What explains the differences btwn French & British imperialism in the Mideast in WWI?

raharris1973

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From reading David Fromkin's, a "A Peace to End All Peace" and other works in english, there is a striking contrast between British and French approaches.

The British appear through WWI, the peace conference and the early Mandate years to be working overtime to actually conquer the place and make alliances and promises with local and international groups to justify their claims.

Hence you have the large British campaigns in the Middle East, but also the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, sponsorship of the Arab Revolt, but also the contradictory Balfour Declaration and even other overtures towards the Ottomans for a separate peace.

You have the British being intensely concerned that the French will exploit any British weakness or excuse to press claims to the Palestine Mandate (which at first included Transjordan).

Meanwhile, the French appear to be making claims to all of Syria as well as Palestine and northern Iraq, based on....mere desire and a remarkably self-assured sense of entitlement.

The French both invested less militarily in the region during the war (for understandable reasons) but *also* were less concerned with "winning friends and influencing people" than the British. They were anti Hashemite and anti-Zionist at the same time. I do not really know who they expected to be their constituency in the Middle East, beyond the quite small Maronite Christian minority.

What accounts for the French sense of entitlement in the Levant and self-assuredness, and Britain's respect for those claims that it could have easily denied by force, finance and diplomacy?

Why wasn't it France more worried about Britain or British puppets taking over Syria and Lebanon than Britain worried about France taking over Palestine and Jordan?
 
Perhaps the French were projecting their ownership in the Middle East based on their plans for Algeria, part of the metropole, and also gradual acculturation of the locals to French culture, and an effort for conversion. Of course the pieds-noir were part of this.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
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Perhaps the French were projecting their ownership in the Middle East based on their plans for Algeria, part of the metropole, and also gradual acculturation of the locals to French culture, and an effort for conversion. Of course the pieds-noir were part of this.

Perhaps - French cultural outreach and hosting of Middle Easterners had an older pedigree than English. Plus even in 1914 the French were still the biggest foreign holders of Ottoman debt. Plus they felt gipped out of Egypt.

Maybe during WWI they were thinking during WWI: "We were their ally forever, the leading foreign influencer and hold the most shares of their debt. Are we going to get a big piece of the pie, bien sur!"
 
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