THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST

1-206460

This military and social history covers the clash of world empires in the Dardanelles, Egypt and Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, and the Caucasus. It describes and assesses the major campaigns against the Ottoman Empire and Germany involving British and imperial troops from the French and Russian Empires, as well as their Arab and Armenian allies.

Also documented are the enormous logistical demands placed on host societies by the Great Powers' conduct of industrialized warfare in hostile terrain. The resulting deepening of imperial penetration, and the extension of state controls across a heterogeneous sprawl of territories, generated a powerful backlash both during and immediately after the war, which played a pivotal role in shaping national identities as the Ottoman Empire was dismembered.

This is a multidimensional account of the many seemingly discrete yet interlinked campaigns that resulted in one to one and a half million casualties. It details not just their military outcome but relates them to intelligence-gathering, industrial organization, authoritarianism and the political economy of empires at war.