There was a movement to establish an American Mandate in Armenia after WWI with some powerful supporters (including Wilson) but it was always a long shot given the isolationism sweeping the US at the time and was massively defeated in the Senate. How could it have become feasible and what would have resulted? The Armenians themselves were strongly in support of the Mandate to protect them from joint Turkish-Soviet aggression.
 
You would have to have get America to join the League of Nations first, if Wilson dies from his stroke then the Democrats might be able to make him a martyr and use his memory to get the treaty of Versailles ratified.

Wilsonian idealism might've made a difference in keeping the mandates from becoming de facto colonies if America had more influence within the League. It could affect decolonization later on. OTL the only modern version of the Mandate System is temporary UN Protectorates/Transitional Administrations to organize elections in places like Cambodia, East Timor, etc. or as peacekeeping operations in places like Cyprus, the Golan heights, and the Balkans.
 
There was a movement to establish an American Mandate in Armenia after WWI with some powerful supporters (including Wilson) but it was always a long shot given the isolationism sweeping the US at the time and was massively defeated in the Senate. How could it have become feasible and what would have resulted? The Armenians themselves were strongly in support of the Mandate to protect them from joint Turkish-Soviet aggression.

If there is oil in Armenia there is a motive to a mandate. Although I doubt the US will try to save it regardless. It was a short period in which the Turkish Forces reconquered Eastern Anatolia and if the Turkish Forces are halted the US is going to be midst in a conqest rage as the Soviets will enter.
 
If there is oil in Armenia there is a motive to a mandate. Although I doubt the US will try to save it regardless. It was a short period in which the Turkish Forces reconquered Eastern Anatolia and if the Turkish Forces are halted the US is going to be midst in a conqest rage as the Soviets will enter.

No oil (or really any natural resources) in Armenia, but there’s a lot of oil in the area around Baku in Azerbaijan. The British tried to hold Baku for a while but evacuated due to war weariness.
 
What would be the demographics of the Armenian mandate? Depending on the borders, there might be large Turkish and Kurdish populations who would not be happy about being part of an Armenian state.
 
If there is oil in Armenia there is a motive to a mandate. Although I doubt the US will try to save it regardless. It was a short period in which the Turkish Forces reconquered Eastern Anatolia and if the Turkish Forces are halted the US is going to be midst in a conqest rage as the Soviets will enter.
Even assuming Ankara is willing tolerate an Armenian mandate, The US would depend on passage through the black sea or traveling by land across eastern Turkey to a landlocked mandate.
Iraq and Greater Syria would be easier to reach.
 
You would have to have get America to join the League of Nations first, if Wilson dies from his stroke then the Democrats might be able to make him a martyr and use his memory to get the treaty of Versailles ratified.


His death would clear the way in any case. Iirc, Vice-President Marshall had said privately that the Lodge Reservations should be accepted, which in all likelihood would have cleared the way for ratification.

OTOH, even with the ToV ratified, there is still a huge obstacle. Holding on to an Armenian mandate would require a military presence there, which would almost certainly still be a no-no whether the treaty was ratified or not.
 
Greece would not be amused, as Wilsonian Armenia conflicts with the region known as Pontus (particularly in the Trabzon area), which proponents of the Megali Idea had hoped to include into the new Greek state. (OK, so there was the Republic of Pontus - it could have been the first step.) Plus - how is the US going to supply the Armenian mandate and not let it over-run by the USSR, aided by local Bolsheviks, and/or Greece and/or Atatürk's crew? You're only going to get that if the US already has a mandate elsewhere in the Near East, which means King-Crane has an effect where, except for Lebanon (to keep the French happy - maybe except the OTL former Israeli Security Zone strip up to the Litani, to reduce some of the tension), the US has a mandate in Greater Syria (aka what we now know as Syria + OTL Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, and the Çukurova region of modern Turkey and adjacent areas of the Aleppo Vilayet which became part of Turkey, such as Antep [modern Gaziantep] and Urfa [modern Şanlıurfa]) which could serve as a base from which to supply the Armenian mandate - even if the supply lines go through Iraq, with British consent, to make accessing the Armenian Mandate easier.
 
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