Fall of Baghdad (1917)
The fall of Baghdad (11 March 1917) occurred during the Mesopotamia Campaign, fought between the forces of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire in the First World War.
Arrival of General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude[edit]
After the surrender of the Kut garrison on 29 April 1916, the British Army in Mesopotamia underwent a major overhaul. A new commander, Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, was given the job of restoring Britain's military reputation.
General Maude spent the rest of 1916 rebuilding his army. Most of his troops were recruited in India and then sent by sea to Basra. While these troops were being trained, British military engineers built a field railway from the coast up to Basra and beyond. General Maude also obtained a small force of armed river boats and river supply ships.
The British launched their new campaign on 13 December 1916. The British had some 50,000 well-trained and well-equipped troops: mostly British India troops of the Indian Expeditionary Force D together with the 13th (Western) Division of the British Army forming the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force. The Indian divisions of the Indian III Corps (also called the Tigris Corps) included British Army units.
The Ottoman forces were smaller, perhaps around 25,000 strong under the overall command of General Khalil Pasha.
Consequences[edit]
The result was a decisive victory for the British and yet another defeat for the Ottoman government. The humiliation for the British due to the loss of Kut had been partially rectified. The Ottoman government was forced to end its military operations in Persia and try to build up a new army to prevent the British from moving on to capture Mosul.
The British had captured Basra Vilayet near the start of the war in 1914, and had now taken the provincial capital of Baghdad Vilayet. Although good news for the British forces, this caused a great deal of bureaucratic fighting between the British government in London and the British government in India over how to manage the region.
Once he captured Baghdad, Maude was the de facto Governor of Mesopotamia from Basra to Baghdad. Sir Percy Cox, the Tigris Corps Political Officer, attempted to issue a proclamation stating that the province was under joint British-Indian administration, but London ordered Cox not to issue his proclamation and came out with its own proclamation asking Arab leaders to aid the British administration instead.
At the same time, the Indian colonial government had different ideas. After all, they had been the prime movers behind Mesopotamia in the first place. The British government in India wanted this new area placed under its direct control.
This power struggle led to the creation of the Mesopotamian Administration Committee, under the leadership of Lord Curzon. Its main task was to determine who would govern the Basra and Baghdad provinces. Its ruling was a British, not Anglo-Indian, administration for Basra and an Arab authority for Baghdad. The temporary government here would eventually evolve into the British Mandate for Mesopotamia and Mandatory Iraq.