though not entirely. Because it just so happens that while reading a book by a super, super historian Margaret MacMillan; the book: History’s People, I came across two incredible women, one kicking around in the Middle East, the other in the Balkans, around the time of WW1 and I really wanted to share what I learned about them with you. So, a slight diversion to take a look at Gertrude Bell and Edith Durham, two truly incredible women.

The End Game for the French in Syria and Lebanon

In this episode we look at the end of the French mandates and take a brief look at what, having been given their independence, Syria and Lebanon were able to do with it.

The Middle East and WW2: Victory only muddies the waters

In 1943, we come to a point where the story of the French and British mandates intertwines again, or at least more visibly intertwines for wasn’t it always so. And with victory in Europe looking increasingly likely, the waters, far from becoming clearer, only get more muddied as France and Britain lose control of events.

The Middle East and WW2: France divided and Britain in a tricky position

So far, the history of the Middle East has been a complicated story of Britain and France trying to out-manoeuvre each other whilst at the same time out-manoeuvring the Arabs and, in Britain’s case, the Jews too. Couldn’t get more complicated? Of course it could. In WW2, the same complications are there to be seen but now Britain is dealing with two Frances: Vichy France, the third of France that had some autonomy from the Germans so long as they collaborated with them; and Free France led by General Charles de Gaulle, from London mostly. And Free France, desperate though its position was, was as much at odds with the British as pre-war France had been. And the war, the need for oil, what Germany might or might not do and what a post-war world would look like needs to be added to the mix. A complicated story is going to get much more complicated.

Palestine and Jordan post WW1: from bad to worse

Everything goes from bad to worse for Britain in Palestine: the Arab Revolt and Zionist terrorism as Hitler's attacks on the Jewish community in Nazi Germany worsens and a second world war looks increasingly likely. 

The British mandates in Palestine and Jordan after WW1

This episode looks at the dilemma that immediately faced the British in Palestine: how to satisfy Jews and Arabs. What led to the Arab revolt and to Zionist terrorism with Nazi Germany the menacing backdrop. And, too, how Transjordan transformed itself into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Mesopotamia, Persia and Kuwait in-between the wars

Before WW1, what was to become Iraq was administered as three provinces of the Ottoman or Turkish Empire, none of which identified strongly with the others: Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, collectively known as Mesopotamia. Persia (today’s Iran), had been a British protectorate since 1899, as was Kuwait. All three states have become important in recent history. So what was British rule like in those inter-war years?

The French in Syria and Lebanon post-WW1

WW1 had been shattering for Europe: at least ten million dead, a lost generation of young men; WW1 had turned Britain from being the world’s largest creditor to being its largest debtor, whilst France’s economy was simply in ruins. European standing might have been dealt a mighty blow, its arrogance not so much. As you will see in this episode, both Britain and France still held unrealistic imperial ambitions. 

OIl and International Relations

This week I’m going to focus on an issue that seems to dominate so much of international relations today, and which, right back at the beginning of the twentieth century, came to dominate Britain’s thinking more and more as WW1 was still being fought out: oil.