Britain, Diplomacy and Money
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DI.1) Perhaps the principal disagreement among Britain's pledges and treaties was the conflict between diplomacy and money. Equal to this, however, was the desire to win the war they had been dragged into by treaties and alliances that were supposed to prevent war. Since the machine gun, the tank, and the submarine, invented as weapons so terrible that no one would dare face them, simply made war worse, one should not be surprised that diplomacy would also fail. In fact, treaties and agreements never end war but at best delay it temporarily. Thus, one may see a twisted logic in the SykesCostaud agreement by using treaties, kept and broken, as a means to end a war treaties began. While the regime of `Abd ulHamid may have engaged in questionable religious interpretations of the Koran to keep their political control, Britain viewed the Young Turks that replaced him with suspicions. They were viewed "as freemasons and Jews", and were suspected by many in both Britain and the Ottoman Empire of conspiracy to impose their "alien ideas" on the whole empire. (Yapp 183) Islam was bad enough, to a "Christian" nation like Britain, but it at least was familiar. Despite this, the Young Turk revolution occurred in many places almost at once, as an apparent reaction to an imminent purge. Turkey in July 1908 had changed leadership again. After Iran in 1906 and Egyptian demonstrations in 1907, Britain became worried enough to meet with Tsar Nicholas II to discuss who got which sphere
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on behalf of the people. But because of Zionism's force in England and France, the operation of this idea of local selfdetermination seemed to include the idea that a Jewish presence be allowed in Palestine along with unrestricted Jewish immigration. In the minds of Britain Palestine was the area of Judaism, so seeing Jews as the people affected by agreements concerning that area was not difficult. As the Zionist slogan put it, "A land without a people for a people without a land." (Bill 316)
In the context of selfdetermination England issued the "AngloFrench Declaration" of November 7, 1918. In it she states her position of "establishment of national Governments and Administrations drawing their authority from the initiative and free choice of indigenous populations." On the other hand, the two countries reserved the right "to assure by their support and effective aid the normal working of the Governments and Administrations". (qtd. in Yapp 29394) Thus, again, the guiding principle of British negotiations is Britain's benefit. This is the thinking that dominated their armistice and peace settlements with the Ottomans as well. When, through delays and misunderstandings, the Ottomans ended up capitulating to all of Brita
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Ottoman Empire, Jordan Israel, , Sadat Mubarak, Iraq Bill, Iranian Shi'ite, Governments Administrations, Soviet Union, Fida`iyani Islam, Allah Iranian, ottoman empire, middle east, world war, bill 46, islamic unity, peace treaty, division ottoman empire, revolution iran, britain little, german warships, political unity,
Approximate Word count = 3321
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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