The History of Iraq - Essay Example

Discussion Responses Responses Part One I would like to begin by concurring with this for stating that the coming of the British to Iraq was a major turning point in its history. As this student exclaims, the British Mandate began in the year 1917 when the Ottoman Empire which had been controlling this region for several decades had collapsed. Surely, after the mandate been declared by the League of Nations, British mandate did not only concentrate in Iraq, but also extended to other neighboring countries such as Palestine and Jordan.

True to his assertions, the British did not come to this region to benefit the natives. However, as this student says, they came to this region to take part in and control business activities. After all, Iraq is one of the countries which are endowed by oil wells which needed to be exploited at whatever costs. I am certain that this is the reason why the British colonial expansion by brought a lot of socio-political stability in the region. Indeed, their exclusivist ideologies widened the Shia-Sunni rift which had characterized Iraq for a very long time.

Part Two I would like to agree with this student for giving a true version of the history of Iraq. First, he is right for saying that the Ottoman Empire had been in control of the larger parts of the Middle East especially before the end of the World War I. as he reports, their regime came to an end especially after losing the war to more superior powers such as the British. The student is also right for reporting that the alliance between the Ottoman Empire and the Germans did not bear any fruit because they lost the war before eventually getting stripped of their colonial territories like Iraq.

Moreover, I am in a strong agreement with his student for accurately reporting that Iraq, as a nation, was created from three provinces including Bagdad, Basra and Mosul. Indeed, the curving of Iraq’s geographical boundaries would later bring more problems as it became one of the reasons for constant rivalries between its nationals. In fact, as the student says, it partly contributed to the unending Iraq-Syria conflict over the ISIS attempts to realign the earlier Ottoman boundary.