Mesopotamian campaign
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The Mesopotamian campaign or Mesopotamian front was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, troops from Britain, Australia and the vast majority from British Raj, against the Central Powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire. It started after British amphibious landings in 1914 which sought to protect Anglo-Persian oil fields in Khuzestan and the Shatt al-Arab. However, the front later evolved into a larger campaign that sought to capture the key city of Baghdad and divert Ottoman forces from other fronts. It ended with the Armistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession of Iraq and further partition of the Ottoman Empire.
British and Indian machine gunners, Mesopotamia, 1917.
The Sheik-ul-Islam declaring a jihad ("struggle") against enemies of Islam (the Allies).
1914, Initial British offence
July, British offence
Mandatory Iraq
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The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq, was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolt against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and a 1924 undertaking by the United Kingdom to the League of Nations to fulfil the role as Mandatory Power.
Coronation of Faisal as King of Iraq. Faisal seated, to his right are British High commissioner Percy Cox and Lieutenant Kinahan Cornwallis, to his left commander-in-chief of all British troops in the Mesopotamia Commander General Aylmer Haldane.
Mandatory Iraq, 1921. Remembrance flag of the coronation of King Faisail I
A photograph of British and Iraqi dignitaries in Baghdad from 1923 during the era of Mandatory Iraq. From second left to right in the front row, Kinahan Cornwallis, Sassoon Eskell, and Gertrude Bell. Bernard Henry Bourdillon stands directly behind Bell in the second row.