What if Iraq wasn't created after WW1?

Cook

Banned
At the end of World War 1 Britain was granted a League of Nations Mandate over Mesopotamia. The area consisted of three former Ottoman vilayets (Regions), Baghdad, Basra and Mosul.

The British reorganised the region into the country of Iraq and established Faisal as a puppet King.

What if they hadn’t?
After all, there was no precedence for the new nation.

What if instead if importing an unemployed Hashemite from Syria they’d opted for local leaders and kept the traditional boundaries?
Perhaps the Kingdom of Baghdad and the Eremites of Basra and Mosul?
 
If it's divided along ethnic boundaries, we have a Kurd state. Turkey and Persia won't like that, but if the British Empire is for it, they can't do anything against it during the 1930s. I suppose these states would be more stable than the one state we have now with a shitty economy, weak government and Shias, Sunnis and Kurds crammed into one country. Butterflies for the post-WW II era could be very big. OTOH, Persia will probably become a dominant power there and earlier too with no Iraq-Iran war as that is obviously butterflies away with a 20s/30s PoD.
 
Why not have the British create a really big Kurdistan?

In a word Ataturk

I like this idea. I think there is going to less regional stability because as soon as oil gets big the Iranians will take a shot at seizing the oil fields. Which the Saudis aren't going to like. So depending upon who aligns with who during the cold war, it could get pretty hot (excuse the pun)
 
An autonomous brit-controlled Kurdish state could hold its own against Persia and/or Turkey, the latter being in no condition to do anything about it, especially not in the early 20s . The rest of the " Iraqi" territories could be split between Jordan , the Saudis and the emir of Kuwait , which in OTL was part of Iraq and seceded from it at the behest/instigation of the brits . It would have been a mess indeed , but a more manageable one than the contemporary quagmire . By the way ,Faizal was not from Syria ,although he was crowned king of Syria for a fortnight or so .His family originaly came from the region of Hejaz .
 
An autonomous brit-controlled Kurdish state could hold its own against Persia and/or Turkey, the latter being in no condition to do anything about it, especially not in the early 20s . The rest of the " Iraqi" territories could be split between Jordan , the Saudis and the emir of Kuwait , which in OTL was part of Iraq and seceded from it at the behest/instigation of the brits . It would have been a mess indeed , but a more manageable one than the contemporary quagmire . By the way ,Faizal was not from Syria ,although he was crowned king of Syria for a fortnight or so .His family originaly came from the region of Hejaz .

Indeed, he was the son of Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca under the Ottomans and briefly King of Hedjaz, while his brother Abdullah was installed as King of Jordan.

BTW: These two are great for AH, in any scenario where the Brits succesfully support the Arab revolt, they can be moved about to be on any throne created from the Ottoman Empire. Just adjust the madates.
 

Cook

Banned
So he was, as I said, an unemployed Hashemite and they did ship him in from Syria.
The British were already using another Hashemite as their puppet King in TransJordan so using another probably made sense.
 
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