A Study Of Mesopotamian Campaigns In World War Ⅰ

The Mesopotamian Campaign was an important battle in the Middle East during the First World War.Mesopotamia,which consists of the provinces of Basra,Baghdad and Mosul,was ruled by the Ottoman Empire since the 16 th century.However,with the continuous weakening of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the "Eastern Question",western powers intervened one after another,hoping to obtain the territory and interests of the Ottoman Empire.In the early 20 th century,Britain and Germany fought Mesopotamia over the Baghdad railway.Although Britain failed to achieve its goal on the railway issue,it demonstrated its determination to achieve hegemony in Mesopotamia through competing for interests in other aspects of the region.After the outbreak of World War I,the British launched a military operation in the region based on self-interest,quickly capturing Basra province,but then suffered a major setback in the process of advancing on Baghdad.After a long period of adjustment,the British continued to advance,and finally captured Baghdad,Mosul,and finally completely occupied Mesopotamia.However,during the British military occupation,the unreasonable military policy caused many social conflicts,which eventually became the fuse of the Mesopotamian Arab Uprising in 1920.At the same time,the British occupation of Mosul operation also led to the emergence of the Mosul problem after the war.Both have had a profound impact on the modern Iraqi state.Through the excavation of the existing literature and declassified archives,this paper further studies the background,process and influence of the Mesopotamian campaign.The content of this paper is mainly composed of three parts: introduction,text and conclusion.The introduction mainly discusses the selected topic background and the reason,the research significance,research status at home and abroad,research ideas and methods.The main body part is divided into three chapters.The first chapter examines the background of the Mesopotamian campaign.Firstly,it discusses the general background of the campaign,that is,the game between the western powers around the Ottoman Empire.Secondly,the paper explores the formation process of British policy to Mesopotamia based on the contest between Britain and Germany in the issue of Baghdad Railway.Finally,the final formation of the British Mesopotamian expedition is analyzed.The second chapter mainly describes the whole process of Mesopotamia campaign,which is divided into three stages.The first stage is the British occupation of Basra and the advancing stage to Baghdad.The second stage was the stalemate stage between the British and the Turkish,including the Battle of Ctesiphon and the siege of Kut.The third stage is the re-advance stage of British forces.The main content is that Britain increases the war input and further pushes forward the military action in Mesopotamia until it occupies Baghdad and Mosul.The third chapter mainly analyzes the result and influence of the Mesopotamian campaign,and explores the influence of the British policy during and after the war on the Arab nationalism of Iraq and the modern nation-state of Iraq.The epilogue covers three points.First,it reveals the fundamental nature of the Mesopotamian campaign and examines its origins from a geopolitical perspective.Second,it analyzes the fundamental reasons why the British suffered great defeats in the middle of the campaign.Finally,the influence of the Mesopotamian campaign is summarized.The campaign also had a profound impact on the political structure of the Middle East,further expanding the British sphere of influence in the Gulf region,promoting the growth of Arab nationalism in Iraq,and finally promoting the birth of the modern nation-state in Iraq.The Mosul issue caused by the campaign has also had a certain impact on the geopolitics of the Middle East.