WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.759 Welcome in everyone, um... Today, we are focusing 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.900 our lens on a massive, grueling, and honestly, 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:09.060 somehow, a largely forgotten theater of World 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:11.359 War I. Yeah, it really is overlooked. It is. 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:14.720 We are doing a depth dive into the Mesopotamian 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:17.800 campaign, and our foundational material for this 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:20.559 is a really comprehensive historical overview, 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:23.399 basically a detailed article that breaks down 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:26.500 this entire four -year struggle from 1914 all 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:28.559 the way to 1918. Right, and it's a remarkable 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:31.260 piece of history. I mean, the sheer scale. of 00:00:31.260 --> 00:00:33.679 the logistical and the human challenges involved 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.100 here is just staggering. Completely staggering. 00:00:36.579 --> 00:00:38.840 And our mission today for you listening is to 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:41.700 figure out why this campaign happened in the 00:00:41.700 --> 00:00:44.380 first place, how it resulted in one of the absolute 00:00:44.380 --> 00:00:47.000 worst military disasters for the Allies, and 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.880 how its chaotic aftermath literally laid the 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:52.020 groundwork for the borders of the modern Middle 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:54.310 East. Exactly. It's all connected. OK, let's 00:00:54.310 --> 00:00:56.590 unpack this. We have to start with the geopolitical 00:00:56.590 --> 00:00:59.149 landscape of 1914. Like, why were the British 00:00:59.149 --> 00:01:01.770 even deploying forces to Ottoman Iraq? Right. 00:01:01.969 --> 00:01:04.209 What was the actual prize here? And historical 00:01:04.209 --> 00:01:06.510 records make it incredibly clear. It was all 00:01:06.510 --> 00:01:09.170 about oil. Specifically, they needed to protect 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:12.010 the Anglo -Persian oil company fields in Persia. 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:14.909 And they had to secure this crucial waterway 00:01:14.909 --> 00:01:17.930 known as the Shat al Arab. What's fascinating 00:01:17.930 --> 00:01:20.569 here is just how vital that specific resource 00:01:20.569 --> 00:01:23.670 had suddenly become and why it represented a 00:01:23.670 --> 00:01:26.530 total paradigm shift in global strategy. How 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:28.329 so? Well, you have to remember the context of 00:01:28.329 --> 00:01:31.030 the era. Prior to this, the British Royal Navy 00:01:31.030 --> 00:01:33.790 ran on coal. Which they had plenty of. Exactly. 00:01:34.310 --> 00:01:36.730 Britain had massive domestic coal reserves. They 00:01:36.730 --> 00:01:38.670 controlled their own fuel supply completely. 00:01:38.870 --> 00:01:41.150 But they had just transitioned their Navy to 00:01:41.150 --> 00:01:45.030 build these massive new turbine based dreadnought 00:01:45.030 --> 00:01:47.060 battleships. And those didn't take coal. No, 00:01:47.060 --> 00:01:48.939 they didn't run on coal. They ran on oil. So 00:01:48.939 --> 00:01:50.840 literally overnight, the defense of the British 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:53.400 Isles was no longer self -sufficient. Their national 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.340 security suddenly depended entirely on controlling 00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:59.439 foreign territory. Man, that is a massive strategic 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:02.359 vulnerability. Huge. And on top of fueling the 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:04.579 ships, the petroleum from this region provided 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:07.620 a chemical compound called toluol, which if you 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:09.860 don't know, toluol is literally the T in TNT. 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:12.699 So it was absolutely essential for the production 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:15.259 of military high explosives. This wasn't just 00:02:15.259 --> 00:02:19.000 about economic. This was about raw industrial 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.879 military power. I mean, you could not fire a 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.520 modern artillery shell or sail a modern battleship 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:26.300 without the resources sitting in the Persian 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:28.759 Gulf. Which perfectly explains why London was 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:30.819 getting increasingly anxious about German influence 00:02:30.819 --> 00:02:32.620 in the region. The railway, right? Yeah, the 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:34.319 primary threat wasn't just the Ottoman Empire 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:37.360 itself, but rather this massive infrastructure 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:40.020 project backed by Germany, which was the Berlin 00:02:40.020 --> 00:02:43.240 -Baghdad Railway. Right. British strategists 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:46.439 viewed that railway as a dagger pointed directly 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:49.099 at their sphere of influence in the Gulf. In 00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:51.620 fact, Sir Edmund Barrow, he was the military 00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:54.599 secretary to the India office. He explicitly 00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:56.759 argued that forces needed to be deployed to the 00:02:56.759 --> 00:02:59.639 Gulf, not just to protect the oil. but to signal 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:01.979 to the Turks that Britain meant business. And 00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:04.400 obviously that signal naturally provoked a pretty 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.419 heavy response. By November 1914, the Ottoman 00:03:07.419 --> 00:03:10.300 government mobilized politically and religiously. 00:03:10.580 --> 00:03:12.780 The sheik will Islam actually declared a jihad 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:15.680 against the Allies. Right, a holy war. Exactly. 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:18.879 And for context for you listening, the sheikal 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:21.139 Islam was the highest religious authority in 00:03:21.139 --> 00:03:23.280 the Ottoman Empire. So this wasn't just political 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:26.719 rhetoric. It was a legally and spiritually binding 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:30.340 call to arms designed to sway local Arab loyalties. 00:03:30.580 --> 00:03:33.169 So the reality on the ground. proved far more 00:03:33.169 --> 00:03:35.789 complex than declarations made in Constantinople. 00:03:36.009 --> 00:03:37.729 Yeah, the Ottomans struggled to control those 00:03:37.729 --> 00:03:39.810 Iraqi provinces, didn't they? They did. They 00:03:39.810 --> 00:03:41.770 were constantly dealing with border disputes 00:03:41.770 --> 00:03:44.430 with Persia and local uprisings. Ultimately, 00:03:44.509 --> 00:03:47.169 the regional power dynamics were very often dictated 00:03:47.169 --> 00:03:50.830 by the powerful local Arab tribes rather than 00:03:50.830 --> 00:03:53.330 the distant empires attempting to claim sovereignty 00:03:53.330 --> 00:03:56.090 over them. Just imagine the tension of this era. 00:03:56.169 --> 00:03:59.150 You have these global empires playing a high 00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:01.729 stakes chess game over a resource that was just 00:04:01.729 --> 00:04:04.349 beginning to shape global power. A powder keg. 00:04:04.430 --> 00:04:07.110 It is. Yeah. So the opening move of this chess 00:04:07.110 --> 00:04:10.509 game was the Fowl Landing in November 1914. The 00:04:10.509 --> 00:04:13.289 British Indian Expeditionary Force D, specifically 00:04:13.289 --> 00:04:16.350 the 6th Puna Division, assaulted the old fortress 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:18.029 at Fowl. And we should note the numbers here. 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:20.899 Yeah, the military logs show that this massive 00:04:20.899 --> 00:04:24.480 British Indian force was opposed by just 350 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:27.779 Ottoman troops. 350 troops equipped with just 00:04:27.779 --> 00:04:30.360 four artillery guns. Right. So they quickly took 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:33.019 the fort, secured the coastline, and began advancing 00:04:33.019 --> 00:04:35.259 toward the city of Basra. And we really need 00:04:35.259 --> 00:04:37.600 to emphasize a point that historical accounts 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.019 highlight here. The vast majority of the quote 00:04:40.019 --> 00:04:42.759 unquote British forces fighting in this entire 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.620 campaign were actually soldiers from the British 00:04:45.620 --> 00:04:47.899 Indian Army. That is a critical distinction, 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:50.240 and it often gets totally lost in the broader 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:52.439 narrative of the First World War. Yeah. It was 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:55.079 the Indian military's responsibility to mount 00:04:55.079 --> 00:04:58.959 and supply this campaign. That dynamic was actually 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:01.339 dictated by a pre -war agreement between the 00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:04.220 Indian and British military offices. The financial 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:06.680 and the human cost was largely borne by India. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:09.060 And as those Indian troops pushed forward, they 00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:11.980 actually found an unlikely strategic ally in 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:14.540 Sheikh Mubarak al -Sabah, who was the ruler of 00:05:14.540 --> 00:05:17.500 Kuwait. He was instrumental. He was. He actively 00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:19.939 supported the Allied war effort, sending forces 00:05:19.939 --> 00:05:22.680 to attack Ottoman positions at places like Um 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:26.579 Qasr and Basra. And in exchange, the British 00:05:26.579 --> 00:05:29.100 government officially recognized Kuwait as an 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:31.120 independent government under British protection. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:33.360 And the symbolism of that alliance was immediate. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:36.019 Sheikh Zubarak actually changed his flag. He 00:05:36.019 --> 00:05:38.000 removed the Ottoman symbol and replaced it with 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.069 the word Kuwait written in Arabic script. Wow. 00:05:41.529 --> 00:05:44.129 Yeah. His military support, combined with his 00:05:44.129 --> 00:05:46.410 previous efforts to obstruct that Baghdad railway, 00:05:47.089 --> 00:05:49.269 effectively secured the Persian Gulf against 00:05:49.269 --> 00:05:52.209 any immediate Ottoman or German reinforcements. 00:05:52.670 --> 00:05:54.769 So the British Indian forces are stringing together 00:05:54.769 --> 00:05:57.189 these early successes. They capture Basra, but 00:05:57.189 --> 00:06:00.389 the Ottomans do quickly regroup. In April 1915, 00:06:00.430 --> 00:06:02.389 they launch a major counterattack at the Battle 00:06:02.389 --> 00:06:04.480 of Shaiba. Which does not go well for them. No. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:07.180 The Ottoman commander, Suleyman Askari Bey, gathered 00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:10.240 about 4 ,000 regular troops and 14 ,000 Arab 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:13.000 irregulars. But the assault fails disastrously 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:15.500 against entrenched British infantry and cavalry. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.519 The Ottomans suffered devastating losses, around 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:22.339 2 ,400 men. And the fallout from Shaiba was severe, 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.800 particularly on the Ottoman command. Suleyman 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:28.120 Askari Bey... who had been wounded in the fighting 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:31.319 was so devastated by the collapse of his forces 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:34.060 that he actually took his own life in a hospital 00:06:34.060 --> 00:06:37.079 in Baghdad shortly afterward. It really underscores 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:40.220 the immense crushing pressure these commanders 00:06:40.220 --> 00:06:42.519 were operating under. Absolutely. But on the 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:45.100 British side, that decisive victory at Shaiba 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:47.699 led directly to a very dangerous phenomenon, 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:50.550 which was mission creep. Well, and it wasn't 00:06:50.550 --> 00:06:52.649 just Mission Creek born of overconfidence on 00:06:52.649 --> 00:06:55.269 the ground. It was immense political pressure 00:06:55.269 --> 00:06:57.569 originating from London. From the politicians. 00:06:57.750 --> 00:06:59.730 Right. You have to look at the broader war. By 00:06:59.730 --> 00:07:02.529 1915, the Western Front in Europe was a muddy, 00:07:02.970 --> 00:07:06.050 horrific stalemate. British politicians, men 00:07:06.050 --> 00:07:08.430 like Lord Kitchener and regional commanders like 00:07:08.430 --> 00:07:11.110 General Sir John Nixon, they were desperate for 00:07:11.110 --> 00:07:12.870 a headline grabbing victory. They just wanted 00:07:12.870 --> 00:07:16.129 some good news. Exactly. So, against the explicit 00:07:16.129 --> 00:07:18.509 advice of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 00:07:18.889 --> 00:07:21.230 who warned that advancing further was logistically 00:07:21.230 --> 00:07:23.829 unsustainable, they ordered the troops to push 00:07:23.829 --> 00:07:26.129 another 100 miles up the Tigris River toward 00:07:26.129 --> 00:07:29.149 Baghdad. The primary justification wasn't even 00:07:29.149 --> 00:07:32.290 strategic. It was simply to boost Imperial prestige. 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:35.120 Here's where it gets really interesting, because 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:38.319 that political hubris sets the stage for absolute 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:40.939 disaster. It does. The British force, led by 00:07:40.939 --> 00:07:43.139 Major General Charles Townsend, pushes north. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.899 In November 1915, they clash with entrenched 00:07:46.899 --> 00:07:49.439 Ottoman forces at the Battle of Kisifon, which 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:52.879 is just 25 miles south of Baghdad. It's a brutal 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:55.860 five -day stalemate. Both sides take heavy losses. 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.300 Right. But Townsend realizes his supply lines 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:00.300 are stretched to the absolute breaking point, 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:03.500 and he has to retreat. pulls his exhausted men 00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:05.699 back to a town sitting in a loop of the Tigris 00:08:05.699 --> 00:08:08.639 River called Kut Al Amara and he digs in. The 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:10.579 retreat to Kut proved to be the pivotal turning 00:08:10.579 --> 00:08:14.019 point of the campaign. By December 1915, the 00:08:14.019 --> 00:08:15.800 siege of Kut had officially begun. They were 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:17.980 completely trapped. Yeah, the Ottoman forces 00:08:17.980 --> 00:08:20.839 relentlessly pursued Townsend and completely 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:23.439 encircled his position. The geography of Coote 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:26.160 was a double -edged sword. The river loop provided 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:28.740 natural defense, but it also made it impossible 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:30.939 to break out without heavy support. And the Ottomans 00:08:30.939 --> 00:08:33.100 had some expert help, too. They did. They brought 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:36.100 in a highly experienced 72 -year -old German 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:39.080 general and military historian, Colmar von der 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:42.419 Goltz. And he didn't just lay siege to the town. 00:08:42.740 --> 00:08:46.299 He engineered formidable layered defensive trench 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:49.480 networks further down the river to block any 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:51.500 British relief forces that were trying to push. 00:08:51.370 --> 00:08:54.710 North. And the British did launch several massive 00:08:54.710 --> 00:08:58.250 relief attempts. General Fenton Aylmer led desperate 00:08:58.250 --> 00:09:01.850 pushes between January and March 1916. We're 00:09:01.850 --> 00:09:03.990 talking about the battles of Sheikh Sa 'ad, the 00:09:03.990 --> 00:09:06.429 Wadi, Hana and the Dujayla Redoubt. And every 00:09:06.429 --> 00:09:08.830 single one failed. Every single attempt was repelled 00:09:08.830 --> 00:09:11.470 by von der Goltz's defenses. The casualties were 00:09:11.470 --> 00:09:13.429 staggering. Thousands of British and Indian troops 00:09:13.429 --> 00:09:15.269 were just gunned down in the mud trying to break 00:09:15.269 --> 00:09:18.029 the siege. They even attempted early aerial resupply. 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:20.940 They were dropping sacks of flour from primitive 00:09:20.940 --> 00:09:23.500 biplanes, but most of the drops missed the town 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:25.480 entirely or just fell into the river. Which is 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:28.080 crazy to think about, biplanes dropping sacks 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:31.279 of flour. Right. Meanwhile, inside Coote, the 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:33.559 conditions deteriorated into a total nightmare. 00:09:33.980 --> 00:09:36.299 The winter was freezing, the mud was relentless, 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:39.539 and disease ran rampant. The garrison exhausted 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:41.700 its rations, and they actually resorted to eating 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:44.549 their own transport horses and mules. Scurvy 00:09:44.549 --> 00:09:46.929 was devastating the ranks. So finally, facing 00:09:46.929 --> 00:09:49.610 total starvation, General Townsend capitulated. 00:09:50.210 --> 00:09:53.549 On April 29th, 1916, he surrendered his remaining 00:09:53.549 --> 00:09:58.350 force. 13 ,164 British and Indian soldiers marched 00:09:58.350 --> 00:10:00.830 into Ottoman captivity. It was completely unprecedented. 00:10:01.210 --> 00:10:03.169 Yeah. Historians routinely classify the fall 00:10:03.169 --> 00:10:05.370 of Qut as the worst defeat of the Allies in World 00:10:05.370 --> 00:10:08.129 War I. It was an unmitigated humiliation for 00:10:08.129 --> 00:10:10.769 the British Empire. They had pushed too far purely 00:10:10.769 --> 00:10:13.149 for political optics without the logistics to 00:10:13.149 --> 00:10:15.649 sustain the advance, and the troops paid a horrific 00:10:15.649 --> 00:10:17.889 price. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:10:18.590 --> 00:10:21.350 the sheer scale of the Kut disaster forced a 00:10:21.350 --> 00:10:23.730 total reckoning within British military strategy. 00:10:24.330 --> 00:10:27.029 They finally realized that the fundamental problem 00:10:27.029 --> 00:10:30.269 wasn't a lack of manpower. It was the supplies. 00:10:30.570 --> 00:10:32.509 Exactly. It was a total failure of infrastructure. 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:36.100 Before Koot, supply ships arriving from India 00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:39.019 sat at anchor for days at Basra, just waiting 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:42.000 to be unloaded by small wooden boats. Wow. Yeah, 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:44.299 there were no deep water berths, no warehouses, 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:47.919 and virtually no roads. So they initiated a massive 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.220 engineering overhaul. They essentially built 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:52.919 a modern logistical network from scratch right 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:55.419 there in the desert. They dramatically expanded 00:10:55.419 --> 00:10:57.919 the port facilities at Basra, dredging the river, 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:01.019 building wharves. They laid down paved roads, 00:11:01.580 --> 00:11:04.899 constructed massive new hospital complexes, established 00:11:04.899 --> 00:11:07.419 organized supply dumps, and critically, they 00:11:07.419 --> 00:11:09.980 built a railway system. Which changed everything. 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:12.919 It did. They also deployed a specialized fleet 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:15.360 of shallow -draft river steamers to efficiently 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:17.720 move thousands of tons of supplies up the Tigris. 00:11:18.570 --> 00:11:21.230 With that ironclad logistical foundation behind 00:11:21.230 --> 00:11:24.090 him, the new British commander, Lieutenant General 00:11:24.090 --> 00:11:27.169 Stanley Maude, launched a methodical, highly 00:11:27.169 --> 00:11:31.389 organized offensive in December 1916. There were 00:11:31.389 --> 00:11:34.549 no reckless dashes for glory this time. He systematically 00:11:34.549 --> 00:11:37.230 dismantled the Ottoman defenses, bypassed their 00:11:37.230 --> 00:11:41.350 strongholds, and by March 1917, he captured Baghdad. 00:11:41.669 --> 00:11:44.289 And a week after taking the city, Maude issued 00:11:44.289 --> 00:11:46.909 what became known as the Proclamation of Baghdad. 00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:49.399 The historical text notes that in this document, 00:11:49.639 --> 00:11:51.799 he explicitly claimed to the local population, 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:54.220 and I'm quoting here, our armies do not come 00:11:54.220 --> 00:11:56.899 into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, 00:11:57.299 --> 00:12:00.100 but as liberators. A very bold statement. Yeah. 00:12:00.299 --> 00:12:02.580 Now, as observers of history, we are simply reporting 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:04.500 the text of the proclamation. We aren't taking 00:12:04.500 --> 00:12:06.899 a side on it, but it remains a highly significant 00:12:06.899 --> 00:12:09.500 piece of imperial messaging regarding how the 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:11.340 British wanted to be perceived in the region. 00:12:11.700 --> 00:12:13.519 It was certainly a calculated political statement. 00:12:13.950 --> 00:12:15.950 But, you know, while the tactical battles were 00:12:15.950 --> 00:12:18.690 shifting in favor of the Allies, the true enemy 00:12:18.690 --> 00:12:20.789 in the Mesopotamian theater was the environment 00:12:20.789 --> 00:12:23.710 itself. Yeah, the numbers are grim. The statistics 00:12:23.710 --> 00:12:26.230 detailed in military medical records are just 00:12:26.230 --> 00:12:28.409 staggering. Over the course of the campaign, 00:12:28.850 --> 00:12:31.509 British Empire forces suffered roughly 85 ,000 00:12:31.509 --> 00:12:34.789 battle casualties. But they recorded over 820 00:12:34.789 --> 00:12:37.210 ,000 hospitalizations for non -battle causes. 00:12:37.710 --> 00:12:40.769 Over 800 ,000 hospitalizations just from the 00:12:40.769 --> 00:12:42.889 environment? Yes. The troops were operating in 00:12:42.889 --> 00:12:46.100 profoundly hostile conditions. Extreme heat in 00:12:46.100 --> 00:12:48.559 the summer that regularly topped 120 degrees 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:51.080 Fahrenheit, freezing rains in the winter. They 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:54.080 had to march through sandy deserts and treacherous 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:56.440 malaria -ridden marshes. And disease was just 00:12:56.440 --> 00:12:58.720 everywhere. Disease actually claimed the lives 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:00.799 of double the number of Ottoman soldiers compared 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:03.620 to combat wounds. Cholera, dysentery, typhus, 00:13:03.799 --> 00:13:06.100 they were rampant. In fact, cholera did not discriminate 00:13:06.100 --> 00:13:09.000 by rank at all. Both the British General Maud 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.860 and the German General Funder Goltz died of the 00:13:11.860 --> 00:13:14.460 disease during the campaign. And the human toll 00:13:14.460 --> 00:13:17.220 extended far beyond the trenches. The records 00:13:17.220 --> 00:13:19.820 document harrowing realities for prisoners of 00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:22.799 war and the local civilian population. When those 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:25.740 13 ,000 British and Indian soldiers surrendered 00:13:25.740 --> 00:13:27.879 at Cudditt, they weren't just put into camps. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:31.659 They were subjected to brutal, 700 -mile forced 00:13:31.659 --> 00:13:33.799 marches across the desert and mountains to prison 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:38.090 camps in Anatolia. 700 miles. Yeah. Diaries recount 00:13:38.090 --> 00:13:41.490 a specific 250 miles stretch from Mosul, where 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:43.230 prisoners were given a little more than a liter 00:13:43.230 --> 00:13:45.490 of water a day, and those who collapsed from 00:13:45.490 --> 00:13:47.590 exhaustion were frequently clubbed to death by 00:13:47.590 --> 00:13:50.710 their guards. Thousands did not survive the journey. 00:13:50.929 --> 00:13:53.169 And the civilian population in the region suffered 00:13:53.169 --> 00:13:55.889 equally unimaginable horrors as the war dragged 00:13:55.889 --> 00:13:59.669 on. By 1918, the constant requisitioning of supplies, 00:14:00.070 --> 00:14:02.230 combined with administrative collapse and a flood 00:14:02.230 --> 00:14:04.950 of displaced refugees, it plunged cities like 00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:07.789 Mosul into absolute famine. Accounts from local 00:14:07.789 --> 00:14:10.110 officials in Mosul paint a devastating picture. 00:14:10.549 --> 00:14:12.529 Municipal workers were dispatched daily to tour 00:14:12.529 --> 00:14:14.549 the city streets just to collect the dead bodies 00:14:14.549 --> 00:14:16.490 of those who had starved overnight. The famine 00:14:16.490 --> 00:14:18.830 was so severe that desperate citizens were reduced 00:14:18.830 --> 00:14:21.309 to eating cats and dogs just to survive. It's 00:14:21.309 --> 00:14:23.970 horrifying. It was a region entirely broken by 00:14:23.970 --> 00:14:27.809 the relentless grinding machinery of this global 00:14:27.809 --> 00:14:29.990 conflict. Which brings us to the closing act 00:14:29.990 --> 00:14:32.669 of the war and the immediate scramble for the 00:14:32.669 --> 00:14:37.019 spoils. By October 1918, the Ottoman Empire was 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.669 collapsing on multiple fronts. The armistice 00:14:39.669 --> 00:14:42.610 of Mudros was signed on October 30th, which officially 00:14:42.610 --> 00:14:45.509 ended hostilities and required both Ottoman and 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:47.929 allied forces to remain in their current positions. 00:14:48.370 --> 00:14:50.529 But the British had received highly specific 00:14:50.529 --> 00:14:52.789 instructions from the War Office in London to 00:14:52.789 --> 00:14:55.250 score as heavily as possible before the whistle 00:14:55.250 --> 00:14:58.049 blew. Right. So even after the armistice was 00:14:58.049 --> 00:14:59.990 officially signed and active combat was supposed 00:14:59.990 --> 00:15:02.149 to cease, the British commander on the ground, 00:15:02.389 --> 00:15:05.970 General Alexander Acab, did not stand fast. Despite 00:15:05.970 --> 00:15:08.269 furious diplomatic protests from on the Turvey 00:15:08.269 --> 00:15:10.870 government, British troops kept advancing for 00:15:10.870 --> 00:15:13.409 another 15 days. They just kept going. They kept 00:15:13.409 --> 00:15:15.990 going. Their objective was singular, to march 00:15:15.990 --> 00:15:18.950 unopposed into the province of Mosul and physically 00:15:18.950 --> 00:15:22.149 occupy its incredibly rich, newly discovered 00:15:22.149 --> 00:15:24.190 oil fields. This raises an important question, 00:15:24.330 --> 00:15:26.470 though. What happened to the local populations 00:15:26.470 --> 00:15:28.769 who actually lived in these territories? Yeah, 00:15:28.809 --> 00:15:31.340 what happened to them? Throughout the war, Arab 00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:33.700 factions who had fought alongside the Allies, 00:15:34.179 --> 00:15:37.120 participating in the broader Arab revolt, genuinely 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:39.379 believed that the expulsion of the Ottomans would 00:15:39.379 --> 00:15:42.179 lead to their own sovereign independence. But 00:15:42.179 --> 00:15:44.519 the geopolitical reality of the post -war settlements 00:15:44.519 --> 00:15:47.500 proved bitterly disappointing. Because they didn't 00:15:47.500 --> 00:15:50.659 get independence. No. Instead of granting independence, 00:15:51.139 --> 00:15:53.259 the victorious powers established the British 00:15:53.259 --> 00:15:56.259 Mandate of Mesopotamia. From the perspective 00:15:56.259 --> 00:15:58.879 of the local population the British had simply 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:01.679 swapped out one distant imperial ruler for another. 00:16:01.899 --> 00:16:04.139 And the local population did not accept that 00:16:04.139 --> 00:16:06.940 quietly. That profound sense of political betrayal 00:16:06.940 --> 00:16:09.940 led directly to the formation of anti -colonial 00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:12.019 secret societies. We're talking about groups 00:16:12.019 --> 00:16:14.659 like the League of the Islamic Awakening in Najaf 00:16:14.659 --> 00:16:17.100 and the Guardians of Independence in Baghdad. 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:20.919 This boiling frustration rapidly escalated, erupting 00:16:20.919 --> 00:16:24.000 into the massive Iraqi revolt of 1920. And suddenly 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.179 the British found themselves in a highly precarious 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:28.419 and very expensive situation. Right. Following 00:16:28.419 --> 00:16:31.019 the exhaustion of World War I, the British government 00:16:31.019 --> 00:16:33.480 was practically bankrupt. They could not afford 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:35.659 to maintain a massive garrison army in the Middle 00:16:35.659 --> 00:16:38.659 East. To put down the 1920 revolt, they relied 00:16:38.659 --> 00:16:41.779 heavily on a brutal new tactic, which was using 00:16:41.779 --> 00:16:44.620 the Royal Air Force to conduct widespread bombing 00:16:44.620 --> 00:16:47.620 campaigns against insurgent villages. Wow. But 00:16:47.620 --> 00:16:50.440 British leadership... Specifically, Winston Churchill, 00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:52.220 who was then serving as secretary of state for 00:16:52.220 --> 00:16:55.360 the colonies, realized that ruling by force alone 00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:58.039 was financially and politically unsustainable. 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:00.480 Which led directly to the Cairo Conference in 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:03.899 1921. Churchill convened British military and 00:17:03.899 --> 00:17:06.039 political leaders to figure out how to draw the 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:07.819 borders and establish governments that would 00:17:07.819 --> 00:17:11.000 protect British strategic interests, namely the 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:13.740 oil and the routes to India as cheaply as possible. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:16.400 Exactly. And their solution was to establish 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:18.750 Hashemite Kingdom. They installed Faisal as the 00:17:18.750 --> 00:17:21.890 first monarch of Iraq. But it is crucial to understand 00:17:21.890 --> 00:17:24.750 for you listening that Faisal was not from Iraq. 00:17:24.930 --> 00:17:27.130 No, he wasn't. He was a Hashemite royal from 00:17:27.130 --> 00:17:29.930 the Hejaz region near Mecca in modern day Saudi 00:17:29.930 --> 00:17:33.750 Arabia. The British essentially imported a foreign 00:17:33.750 --> 00:17:36.549 king. who belonged to the Sunni sect, to rule 00:17:36.549 --> 00:17:40.049 over a territory comprised of complex, pre -existing 00:17:40.049 --> 00:17:42.609 Kurdish, Sunni, and majority Shia populations. 00:17:43.450 --> 00:17:45.809 They were literally drawing arbitrary lines on 00:17:45.809 --> 00:17:48.529 a map and installing proxy rulers to secure their 00:17:48.529 --> 00:17:51.910 geopolitical assets. Which baked deep instability 00:17:51.910 --> 00:17:54.390 right into the very foundation of the new state. 00:17:54.589 --> 00:17:57.750 Absolutely. And the diplomatic hypocrisy regarding 00:17:57.750 --> 00:18:01.630 those assets is pretty staggering too. In 1923, 00:18:01.710 --> 00:18:04.150 during negotiations over the final borders with 00:18:04.150 --> 00:18:06.630 the newly formed Republic of Turkey, the British 00:18:06.630 --> 00:18:09.230 Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, stood up and 00:18:09.230 --> 00:18:11.549 tried to argue that the existence of oil in the 00:18:11.549 --> 00:18:14.430 Mosul area was, quote, no more than hypothetical. 00:18:14.549 --> 00:18:16.869 Hypothetical? Yeah, he was actively trying to 00:18:16.869 --> 00:18:19.049 disclaim that oil was the motive for Britain's 00:18:19.049 --> 00:18:21.569 aggressive territorial claims. But historians 00:18:21.569 --> 00:18:23.650 look at the internal communications of the time 00:18:23.650 --> 00:18:26.390 and flatly state, quote, England wanted oil. 00:18:26.789 --> 00:18:29.680 Mosul and Kurds were the key. They knew exactly 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:31.579 what was in the ground and exactly why they were 00:18:31.579 --> 00:18:34.319 fighting for it. It was a deliberate, calculated 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:37.420 partitioning of the former Ottoman Empire. The 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:39.559 ownership of the Mosul province and its underlying 00:18:39.559 --> 00:18:42.160 resources became a massive international dispute, 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:46.180 precisely because everyone knew that hypothetical 00:18:46.180 --> 00:18:49.480 oil was the future lifeblood of the global economy. 00:18:49.700 --> 00:18:51.599 Let's take a step back and look at the journey 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:55.019 we just took today. Yeah. This was a brutal four 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:58.720 year military campaign triggered by a modernizing 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:02.299 empire's urgent thirst for oil and a deep strategic 00:19:02.299 --> 00:19:05.819 paranoia about rival European powers. It was 00:19:05.819 --> 00:19:08.440 marked by catastrophic political hubris that 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:11.200 led directly to the horrific disaster and starvation 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:13.680 at cut. But it was ultimately won through sheer 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:16.319 logistical willpower, building deep water ports, 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:18.839 hospitals and railways right in the desert. And 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:20.960 it culminated in broken promises to the local 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:23.529 Arab population, sparking armed rebellions and 00:19:23.529 --> 00:19:25.289 leading to the arbitrary drawing of the modern 00:19:25.289 --> 00:19:27.309 borders of the Middle East. Right. And for you, 00:19:27.430 --> 00:19:29.150 the listener, understanding the mechanics of 00:19:29.150 --> 00:19:31.950 this campaign is crucial because it acts as the 00:19:31.950 --> 00:19:35.569 Rosetta Stone for modern Middle Eastern geopolitics. 00:19:35.990 --> 00:19:38.430 Whenever you look at the news today and see complex 00:19:38.430 --> 00:19:41.369 disputes over borders in Iraq or international 00:19:41.369 --> 00:19:44.970 tensions over oil rights or just the deeply complicated 00:19:44.970 --> 00:19:47.309 legacy of Western intervention in the region. 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:50.359 You are looking directly at the ghosts of the 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:52.539 Mesopotamian campaign. You really are. It is 00:19:52.539 --> 00:19:55.440 a prime textbook example of how the logistical 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:58.220 infrastructure of war and the insatiable demand 00:19:58.220 --> 00:20:01.400 for resources can literally redraw the map of 00:20:01.400 --> 00:20:03.940 the world and shape human history for a century 00:20:03.940 --> 00:20:06.220 to come. It is history that is still actively 00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:08.819 breathing today. But before we wrap up, we want 00:20:08.819 --> 00:20:11.099 to leave you with a final lingering thought to 00:20:11.099 --> 00:20:13.680 explore on your own. We talked extensively today 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:15.819 about the sheer volume of troops from the British 00:20:15.819 --> 00:20:18.720 Indian Army who fought, suffered, and died in 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:21.960 the heat and mud of Mesopotamia. These Indian 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:24.579 soldiers experienced firsthand the vulnerabilities, 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:28.059 the strategic miscalculations, and the massive 00:20:28.059 --> 00:20:30.680 failures of their British commanders. So consider 00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:33.480 this. How might the site of that catastrophic 00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:36.339 imperial failure at Cote, combined with the sudden 00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:38.900 realization of their own indispensable military 00:20:38.900 --> 00:20:41.720 value to the empire, have quietly seeded the 00:20:41.549 --> 00:20:43.789 growing demands for independence back home in 00:20:43.789 --> 00:20:46.109 India in the decades that followed. It's a profound 00:20:46.109 --> 00:20:49.329 question about the long -term unintended consequences 00:20:49.329 --> 00:20:51.529 of imperial warfare. Thank you all for joining 00:20:51.529 --> 00:20:53.970 us on this deep dive into the past. Keep questioning, 00:20:54.150 --> 00:20:55.529 keep learning, and we'll catch you next time.