The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 The convention divided Iran into three zones. It allocated the north, including Isfahan, to Russia; the southwest especially Kerman, Sistan and Baluchestan to Britain; and demarcated the rest as a “neutral zone.” The two powers agreed to seek concessions only within their zones.

Iran During and After the War Even though Iran declared neutrality, it soon became a battleground for major powers. A new Anglo-Persian agreement was signed in 1919. According to the treaty, Britain obtained the sole right to provide Iran with loans, arms, advisors, military instructors, customs administrators and even teachers. It was also to have monopoly right to help the country build railways. In return, Britain was to provide Iran with a loan of 2 million pounds.

Reactions to the Agreement The main political figures, as well as the leading newspapers, wasted no time in denouncing the agreement. In Gilan, a guerilla group known as Jangalis (Men of the Forests) set up the Soviet Socialist Republic of Iran. High ranking British colonial officials were also arguing that the agreement and the presence of British troops and advisers in Persia had brought Bolshevik danger on the country. They also underlined that Curzon’s policies in Iran had placed an impossible financial burden on the empire.

Secret Treaties-1 Starting in 1915, the entente powers began negotiating secret treaties According to what became known as the Constantinople Agreement, Britain and France recognized Russia’s claims to the Turkish Straits and the city that overlooked them, Istanbul. In return for their generosity, France got recognition for its claims to Syria (a vague geographical unit never defined in the agreement), and Britain got recognition for its claims to territory in Persia.

Secret Treaties-2 What makes the Constantinople agreement important is that it established the principle that entente powers had a right to compensation for fighting their enemies and at least part of this compensation should come in the form territory carved out of the Middle East. Other secret treaties, applying the principle of compensation, soon followed: the Treaty of London, the Sykes-Picot agreement

Britain and the Arabs In 1915, the British made contact with an Arabian warlord based in Mecca, Sharif Husayn. Husayn promised to delegate his son, Amir Faysal, to launch a revolt against the Ottoman Empire. In exchange, the British promised gold and guns and, once the war ended, the right to establish an ambiguously defined Arab “state or states” in the predominantly Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire. The negotiations between the parties led to the famous Arab Revolt, guided by the famous British Colonel T. E. Lawrence.

Balfour Declaration While the negotiations that led to the Arab Revolt were held in private, the British pledged support to another group openly on the pages of the Times of London. According to the Balfour Declaration of November 1917, the British endorsed the Zionist goal of establishing “a national home” in Palestine for Jews around the world.

League of Nations and Mandate System “Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent states can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of assistance by a mandatory power until such time as they are able to stand alone, the wishes of the communities must be a principle consideration in the selection of the mandatory.” France got the mandate for the territory that now includes Syria and Lebanon while Britain got the mandate for the territory that now includes Israel, the occupied territories, Jordon and Iraq.

Mandate System-Imperialism Overall, the mandates system was little more than thinly disguised imperialism. The European mandatory powers had absolute rights over the internal affairs of their mandates, both economically and politically. They severed and joined the territories under their control as they wished. The British divided the Palestine mandate into two separate regions, one that would become Israel and the occupied territories and another that would become Jordan. They also created Iraq by joining together three Ottoman provinces, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra.