The only ports consisted of Archangel, Odessa, St. Petersburg and Riga, some of which are frozen for much of the year and at all ports rarely used. After the defeat, the Tsarist foreign policy aspirations temporarily abandoned the Mediterranean Sea, while the nascent Italy began to organize a first plan of maritime hegemony.
The policies of the two powers collided in when Italy, in war with the Ottoman Empire, in two occasions forced the Dardanelles. Britain relied heavily on Indian troops to control the empire. The highest priority for Britain was protecting the trade routes between Britain and India. Britain's large navy protected trade links with India and with the rest of the world.
Despite this focus on the empire, Britain was interested in events in Europe. To start with, other European countries had rival empires. Belgium and France both had large empires in Africa. There was strong rivalry between Britain and France over possessions in North Africa.
By the early s, Germany also had colonies in Africa and was beginning to show an interest in North Africa. Another concern was Russia. For much of the 19th century, Russia wanted to take control of the Dardanelles, the area where the Black Sea opened out into the Mediterranean Sea.
This would allow Russian warships and trading ships to sail easily around Europe. Russia had other ports in the north, but these tended to freeze over in winter. The problem was that the Dardanelles were owned by Turkey. Turkey and Russia had long been enemies. Britain supported Turkey against Russia. This was because Britain did not want Russian ships in the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean was part of Britain's most important trade route to India. Until the early s, Britain was more concerned about Russia and France than Germany. Relations between Britain and Germany were very good. This began to change, however. He felt that Russia to the east and France to the west were encircling Germany. As a result, he built up his armed forces. France and Russia feared Germany and did the same.
During the s, all of the great powers in Europe began to build up their armies and navies. British policy in Europe intended that no country in Europe should become completely dominant. If Russia, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary worried about each other, then they would be less of a threat to Britain. By about it was becoming clear to Britain that the greatest potential threat to Britain was going to be Germany. In addition, administration of colonial governments was heavily dominated by the French.
Local authorities were given very little power and did not have the authority to independently decide policy. The small amount of power that local leaders had could easily be overruled by French officials. The French did everything possible to prevent people in the Levant from developing self-sufficient governing bodies.
In , France extended its constitution on to Syria. The new Arab administration formed local governments in the major Syrian cities, and the pan-Arab flag was raised all over Syria. The Arabs hoped, with faith in earlier British promises, that the new state would include all the Arab lands stretching from Aleppo in northern Syria to Aden in southern Yemen. However, in accordance with the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France, General Allenby assigned the Arab administration only the interior regions of Syria the eastern zone.
On October 8, French troops disembarked in Beirut and occupied the Lebanese coastal region south to Naqoura the western zone , replacing British troops there. The French immediately dissolved the local Arab governments in the region.
France demanded full implementation of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, with Syria under its control. On November 26, , British forces withdrew from Damascus to avoid confrontation, leaving the Arab government to face France. Anti-Hashemite manifestations broke out and Muslim inhabitants in and around Mount Lebanon revolted with fear of being incorporated into a new, mainly Christian state of Greater Lebanon.
Syrians reacted with violent demonstrations, and a new government headed by Ali Rida al-Rikabi was formed on May 9, The new government decided to organize general conscription and began forming an army.
On July 14, , General Gouraud issued an ultimatum to Faisal, giving him the choice between submission or abdication. Realizing that the power balance was not in his favor, Faisal chose to cooperate.
However, the young minister of war, Youssef al-Azmeh, refused to comply. The French won the battle in less than a day.
Azmeh died on the battlefield along with many of the Syrian troops. Goybet entered Damascus on July 24, The Mandate was written in London on July 24, On September 27, , France proclaimed, by virtue of and within the framework of the Mandate, the independence and sovereignty of the Syrian State. There were protests in over the slow French withdrawal; the French responded to these protests with artillery. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalist groups and the British forced the French to evacuate the last of its troops in April , leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that was formed during the mandate.
Although rapid economic development followed the declaration of independence, Syrian politics from independence through the late s were marked by upheaval. The early years of independence were marked by political instability. It is characterized by political and military conflict, in this case caused by British and American interests in the oil industry. Volume production of Persian oil products eventually started in from a refinery built at Abadan, for its first 50 years the largest oil refinery in the world.
Although Britain had large reserves of coal, oil had advantages in better energy density, allowing a longer steaming range for a ship of the same bunker capacity. In exchange for secure oil supplies for its ships, the British government injected new capital into the company and in doing so, acquired a controlling interest in APOC.
The British government also became a de facto hidden power behind the oil company. In , Burmah employed Winston Churchill as a paid consultant to lobby the British government to allow APOC to have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources, which were subsequently granted.
These promises were not kept. Increased tensions with Britain led to pro-German rallies in Tehran. Fadayan-e Islam supported the demands of the National Front, which held a minority of seats in Parliament, to nationalize the assets of the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Later in March , the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the AIOC and its holdings, and shortly thereafter the Iranian public elected a champion of nationalization, Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister. This led to the Abadan Crisis in which foreign countries agreed not to purchase Iranian oil under British pressure and the Abadan refinery was closed. As the months went on, the crisis became acute. By mid, an attempt by the Shah to replace Mossadegh backfired and led to riots against the Shah and perceived foreign intervention; Mossadegh returned with even greater power.
Britain was unable to subvert Mossadegh as its embassy and officials had been evicted from Iran in October However, they successfully appealed to exaggerated anti-communist sentiments in the U.
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