A comprehensive study of the World War I rivalry between Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East. Donald M. McKale examines how both countries waged "war by revolution", attempting to incite native peoples to revolt against the other. German leaders believed that in the event of a war among European powers, they could organize and exploit a unified Islam. In addition to assisting the Ottomans militarily in the war, they collaborated with the Turks in appealing to pan-Islamism - a doctrine that proclaimed the sultan-caliph's religious authority over all the world's Muslims - to stoke the fire of native Muslim revolts against the British in Egypt and India, and they inflamed anti-British passions in the Turkish provinces of Arabia and Mesopotamia and in Libya, Abyssinia, Persia and Afghanistan. Key British leaders panicked after defeats at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. They feared pan-Islamism and a "holy war" directed against Britain's control of Muslim lands and its rule in India. With the help of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), they assisted the Arab Revolt of 1916 that contributed to the defeat of Turkey. At the war's end, Britain (and France) purposely destroyed the Turkish empire and divided its former lands among themselves and the Arabs. In the long term, however, McKale concludes that the German war in the Middle East helped to weaken Britain's global empire.
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Review:
"Professor McKale's Book is a careful and comprehensive study based on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, some of which have only recently been declassified. The author describes in some detail how British and German policies in the Middle East involved the native tribes in the First World War and the impact these policies had on the final peace settlements....This is an important contribution to the literature of the period." -- George O. Kent
About the Author:
Donald M. McKale is Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Humanities at Clemson University. His publications include Rewriting History: The Original and Revised World War II Diaries of Curt Prufer, Nazi Diplomat (Kent State University Press, 1988); Curt Prufer: German Diplomat from the Kaiser to Hitler (Kent State University Press, 1987); and Hitler: The Survival Myth.
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- PublisherKent State University Press
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 0873386027
- ISBN 13 9780873386029
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages376
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