| Period or Event | Time-Frame | Overview |
| Ottoman Conquest | 16th & 17th Cent AD | Mesopotamia came under Ottoman hegemony and was split into three provinces based on the towns of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. Tension between the Sunni Ottomans and Shi’i Safavid shahs of Persia led to fragmentation and diminished control from the central Ottoman government in Istanbul. Initiative and power lay with those who could command forces. |
|---|---|---|
Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq: New Edition.
| 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 |
| Ottoman Re-Conquest | Early 19th Cent | Under the rule of Sultan Mahmud II (1808-39) the central Ottoman government began to implement the Nizam-i Cedid (New Order) which reclaimed power from semi-autonomous provincial governors into the hands of the sultan |
|---|---|---|
| Taking Baghdad | 1831 | Da’ud Pasha, the mamluk governor of Baghdad, refused to comply with the New Order and relinquish his office. An Ottoman army led by ‘Ali Rida Pasha, governor of Aleppo, invaded Baghdad. Da’ud Pasha was captured along with his city, ending mamluk rule in Baghdad.. |
| Taking Basra | ‘Ali Rida Pasha went on to occupy Basra and end mamluk rule in that city. | |
| Taking Mosul | 1834 | Central Ottoman rule was restored in Mosul, ending the hold of the Jalili family on the governorship. The three provinces were now under direct rule from Istanbul. |
| Tanzimat Reforms | Sultan Abdulmecid implemented the Tanzimat Reforms, which transformed landholding, administration, conscription, law and public education. However, these reforms were implemented at different rates, depending on the initiative, energy and tenure of the Ottoman governors appointed by authorities in Istanbul. However, the norms and methods of the mamluk era endured; furthermore, Ottoman power over major cities did not necessarily increase hegemony over semi-autonomous tribes and tribal confederations of the countryside. Ottoman reforms nonetheless brought a new way of politics to Mesopotamia, one largely built on the European model. | |
| Land Law of 1858 | 1858 |
The Land Law of 1858 sought to formalize land tenure, creating security of tenure (whilst reasserting state ownership) in hopes of encouraging productive and settled agriculture, attracting investment and generating tax revenues. The land reform involved the granting of title deeds (tapu sanad) to anyone who possessed or occupied land. The land remained state property, but the registered owner of the title deed had nearly complete rights of ownership. Collective ownership of land was expressly prohibited and registration could only be in the name of an individual. Thus, areas of tribal cultivation were registered under the powerful shaikh. Due to ignorance, superstition and/or misplaced trust in the shaikh, tribal cultivators failed to register and thus become tenant farmers. On lands belonging to the sultant (saniyya lands), tax-farming continued and tax-farming rights were periodically auctioned, thus denying the inhabitants a long enough tenancy to apply for title deeds. The Land Law of 1858 brought about conflicts. Namely, cultivators were oft stripped of their land rights. Registered owners were sometimes wholly unconnected with the cultivators, instead gathering title deeds via influence or capital. Gaining rights to land did not only confer power over the newly-privatized land, but also conferred power over those who cultivated it. This restructured social power, as agricultural land was now private property. |
| Vilayet Law of 1864 | 1864 | The Vilayet Law of 1864 mapped the boundaries of Iraq’s three provinces a new structure of administration from the provincial to the village levels. The Vilayet Law sought to bring the central administration systematically down to people hitherto outside the state apparatus. More radically, the Vilayet Law intended to involve even previously uninvolved Muslims and non-Muslims from the general population into various administrative councils alongside Ottoman officials. |
| Midhat Pasha in Baghdad | 1869-1872 | When Midhat Pasha attained the Baghdad governorship, he energetically and forcefully implement the Land Law and Vilayet Law. The Vilayet Law was relatively easy, as Istanbul was eager to assert its centralized authority and the populace was receptive. The Land Law was not fully implemented by the time Midhat Pasha was recalled to Istanbul in 1872. |
| Young Turk Revolution | 1908 | The Young Turk revolution occurs in Istanbul. |
| Abdulhamid II Deposed | 1909 | Sultan Abdulhamid II is deposed. |
| British Occupy Basra | November 1914 | British occupation of Basra. |
| British Occupy Baghdad | March 1917 | British occupation of Baghdad. |
| British Occupy Mosul | November 1918 | British occupation of Mosul. |
Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq: New Edition.
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