| Period or Event | Time-Frame | Overview |
| Outbreak of War | October 1914 | Outbreak of war between Ottoman Empire and Great Britain. Shortly thereafter, the British landed the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Forces (MEF) at the head of the Persian Gulf near Basra. |
|---|---|---|
| British Capture Basra | November 1914 | By the end of November, Basra was in British hands. This was a pre-emptive move by the British government of India to protect British interests in the Persian Gulf. |
| British Take Basra | April 1915 | Defeat of Ottoman forces at Shu’aiba empowers the British to seize all of Basra in a realization of the value of territorial gain. |
| British Setback in Kut | November 1915 | British forces reach within fifty miles of Baghdad. However, a powerful Ottoman counter-attack drives these forces back to Kut where the forces are besieged for four months before eventually surrendering in April 1916. |
| Arab Revolt in Hijaz | Mid-1916 | Arab Revolt against Britain in the Hijaz. Led by Hashemite Sharif Husain of Mecca and his sons. |
| British Take Baghdad | March 1917 | Baghdad falls to British forces. |
| Society of Islamic Revival | Early 1918 | Shortly after the British establish control over Najaf and Karbala, the Society of Islamic Revival (Jam’iyya al-Nahda al-Islamiyya) was founded in Najaf, bringing together notables, clerics and tribal shaikhs. A British official was eventually assassinated, leading to swift reassertion of British hegemony. |
| British Capture Kirkuk | May 1918 | British capture of Kirkuk. |
| Kurdish Ally Britain | May 1918 | A meeting of Kurdish tribal leaders in Sulaimaniyya offered the rule of their country to Great Britain. British had already established contact with one of them, Shaikh Mahmud Barzinki. |
| British Take Kirkuk | September 1918 | British forces take Kirkuk and effectively destroy the Ottoman 6th Army. |
| Armistice of Mudros | October 1918 | The Ottoman government pursues peace, leading to the Armistice of Mudros. The terms of the Armistice of Mudros were that Ottoman garrisons in Mesopotamia surrendered to the British. |
| British Capture Mosul | November 1918 | The British commander then went on to Mosul, demanding its surrender. The Ottoman governor protested that Mosul was not part of Mesopotamia, but nevertheless was forced to comply and Ottoman forces withdrew. This established the line of the Armistice of Mudros as the northern border of the Mosul province. |
| Shaikh Mahmud Ascends | December 1918 | Shaikh Mahmud Barzinki was appointed governor of Lower Kurdistan, causing him to fall out with some other Kurdish chiefs. The British were harassed by Kurdish resistance, and upon realizing Shaikh Mahmud Barzinki’s desire for greater control moved to restrain him. |
| British Occupy All of Iraq | End of 1918 | British occupation of the three provinces of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul. |
| Shaikh Mahmud Quashed | May 1919 | Shaikh Mahmud Barzinki defiantly announces an independent Kurdistan. This strengthened British officers’ proclamations from Baghdad that direct rule was needed in Kurdistan. A British military expedition is dispatched. Shaikh Mahmud Barzinki is captured and British administration is re-established in Sulaimaniyya. Outbursts of revolt and defiance continue. |
| Sykes-Picot Agreement | ||
| Anglo-French Declaration | November 1918 | Promised self-government in the three provinces. |
| TCCD Regulation | The Tribal Civil and Criminal Disputes Regulation was based on the Government of India Act of the same name. It gave tribal shaikhs, designated by British authorities, the power to settle all disputes with an between members of their tribe. Also, it charged tribal shaikhs with collecting taxes on behalf of the government. The TCCD Regulation was encoded into Iraqi later in 1924. This was based on the premise that tribal hierarchies and units constituted the natural order of the society. | |
| Arnold Wilson’s Plebiscite | Early 1919 | Misleadingly labeling it a plebiscite, Arnold Wilson surveyed notables of the three provinces. Opinions were inconsistent regarding the shape and constitution of the state, but there was agreement outside the Kurdish areas that the state should comprise all three Ottoman provinces under an Arab government. Wilson greatly exaggerated the degree to which notables would acquiesce to continued British control. |
| Versailles Peace Conf | 1919 | The British prevented a delegation from going, leading to the formation of the Independence Guard. Like al-’Ahd al-’Iraqi, the Independence Guard called for an independent Iraq (now recognized as the three provinces of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul) under one of Sharif Husain’s sons. The Independence Guard was composed of more civillians than military officers than did al-’Ahd al-’Iraqi. |
| French Occupy Syria | 1920 | The French came to occupy all of Syria via a Mandate by the League of Nations. |
| Al-’Ahd al-’Iraqi Congress | March 1920 | Al-’Ahd al-’Iraqi held a congress in Damascus and declared the independence of Iraq under the kingship of Amir ‘Abdallah, brother of Amir Faisal and one of the sons of Sharif Husain. Few recognized the authority of the congress and ‘Abdallah himself was notably cool towards it. Regardless, this was a distinct shift of al-’Ahd’s activities and a number of officers moved to Dair al-Zur in eastern Syria in hopes of establishing a base of operations. |
Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq: New Edition.
| Period or Event | Time-Frame | Overview |
| Mandate for Iraq | April 1920 | The Mandate for Iraq was awarded to Great Britain at the San Remo Conference in April 1920. This justified Iraqi fears of European imperial rule, no matter how indirect, as well as pride concerns of their own administrative and political leaders being belittled. |
|---|---|---|
| Denouncing the Mandate | May 1920 | Coalitions began to form against Iraq’s incorporation into the British Empire. In the Shi’i city of Karbala, Ayatollah al-Shirazi issued a fatwa declaring it unlawful to serve in the British administration. The Shi’i ‘ulama and tribal Shaikhs of the mid-Euphrates as well as the Independence Guard all met and agreed to form a coordinated network of action. The Independence Guard branched into provincial towns. The strategy was to peacefully protest in Baghdad, the seat of British power, and pursue more violent resistance should these protests fail. |
| Downfall of al-’Ahd al-’Iraqi | May 1920 | Jamil al-Midfa’i led regular soldiers and tribal allies to capture Tall ‘Afar. They intended to capture Mosul at the same time as a planned revolt, but the British dispersed the troops and the revolt never occurred. Thus ended the organized activities of al-’Ahd al-’Iraqi. |
| Protests Begin | May 1920 | Increasingly large mass-meetings occurred at Sunny and Shi’i moques in Baghdad to denounce the Mandate. There was significant cooperation for Iraqi independence between the two sects. At one meeting, fifteen representatives were nominated to present the case for Iraqi independence to the British authorities. Arnold WIlson agreed to meet the representatives (mandubin, aka delegates), but only in the company of twenty-five Baghdad notables who he would select himself. |
| Armed Revolt Murmurs | May 1920 | As early as May 1920 their had been discussions among shaikhs of the mid-Euphrates aout acting against the British. Their concerns varied from general dislike of the notion of British hegemony to specific concern about British interference in land tenure. Misgivings in London about occupying Iraq had become public knowledge, giving rise to the perception that armed rebellion might accelerate Britain’s retreat. |
| Self-Rule Gains Traction | June 1920 | Wilson and the mandubin had a fruitless meeting. However, suggestions from London (encouraged by Bell in Baghdad) impelled the British to pursue a policy of limited Iraqi self-rule. As the notion of a state of Iraq gained momentum and seemed unavoidable, persons at all level oriented themselves towards it and even pursued an advantageous niche in the forming government. |
| Constituent Assembly | June 1920 | It was announced that elections would be held for a Constituent Assembly. The task of devising the electoral machinery was appointed to former Ottoman deputies headed by Sayyid Talib al-Naqib, who had returned from exile to seize upon the opportunities that were arising with the creation of a new state. |
| Armed Revolt Erupts | June 1920 | Armed revolt erupted at the end of June 1920. The arrest of his son prompted Ayatollah al-Shirazi (the leading Shi’i mjtahid in Iraq upon Ayatollah Yazdi’s death) to issue a fatwa that encouraged armed revolt. The British authorities attempted to quash this by arrested various mid-Euphrates tribal chiefs. The arrests gave momentum to the revolt, which thrived on weak and thin British garrisons, strong links between the Shi’i spiritual centers of Najaf Karbala, and powerful armed tribes. Tribal shaikhs in Kut and ‘Arma worked against the revolt as their extensive landholdings had been recognized by British authorities. |
| Armed Revolt Succeeds | July 1920 | The rebels captured much of the mid-Euphrates, giving heartt to others and causing the revolt to spread to the lower Euphrates as well as districts to the north, east and west of Baghdad. However, the rebels were limited due to decreasing support the further they went from their home areas. |
| Kurdish Uprising | July 1920 | Kurds seized the chance to opportunistically seize towns near the Persian border, but were limited by a decrease in support like rebels to the south. |
| Collapse of Revolt | August 1920 | The revolt of Shi’i tribes began to flag, much to the relief of the British and Sunni notables in Baghdad. Also, organized public opposition in Baghdad became virtually impossible due to British security and intelligence forces. By late October the British had re-exerted hegemony over lands seized by the rebels and the rebellion was over with the surrender of Najaf and Karbala. In total, the Iraqi revolt cost about 6,000 Iraqi lives and 500 British and Indian soldiers’ lives. What had begun as general protests had become a mid-Euphrates revolt. The revolt became the founding myth of Iraqi nationalism, regardless of what the revolt’s actual intentions were. Ideas began to form about the meaning, identity and interests of a new Iraqi state. In London, the revolt and the costs of its suppression made clear the need for a form of government in Iraq other than the controversial direct rule that was attempted. |
| Preparing A Government | October 1920 | |
| First Iraqi Government | November 1920 | Sayyid ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Kailani forms first Iraqi government. |
| Cairo Conference | March 1921 | Cairo Conference decides on Prince Faisal bin Husain al-Hashemi as king of Iraq. |
| King Faisal Enthroned | August 1921 | King Faisal enthroned in Baghdad. |
| Constituent Assembly | March 1924 | Constituent Assembly opens. |
| Anglo-Iraqi Treaty | June 1924 | Anglo-Iraqi Treaty passed. |
| King Fisal Dies | September 1932 | |
Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq: New Edition.
|
|
