British bordering practices in the Middle East before Sykes-Picot: giving an edge to zones

Date de publication:

26 Juin 2018

Mots-clefs:

Bordering practices
Arabia
Persian Gulf
buffer zones
Anglo-Ottoman territorial confrontation

Publié ici :

26 Juin 2018

Mis à jour le :

13 Juillet 2018

Langue de publication:

Français et Anglais

Zone géographique:

Moyen-Orient

British bordering practices in the Middle East before Sykes-Picot: giving an edge to zones

Les pratiques britanniques de frontiérisation au Moyen-Orient avant Sykes-Picot : délimiter des zones

dans Enjeux frontaliers et territoriaux au Sahel et au Moyen-Orient

Richard Schofield

The significance of the Sykes-Picot territorial system of mandated territories has been both overplayed and somewhat misplaced on its centenary over the last year or so. This article reviews the legacy of Britain’s bordering practices in the Middle East in the period before World War One, arguing that its importance should not be underestimated. It shows how the British Home and India governments began to think in terms of lines and zones on land and sea during the nineteenth century and how, with an intensifying Ottoman challenge in three corners of Arabia at the turn of the twentieth century, there was a perceived need to define edges to spatial zones. This account concentrates upon two of these corners – in Yemen and Kuwait.

Plan

The understandable tendency to focus upon Sykes-Picot

Life before Sykes-Picot: Britain’s territorial dealings with the Ottomans and Persians on land and sea

Establishing zones and defining edges to them

Concluding remarks: a return to zonal thinking by the eve of the Great War

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