The Great War was fought by millions of Men in Europe and remembered in the United Kingdom for the battles of the Western front, particularly the Somme where so many from these Islands perished, alongside those from Canada, Australia and America, although the greatest loss was by the sons of France, shared with those from Belgium. Less attention has been given to the Eastern Front where millions more Russians, Germans and the combinations of peoples which formed the Austrian Hungarian Empire which included those of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia. However there were other fronts and campaigns, in the Middle East, on the Italian Austrian Border which came within 15 miles of Venice and also elsewhere on the African continent.
The twenty fourth of the twenty six Great War DVD's, given away to their eternal credit by the Daily Mail, concentrates on the two campaigns in the Middle East. These battles were at first fought with comparative small armies, often covering vast territory within days, compared with the often static areas of the Western front, and were dependent on the bravery and skill of the officers and their men rather than the output of the industrial machines of the belligerent homelands.
I do not know which was regarded as the most important of the two expeditions to secure the Suez canal in Egypt or the new oilfields of Persia, but given the present involvement of Britain and America in Iraq and in trying to resolve the future of Palestine - Israel, to argue these campaigns were of greater significance to the cause of present day peace than other fronts has some justification. I begin with the campaign in Egypt which although commencing with a battle for the defence of the Canal in 1915 led to the request of Lloyd George to General Allenby to capture Jerusalem before the end of 1917, and he did this with two weeks to spare.
Although the Suez Canal was the gateway to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Far East interests, the greatest concern was for the Indian sub continent, which German support for the Turkish Empire hoped would lead to its loss from the British Empire, and its my understanding that the Palestinian campaign was fought primarily with British led Indian troops, a point which was brought out in the film Lawrence of Arabia.
Present day Egypt has a population not significantly greater than the UK but covering a vast area of over a million square kilometres, although the greatest area is desert and the population centred on the cities of the Nile delta where the only arable land is located. Egypt has not only been the bridge between Europe but was the first cultural civilization and one perspective is to remember that the pyramids were created more years than have elapsed since the birth of Christianity, between 2000 and 3000 years ago. Between 1500 and 1000 years BC the most well known of the Pharaohs and their wives ruled, Tutankhamen, Remises and Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaton Throughout these Millenniums the Egyptians remained in charge of their destinies, until 343 BC when first the Persians, then the Greeks and then Romans commenced 2000 years of foreign domination, such was its significance and strategic position.
However the governing influence was not to be military, political or economic but spiritual. It was several hundred years after Christ before the New Testament was translated into Arabic and the Coptic form Catholicism became the dominant religion in Egypt for a time. Then for six centuries in the period the west regards as the Middle Ages, it was Muslim Arabs who dominated with the Sunni form of the Muslim faith, and then it was the Turkish Muslims of the Ottoman Empire around 1250 who brought their form of Muslim worship and apart from the brief Napoleonic expedition the dominant Turkish influence remained until Britain seized control of the government in 1882 and until 1914 the dual influence of Westminster and Constantinople remained. In 1914 the opportunity was taken to attempt to remove Turkish involvement and it was primarily Britain and France that was to re-draw the map of the Middle East creating separate states according to their respective interests rather than those of the people or the promises made, sometimes in bad faith in order to gain Arab support for the overthrow of the rule of the Turks.
This is said within the context that as the Great War commenced after for 2000 years of making homes in the lands of Europe and America the former tribes of Israel had begun to make their way to their original birth lands. Thus there was the ingredients of what is the second great issue of the twenty first century AD, the place of the multitude of Jewish Christian and Muslim sects, often at war within each other as well as between each other, overshadowed by the god of oil and the system of capitalism. And the first will be mentioned in a moment.
The second expeditionary force was primarily from Australia, New Zealand and India assembled at the Port of Basra in the land which was then known as Mesopotamia. It is this often forgotten fact which helps the explain the present British involvement in Iraq and the agreement with the U.S.A to 'manage' the peace and establishment of democracy in this province, It also explains the concern over the Turkish interest in maintaining their present borderland with the threat of their own military intervention into Northern Iraq thus threatening the integrity of Iraq within its present borders. The possibility of Turkey and Iran seeking to incorporate parts of Iraq to protect and further their own interests mirrors much of the involvement of the Balkan countries in the First World War as they wanted to add and consolidate territory and borders.
Then the oilfields were recently discovered in Persia which we now know as Iran, and the purpose of the venture was to use Mesopotamia as a British controlled buffer between Turkey and Persia. It was the early days of recognising that the future prosperity, power and influence of the capitalist economies would be based more on oil, and gas than coal. Without oil and gas, or the development of nuclear power, we quickly revert to the conditions of the Middle Ages when wealth and power were controlled by a tiny minority with the rest of population condemned to a poor expendable serfdom. Our survival is dependent on having something to trade with the rest of the world, cultural, educational and technological. We do not have the energy which the great nations of this Millennium need, China, the foremost, India and USA, and Russia because of their land space and people volume, and none of these countries have need for our industrially manufactured goods, especially as they are able to produce them at significantly less cost. It is unfortunate that the majority of the older generation of British residents, and I suspect this also applies to those in the United States do not understand this reality, especially that we have no alternative but to become part of, one of many parts, of an integrated Europe, with shared political and military values, as well as economic. Separate or divided we do not survive. That is the reality which the votes now cast for out entries in the Euro song contest is but one indication.
According to the author of the Great War DVD there is an Arab saying that when God made Hell he decided it was not nasty enough and added flies thus creating Mesopotamia, and although the force made great strides after landing at Basra and decided to press even further for the city of Baghdad, which until the development of Constantinople had become the largest city in the Middle East, and therefore the strategic capital of Turkish rule in Arabia. However although Britain developed and strengthened Basra as a seaport making it the principal port of Iraq, the problem with the force was that it faced the same difficulties as all armies who move forward quicker than their supply lines: they become subject to shortages of food and water in conditions where the daily temperature can average over 120 degrees. Malaria, dysentery, cholera ravaged the troops, and eventually 13000 men were cut off and forced to surrender after what became the siege of Kut-al-Almara. This 1915 defeat led to a change in command and during 1916 and 1917 there were a series of successful battles, including the taking of Baghdad in March 1917, culminating in the taking of full control of the region in 1918.
It became necessary to switch from the small scale to the major and overall some 2 million men are said to have been involved in Great War fighting in Mesopotamia and Palestine. In order to ensure Arab support for the British French alliance the natural Arab quest for independence according to traditional cultures and boundaries was encouraged and promises made which the two major powers had little or no intention to honour, and one man was to make his reputation by inciting and unifying Arabia to rebel against the Turkish rule. Major T E Lawrence.
Of course we now know what happened after the war in Europe was won. British and French interests dominated decisions on how the map of the Middle East was to be redrawn. The sins of the fathers.
The twenty fourth of the twenty six Great War DVD's, given away to their eternal credit by the Daily Mail, concentrates on the two campaigns in the Middle East. These battles were at first fought with comparative small armies, often covering vast territory within days, compared with the often static areas of the Western front, and were dependent on the bravery and skill of the officers and their men rather than the output of the industrial machines of the belligerent homelands.
I do not know which was regarded as the most important of the two expeditions to secure the Suez canal in Egypt or the new oilfields of Persia, but given the present involvement of Britain and America in Iraq and in trying to resolve the future of Palestine - Israel, to argue these campaigns were of greater significance to the cause of present day peace than other fronts has some justification. I begin with the campaign in Egypt which although commencing with a battle for the defence of the Canal in 1915 led to the request of Lloyd George to General Allenby to capture Jerusalem before the end of 1917, and he did this with two weeks to spare.
Although the Suez Canal was the gateway to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Far East interests, the greatest concern was for the Indian sub continent, which German support for the Turkish Empire hoped would lead to its loss from the British Empire, and its my understanding that the Palestinian campaign was fought primarily with British led Indian troops, a point which was brought out in the film Lawrence of Arabia.
Present day Egypt has a population not significantly greater than the UK but covering a vast area of over a million square kilometres, although the greatest area is desert and the population centred on the cities of the Nile delta where the only arable land is located. Egypt has not only been the bridge between Europe but was the first cultural civilization and one perspective is to remember that the pyramids were created more years than have elapsed since the birth of Christianity, between 2000 and 3000 years ago. Between 1500 and 1000 years BC the most well known of the Pharaohs and their wives ruled, Tutankhamen, Remises and Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaton Throughout these Millenniums the Egyptians remained in charge of their destinies, until 343 BC when first the Persians, then the Greeks and then Romans commenced 2000 years of foreign domination, such was its significance and strategic position.
However the governing influence was not to be military, political or economic but spiritual. It was several hundred years after Christ before the New Testament was translated into Arabic and the Coptic form Catholicism became the dominant religion in Egypt for a time. Then for six centuries in the period the west regards as the Middle Ages, it was Muslim Arabs who dominated with the Sunni form of the Muslim faith, and then it was the Turkish Muslims of the Ottoman Empire around 1250 who brought their form of Muslim worship and apart from the brief Napoleonic expedition the dominant Turkish influence remained until Britain seized control of the government in 1882 and until 1914 the dual influence of Westminster and Constantinople remained. In 1914 the opportunity was taken to attempt to remove Turkish involvement and it was primarily Britain and France that was to re-draw the map of the Middle East creating separate states according to their respective interests rather than those of the people or the promises made, sometimes in bad faith in order to gain Arab support for the overthrow of the rule of the Turks.
This is said within the context that as the Great War commenced after for 2000 years of making homes in the lands of Europe and America the former tribes of Israel had begun to make their way to their original birth lands. Thus there was the ingredients of what is the second great issue of the twenty first century AD, the place of the multitude of Jewish Christian and Muslim sects, often at war within each other as well as between each other, overshadowed by the god of oil and the system of capitalism. And the first will be mentioned in a moment.
The second expeditionary force was primarily from Australia, New Zealand and India assembled at the Port of Basra in the land which was then known as Mesopotamia. It is this often forgotten fact which helps the explain the present British involvement in Iraq and the agreement with the U.S.A to 'manage' the peace and establishment of democracy in this province, It also explains the concern over the Turkish interest in maintaining their present borderland with the threat of their own military intervention into Northern Iraq thus threatening the integrity of Iraq within its present borders. The possibility of Turkey and Iran seeking to incorporate parts of Iraq to protect and further their own interests mirrors much of the involvement of the Balkan countries in the First World War as they wanted to add and consolidate territory and borders.
Then the oilfields were recently discovered in Persia which we now know as Iran, and the purpose of the venture was to use Mesopotamia as a British controlled buffer between Turkey and Persia. It was the early days of recognising that the future prosperity, power and influence of the capitalist economies would be based more on oil, and gas than coal. Without oil and gas, or the development of nuclear power, we quickly revert to the conditions of the Middle Ages when wealth and power were controlled by a tiny minority with the rest of population condemned to a poor expendable serfdom. Our survival is dependent on having something to trade with the rest of the world, cultural, educational and technological. We do not have the energy which the great nations of this Millennium need, China, the foremost, India and USA, and Russia because of their land space and people volume, and none of these countries have need for our industrially manufactured goods, especially as they are able to produce them at significantly less cost. It is unfortunate that the majority of the older generation of British residents, and I suspect this also applies to those in the United States do not understand this reality, especially that we have no alternative but to become part of, one of many parts, of an integrated Europe, with shared political and military values, as well as economic. Separate or divided we do not survive. That is the reality which the votes now cast for out entries in the Euro song contest is but one indication.
According to the author of the Great War DVD there is an Arab saying that when God made Hell he decided it was not nasty enough and added flies thus creating Mesopotamia, and although the force made great strides after landing at Basra and decided to press even further for the city of Baghdad, which until the development of Constantinople had become the largest city in the Middle East, and therefore the strategic capital of Turkish rule in Arabia. However although Britain developed and strengthened Basra as a seaport making it the principal port of Iraq, the problem with the force was that it faced the same difficulties as all armies who move forward quicker than their supply lines: they become subject to shortages of food and water in conditions where the daily temperature can average over 120 degrees. Malaria, dysentery, cholera ravaged the troops, and eventually 13000 men were cut off and forced to surrender after what became the siege of Kut-al-Almara. This 1915 defeat led to a change in command and during 1916 and 1917 there were a series of successful battles, including the taking of Baghdad in March 1917, culminating in the taking of full control of the region in 1918.
It became necessary to switch from the small scale to the major and overall some 2 million men are said to have been involved in Great War fighting in Mesopotamia and Palestine. In order to ensure Arab support for the British French alliance the natural Arab quest for independence according to traditional cultures and boundaries was encouraged and promises made which the two major powers had little or no intention to honour, and one man was to make his reputation by inciting and unifying Arabia to rebel against the Turkish rule. Major T E Lawrence.
Of course we now know what happened after the war in Europe was won. British and French interests dominated decisions on how the map of the Middle East was to be redrawn. The sins of the fathers.
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