Mesopotamia Campaign (World War I) A British military campaign against the Ottoman Turks in Mesopotamia (southern Iraq). In 1913 Britain had acquired the Abadan oilfield of Persia (now Iran), and when war broke out in 1914, it was concerned to protect both the oilfields and the route to India. When Turkey joined the war in October 1914, British and Indian troops occupied Basra in Mesopotamia. They began to advance towards Baghdad, but were halted and suffered the disaster of
KUT. General Sir Frederick Maude recaptured Kut in February 1917, entering Baghdad on 11 March. One contingent of British troops reached the oilfields of Baku (May 1918), which it occupied until September, when the Turks reoccupied the area. A further contingent moved up the River Euphrates to capture Ramadi (September 1917) and another up the River Tigris as far as Tikrit (July 1918), before advancing on Mosul. Meanwhile from Egypt General Sir Edmund
ALLENBY was driving north into Palestine and Syria, aided by Arab partisans organized and led by T. E.
LAWRENCE, a campaign that resulted in the military collapse of Turkey in October 1918. After the armistice of Mudros (30 October), British troops briefly reoccupied Baku (November 1918–August 1919), aiming to deprive the
BOLSHEVIKS of its oil and to use it as a base in the
RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR. Britain had now occupied all Mesopotamia, and for a brief while considered the possibility of creating a single British dominion, consisting of Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran, linking Egypt with India and providing a bulwark against Bolshevism.
