British trouble in Iraq in the 1920s cannot be divorced from their pre-war interests in the area. Indeed these interests were so important that in 1911 the Viceroy of India recommended outright annexation. The political aims of the First World War became very muddy with the Sykes-Picot, the Balfour, and Hussein-McMahon agreements making conflicting promises for the expedience of the moment. Because of the major economic investments, British war-time policy in Iraq was very different from western Arabia where they overtly encouraged and aided the Arab Revolt. To do so in Iraq would have destabilised the India Office as well as further fragmented the races in Iraq that neither the Ottomans nor the British had been able to bring together.

      The war-time policy continued in 1919 as Britain attempted to consolidate its territorial gains. Nationalism was to be controlled, not encouraged, although the "Sharifian" faction in London (e.g. T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, "the uncrowned queen of Iraq") was trying to follow through on rewarding all Arabs for their war effort with full independence. British civil administration was set up in Iraq almost identical to India, with British officials controlling every position. The Commissioner, Sir Arnold Wilson, saw his duty as bestowing the gifts of British civilisation without ever having to justify their presence. To make it more palatable to the outside world, London planned to install a puppet monarch, but they dithered so long that they finally asked for a plebiscite on the best form of government. Wilson earnestly thought he knew what was best for Iraq and that the people were too ignorant to govern themselves, so he manipulated a series of phoney plebiscites to give the result he wanted. After a puppet government was installed, several hundred British civil servants moved in expecting a very long imperial tenure.

      Wilson's arrogant administration was precisely the miracle that for the first time gave all Iraqis a sense of national identity and purpose. Even the centuries-old Sunni-Shia conflict was put aside. So by the time the League of Nations confirmed the British Mandate in April 1920, that was the signal for revolt.

     The British managed to suppress the 1920 revolt at great expense, but they also understood some of the problem. Wilson was replaced by Sir Percy Cox who was sympathetic to Arab aspirations. Cox got rid of the India Office crowd and replaced them with leading orientalists and native administrators whose goal was self-determination. Within a year, the terms of the Mandate were replaced with an Anglo-Iraqi treaty of alliance.

• Note: Casualties in the 1920 Shiite revolt were 2,200 British troops and 8,450 Iraqi civilians.

• Sikh Forces in Iraq 1922 (Gateway to Sikhism)

General Service Medal 1918-1962

Bars:
"Kurdistan"
23 May 1919-6 Dec. 1919 and 19 Mar. 1923-18 June 1923

"Iraq"
10 Dec. 1919-17 Nov. 1920

"Southern Desert: Iraq"
8 Jan. 1928-3 June 1928

"Northern Kurdistan"
15 Mar. 1932-21 June 1932

This medal was never issued without a clasp. Twelve other bars were issued for other theatres of operation.

• Arab Revolts
  • Great Iraqi Revolution 1920, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
  • Ikhwan Raiding of British Allies 1921-22, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
  • First Ikhwan Rebellion 1927-28, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
• Kurdish Revolts
  • Brief History of Kurdistan (United Kurdistan Information Network)
  • Kurds Land and ... History (Kurdish Studies, v. 5, nos. 1-2, Spring-Fall 1992)
  • History of Kurdistan (Kurdistanica: Encyclopedia of Kurdistan)
  • Kurdistan Governors and Rulers, by Benjamin Cahoon (World Statesmen)
  • akaKurdistan, a place for collective memory and cultural exchange
  • Kurds - A People Without a State (Cyberessays)
  • The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925, by Robert Olson.
  • Kurdistan Occupation Revolt 1922, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
  • Kurdish Rebellion in Turkey 1925, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
  • Kurdish Rebellion in Iraq 1930-31, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
  • Kurdish Rebellion in Iraq 1932, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
• Chronology
  • Jahreschronik 1919-1941, by Bernd Marek (Chronologische Kriegsgeschichte)
  • League of Nations Timeline, 1918-1946 (League of Nations Photo Archive)
• Special Topics
  • Flags of Short-lived States in Kurdistan (Flags of the World)