T'E' Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia 18881935

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T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) 1888-1935

• History 106
• April 10, 2009

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Reminders

• Readings for this week.
• Bentley and Ziegler, chapter 34 four documents
  on the Middle East 1) Damascus Protocol, 1915
  2) Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916 3) Balfour
  Declaration, 1917 4) Feizal-Weizmann agreement,
  1919 NEW Brief introduction to
  these documents.
• There will be a brief quiz in your section on
  these documents on April 13 or 14.
• Keep reading Things Fall Apart. Your paper is due
  April 20 or 21 in your section. Instructions
  here.

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Ottoman Empire and the Middle East
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Lawrences Map of the Middle East
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A Youth of Privilege

• and a secret
• Romantic dreams
• Hoped to be knighted and a general by the age of
  30
• Studies the Middle Ages at Oxford

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Archeologist (and spy?)

• To the Middle East to explore the European
  Crusaders castles of the Middle Ages.
• 1100 mile walking tour
• Returns in 1910, working on archeological sites.
• Friendship with Arab photographer, Dahoum

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Stirring Up the Arab Revolt

• Lawrence works in British military intelligence
  in Cairo in early phase of the Great War
• In 1915-16, British colonial administrator
  McMahon carries on correspondence with Sharif
  Husayn, the Arab leader in Mecca, the holiest
  site in Islam.
• McMahon strongly implies that if Arabs revolt
  against Ottoman Empire, Britain will support an
  independent Arab nation.

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Arab Revolt Proclaimed June 1916
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But only a Few Weeks Earlier

• British and French diplomats reach a secret
  agreement for a very different map of the Middle
  East.

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Lawrence Joins the Arab Revolt

• Eager to get away from his desk job in Egypt, he
  crosses the Red Sea to Arabia.
• Meets Feisal, son of Sharif Husayn A popular
  idol, and ambitious full of dreams, and the
  capacity to realize them, with keen personal
  insight and a very efficient man of business.

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Desert War Lawrence on Strategy

• Most wars were wars of contact.Ours should be a
  war of detachment. We were to contain the enemy
  by the silent threat of the vast unknown desert,
  not disclosing ourselves until we attacked.
• It is of course by far the most wonderful time I
  have had.

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The Campaign for Damascus

• Lawrence and Faisal aim for the Ottoman
  stronghold of Damascus, first seizing the port
  city of Akaba, then moving back into the desert
  to attack the railroad line running south from
  Damascus.
• Lawrences superior officers were skeptical about
  the Arab revolt. Lawrence acted on his own I
  decided to go my own way, with or without
  orders.
• Arabs take Damascus October 1918.

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Portrait of Lawrence at Damascus, 1918
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Lawrence, the British and the Arabs

• Despair at being an agent of British
  double-dealing
• Ive decided to go off alone to Damascus, hoping
  to get killed on the way for all sakes try and
  clear this show up before it goes further. We
  are calling them to fight for us on a lie, and I
  cant stand it.

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Another British Promise

• For a generation in Europe there had been growing
  hostility and persecution of Jews.
• Zionism Many Jews concluded that the Jewish
  people needed to re-establish a separate
  homeland, preferably in their Biblical home in
  Palestine.
• In 1917, the British official Lord Balfour
  pledged that Great Britain would work for the
  establishment in Palestine of a national home for
  the Jewish people.

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Lawrence on Middle East Peace Settlements

• Britain takes mandates in Palestine and Iraq
  France takes Syria.
• Lawrence pleads the Arabs case for independence
  The Arabs came into the war without making a
  previous treaty with us, and have consistently
  refused to listen to the temptations of other
  powersThey fought withoutany other very strong
  motive than a desire to set the Arabs free.

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Lawrence and the Peace Conference

• Whenthe new world dawned, the old men came out
  again and took our victory to re-make in the
  likeness of the former world they knew.We
  stammered that we had worked fo a new heaven and
  a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made
  their peace.

Emir Faisal at Versailles Peace Conference, 1919.
Lawrence is the fourth man standing behind him.
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From Popular Hero to Anonymous Recluse

• American Journalist Lowell Thomas portrays
  Lawrence as the liberator of the Arabs. He calls
  him the uncrowned king of Arabia.
• Prime Minister Lloyd George Colonel Lawrence is
  one of the most remarkable and romantic figures
  of modern times.
• Lawrences mother describes her son after the
  war Sometimes he would sit the entire morning
  between breakfast and lunch in the same position,
  without moving, and with the same expression on
  his face.
• After the Great War, Lawrence seeks anonymity. He
  joins the Royal Air Force as an enlisted man.

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The Quest for Adventure

• In between periods of Air Force service, Lawrence
  devoted himself to writing. His major work, about
  his desert campaigns, was Seven Pillars of
  Wisdom.
• Lawrences new quest for adventure involved
  high-speed motorboats and motorcycles.
• On May 19, 1935, Lawrences cycle clipped the
  wheel of a bicyclist and overturned. He died at
  the age of 46.
• Winston Churchill at his funeral We have lost
  one of the greatest beings of our times.

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Seeds of Middle East Conflict

• Colonialism preserved
• Contradictory promises
• Arab unity and conflict
• Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land
• . . . Oil

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First Oil Well in Persia Iran 1908