The major beneficiaries of the post-World War I territorial
alignment which emerged from the Sykes-Picot Treaty (1915) and the Treaty of
Sevres (1920) were the British and the Zionists. Although, not categorized as an entity, early
international free market capitalism also benefitted and grew stronger from the
shifting balance of power on the international stage and the carving up of the Ottoman
Empire.
Britain was an imperialist state that had transitioned from
coal to oil, so the acquisition of the Ottoman territories henceforth known as
Iraq, Palestine and the Transjordan were very beneficial to the British in controlling
the Suez Canal and allowed access to the Persian Gulf. Britain “needed to maintain control over the
Suez Canal, and all the rest of the route to their prized colonial possession” (Fromkin,
1991) of India. In addition, large Scale
oil drilling in Iran had begun in 1908, and due to the British government
holding a controlling stake in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Iran was one of
Britain’s highest priorities (Wooten, 2010, p.55).
The Zionists benefitted from the British mandate over Palestine
because it allowed Zionist efforts at establishing a Jewish state through the acquisition
of land, and the large scale importation of capital and technology, to continue
with the building of Jewish settlements despite immigration restrictions implemented
by the Ottoman Empire after 1880, which had little impact on Jewish immigration
into Palestine as the Jewish population grew from approximately 24,000 to
70-80,000 between the years of 1882 and 1908 (Benbassa, 1990, p. 128). With the British taking control of Palestine,
immigration restrictions were greatly relaxed for Zionist immigration, and
British support for Zionism and a future Jewish state are easily identified in
the Faysal-Weizmann Agreement and the various drafts of the Balfour Declaration.
Free market capitalism, which had defined as a system during
the Industrial Revolution and naval trade expansion, also benefitted from the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire. In the aftermath
of destruction in parts of Europe, the demand for raw materials and
agricultural products increased which “led to an expansion of manufacturing
industry in regions outside Europe” (World Trade Report, 2007, p. 40). Those specified regions now included the
newly acquired mandate territories which had once been under Ottoman rule:
Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Transjordan, Egypt.
The negative consequences on these mandated territories were
that the people of these newly created territorial entities were now defined by
state borders that were created by foreign powers, and this combination often
created ethnic and religious power struggles that turned violent within the newly
created territory. With European puppet
governments installed over these newly mandated territories, the exploitation
and exportation of natural resources was carried out in the same manner as it
had been with colonial possessions for several centuries, only with new
industrial technologies, expanded naval capabilities and a new western addiction
for oil. One example of the government
puppetry from this period is Emir Faisal, who was a brief ruler in Syria in
1920 and would become leader of the the Iraqi territory from 1921 to 1933.
Benbossa, Esther. “Zionism
in the Ottoman Empire at the End of the 19th and the beginning of
the 20th Century.” Studies in
Zionism 11, no. 2 (1990): 128. Accessed
on May 6, 2014. http://www.estherbenbassa.net/716543FB-A19C-4CF0-B834-E886A7C6F122/FinalDownload/DownloadId-FFEFBDB4191922913EEEA3AFE6E8A2A7/716543FB-A19C-4CF0-B834-E886A7C6F122/SCANS/ZIONISM.PDF
Fromkin, David.
1991. “How the Modern Middle East
Map Came to be Drawn” Smithsonian 22,
no. 2, (May, 1991): 132-147. Accessed on
May 6, 2014. http://www.tcnj.edu/~library/e-reserve/lowi/0369_001.pdf
Wooten, Paul.
2010. “Trade and Empire.” Boston College Undergraduate Middle Eastern
and Islamic Studies 3, no. 2 (2010): 50-59.
Accessed on May 6, 2014. http://alnoorjournal.org/716543FB-A19C-4CF0-B834-E886A7C6F122/FinalDownload/DownloadId-2B4513E0CBA50A12C6059A5D8991B021/716543FB-A19C-4CF0-B834-E886A7C6F122/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Al-Noor-Spring-2010.pdf#page=51
World Trade Report.
2007. The Economics and Political
Economy of International Trade Cooperation: 35-110. Accessed on May 6, 2014. http://www.wto.org/716543FB-A19C-4CF0-B834-E886A7C6F122/FinalDownload/DownloadId-54E9602427D1A10BF6932DAD431ACFF8/716543FB-A19C-4CF0-B834-E886A7C6F122/english/res_e/booksp_e/anrep_e/wtr07-2b_e.pdf
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