F. S. Naiden: How Iraq became a nation
[F. S. Naiden is a professor of ancient Greek at Tulane University. He is working on a biography of the marshals of Alexander the Great, the first part of which, “The Invention of the Officer Corps,” will appear in The Journal of the Historical Society in March. ]
Before World War I brought aerial photography to the mapmaker’s art, seeing a nation whole was not as simple as looking at a picture. It was an act of imagination. And few countries were the subject of more imaginings than Iraq. The Ottoman Turks saw it as a stop on the route to the Persian Gulf and thus to India. Earlier, the Romans and Macedonians had imagined it the same way. Alexander the Great made the trip to India, and the Roman emperor Trajan followed him 450 years later, in ad 117, though he was forced to turn back after reaching the Persian Gulf. But others would follow. Much of the world ended up as a way station to India, or the idea of India— the West Indies, the East Indies, the Indian Ocean.
Now imagine a modern Alexander or Trajan. He knows where India is and he has conquered most of it. He must now administer it. India is British, and Iraq is about to be administered as part of India. It is the fall of 1914, the early days of World War I, and Britain’s Indian army has landed in the south of Iraq, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Its 50,000 men do not intend to seize the country. They only want to prevent Britain’s enemies or even Britain’s allies from using it as a backdoor to India. Iraq, on the other hand, is not even a name on a map. India will give it one.
Then administrators at 10 Downing Street start interfering. They do not want the colonial but autonomous government of British India to draw the map. They want to draw it themselves. So the battle begins. The Indian government draws maps of Iraq. London redraws them. India thinks small— for it, Iraq is a small thing. London thinks big. India makes its point by moving its army. London makes its point by drawing. London eventually wins. But winning will take a few maps....
[HNN Editor: The article goes on to tell the story of the formation of Iraq by the British, T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell.]
Read entire article at Wilson Quarterly (spring)
Before World War I brought aerial photography to the mapmaker’s art, seeing a nation whole was not as simple as looking at a picture. It was an act of imagination. And few countries were the subject of more imaginings than Iraq. The Ottoman Turks saw it as a stop on the route to the Persian Gulf and thus to India. Earlier, the Romans and Macedonians had imagined it the same way. Alexander the Great made the trip to India, and the Roman emperor Trajan followed him 450 years later, in ad 117, though he was forced to turn back after reaching the Persian Gulf. But others would follow. Much of the world ended up as a way station to India, or the idea of India— the West Indies, the East Indies, the Indian Ocean.
Now imagine a modern Alexander or Trajan. He knows where India is and he has conquered most of it. He must now administer it. India is British, and Iraq is about to be administered as part of India. It is the fall of 1914, the early days of World War I, and Britain’s Indian army has landed in the south of Iraq, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Its 50,000 men do not intend to seize the country. They only want to prevent Britain’s enemies or even Britain’s allies from using it as a backdoor to India. Iraq, on the other hand, is not even a name on a map. India will give it one.
Then administrators at 10 Downing Street start interfering. They do not want the colonial but autonomous government of British India to draw the map. They want to draw it themselves. So the battle begins. The Indian government draws maps of Iraq. London redraws them. India thinks small— for it, Iraq is a small thing. London thinks big. India makes its point by moving its army. London makes its point by drawing. London eventually wins. But winning will take a few maps....
[HNN Editor: The article goes on to tell the story of the formation of Iraq by the British, T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell.]