Mandatory Iraq

The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq (Arabic: الانتداب البريطاني على العراق, romanized: al-Intidāb al-Brīṭānī ʿalā l-ʿIrāq), was created in 1921 after the 1920 Iraqi Revolt against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia and was 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.

Faisal ibn Husayn, who had been proclaimed King of Syria by the Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July of the same year. Faisal was then granted by the British the territory of Iraq to rule it as a kingdom, with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) retaining certain military control, but de facto, the territory remained under British administration until 1932.

The civil government of postwar Iraq was headed originally by High Commissioner Sir Percy Cox, and his deputy, Colonel Arnold Wilson. British reprisals after the capture and killing of a British officer in Najaf failed to restore order. The British occupiers faced the growing strength of the nationalists, who continued to resist against the British authority. British administration had yet to be established in northern Iraq.

Although often thought to have been invented by the British after the First World War, Iraq had long existed as a distinct region under the Ottoman Empire, encompassing the provinces of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra and officially referred to as the 'Iraq Region'.

History

Background

Contrary to the common belief that Iraq was invented by the British after the First World War, the region had long existed as a coherent administrative entity under the Ottoman Empire. As early as the 16th century, the Baghdad Eyalet encompassed districts such as Kerne in the south, Kasr-ı Şirin in the east, İmadiye and Zâho in the north and Ane and Deyrü Rahbe in the west and formed a territorial configuration that closely resembles the later borders of Mandatory Iraq.