Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. History
  3. Europe

Read and listen for free for 14 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
0.0(0)

Empire of Sand : How Britain Made the Middle East

At the end of the First World War Britain and to a much lesser extent France created the modern Middle East. The possessions of the former Ottoman Empire were carved up with scant regard for the wishes of those who lived there. Frontiers were devised and alien dynasties imposed on the populations as arbitrarily as in medieval times.

From the outset the project was destined to failure. Conflicting and ambiguous promises had been made to the Arabs during the war but were not honoured. Brief hopes for Arab unity were dashed, and a harsh belief in western perfidy persists to the present day. Britain was quick to see the riches promised by the black pools of oil that lay on the ground around Baghdad. When France too grasped their importance, bitter differences opened up and the area became the focus of a return to traditional enmity. The war-time allies came close to blows and then drifted apart, leaving a vacuum of which Hitler took advantage.

Working from both primary and secondary sources, Walter Reid explores Britain's role in the creation of the modern Middle East and the rise of Zionism from the early years of the twentieth century to 1948, when Britain handed over Palestine to UN control. From the decisions that Britain made has flowed much of the instability of the region and of the world-wide tensions that threaten the twenty-first century. How far was Britain to blame?


Author:

  • Walter Reid

Format:

  • E-book

Duration:

  • 437 pages

Language:

English

Categories:

  • History
  • Europe
  • History
  • Middle east

More by Walter Reid

Skip the list
  1. Empire of Sand

    Walter Reid

    audiobook
  2. Neville Chamberlain : The Passionate Radical

    Walter Reid

    book
  3. Five Days From Defeat : How Britain Nearly Lost the First World War

    Walter Reid

    book
  4. Supreme Sacrifice : A Small Village and the Great War

    Walter Reid

    book
  5. Keeping the Jewel in the Crown : The British Betrayal of India

    Walter Reid

    book
  6. Churchill 1940-1945 : Under Friendly Fire

    Walter Reid

    book
  7. Architect of Victory : Douglas Haig

    Walter Reid

    book
  8. Arras, 1917 : A Journey to Railway Triangle

    Walter Reid

    book

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • All categories

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms · Imprint ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5