1918 Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement (Middle East)

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Ray Stannard Baker's diagram of the six secret agreements, which were used in the negotiations to partition the Ottoman Empire makes reference to the Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement over Mosul.

The Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement of 1 December 1918 was a verbal agreement that modified the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement in respect to Palestine and the Mosul vilayet. The latter component is also known as the Mosul cession. The agreement was between British and French Prime Ministers David Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau and took place at the French Embassy in London.[1]

During World War I, the United Kingdom and France signed the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement in 1916, which effectively partitioned the Ottoman Empire into areas of British and French control and spheres of influence. The Mosul vilayet was allocated to France by the agreement, and this accord was formally ratified in May 1916. However, three weeks after the war ended, Georges Clemenceau abandoned France's claim to Mosul and ceded control of all of northern Mesopotamia to Britain, following a private discussion on December 1, 1918. In return, David Lloyd George promised Clemenceau a significant share of any oil discovered in British-controlled Mosul, possibly as much as 50 percent. Additionally, Clemenceau renounced the French claim to Palestine.[2] The agreement was finalised in a meeting at Deauville in 1919.[1]

The agreement was controversial because France did not appear to have gained any substantial changes from Britain in return for the concessions of Mosul and Palestine.[1] John J McTague Jr wrote, "Despite the informality of this agreement, Lloyd George and Clemenceau held to it and it became the basis for legitimizing the British claim to Palestine".[3]

See also[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Fitzgerald, Edward Peter. "France's Middle Eastern Ambitions, the Sykes–Picot Negotiations, and the Oil Fields of Mosul." The Journal of Modern History 66.4 (1994): 697–725. JSTOR 2125155
  • Ranjdar Mohammed Azeez Al-Jaf (2018). British Policy Towards the Government of the Mosul Vilayet, 1916-1926 (PDF) (Thesis). University of Leicester. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 25, 2019.
  • Paul C. Helmreich (1974). From Paris to Sèvres: the partition of the Ottoman Empire at the Peace Conference of 1919-1920. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-0170-1.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Matthew Hughes (11 January 2013). Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East, 1917-1919. Routledge. pp. 122–128. ISBN 978-1-136-32388-1.
  2. ^ Fitzgerald, Edward Peter (1994). "France's Middle Eastern Ambitions, the Sykes-Picot Negotiations, and the Oil Fields of Mosul, 1915-1918". The Journal of Modern History. 66 (4): 697–725. ISSN 0022-2801.
  3. ^ McTague Jr, John J (Winter 1982). "Anglo-French Negotiations over the Boundaries of Palestine, 1919-1920". Journal of Palestine Studies. 11 (2). University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies: 100–112. doi:10.2307/2536272. JSTOR 2536272.