OCR Specification focus:
‘The League of Nations and the UN legitimised mandates and mediated Middle Eastern conflicts.’
The League of Nations and later the United Nations shaped Middle Eastern politics by legitimising Great Power mandates and mediating conflicts, profoundly influencing state formation and regional peace.
The League of Nations: Mandates and Post–Ottoman Transition
The Post–World War I Settlement
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, European Great Powers sought to reshape the Middle East. The League of Nations, founded in 1920, provided a legal and moral framework for this process. It established the mandate system, legitimising Great Power control over former Ottoman territories under the guise of preparing them for independence.
Mandate System: A system created by the League of Nations to administer former territories of defeated powers, assigning them to advanced nations to guide them towards self-government.
The mandates reflected both imperial ambitions and new international norms of governance. They aimed to balance self-determination, as espoused by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, with European strategic and economic interests.
Mandates in Practice: Britain and France
The League divided former Ottoman lands into Class A mandates, considered most advanced and closest to independence.
Map of the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, including Alawite State, Jebel Druze, Greater Lebanon and other sub-states created in the early 1920s. It illustrates how mandatory administration fragmented territories and shaped later borders. While focused on the French sphere, it exemplifies the League’s mandate system described in the notes. Source
The main mandates were:
Britain: Palestine and Iraq
France: Syria and Lebanon
These powers justified their rule as temporary stewardship. In reality, mandates extended imperial influence under international legitimacy.
In Palestine, Britain faced competing Arab and Jewish national aspirations, influenced by the Balfour Declaration (1917) promising a Jewish national home.
In Iraq, Britain installed Faisal I as king in 1921, balancing nationalist movements with strategic control, particularly over oil.
France divided Syria and Lebanon, employing a divide and rule strategy to limit Arab nationalist unity.
The League’s Permanent Mandates Commission supervised these territories, reviewing annual reports and advising on governance. However, it lacked enforcement power, and the mandatory powers retained significant autonomy.
Legitimising Empire under International Law
The mandate system allowed Britain and France to maintain strategic footholds while claiming adherence to international norms. It was a compromise between imperialism and emerging ideas of national self-determination. Critics, including Arab nationalists, argued that the system disguised colonial control. Revolts in Iraq (1920) and Syria (1925–1927) demonstrated local resistance to mandatory rule.
By the 1930s and 1940s, mandates began transitioning to independence, but often left behind border disputes, sectarian divisions, and unequal power structures that shaped postcolonial politics.
The United Nations and the Middle East: From Mandates to Mediation
Successor to the League: The UN’s Founding Principles
Founded in 1945 after the Second World War, the United Nations (UN) replaced the League of Nations with a stronger institutional framework. It aimed to prevent conflict, uphold collective security, and promote decolonisation. Its Charter enshrined sovereign equality and self-determination, reshaping the context of Great Power involvement in the Middle East.
Collective Security: A principle where states agree to act together against aggression, ensuring that peace is maintained through united action under international law.
The UN inherited the League’s responsibilities and oversaw the transition of mandates to independence. It also became deeply involved in managing Arab–Israeli conflict, refugee crises, and peacekeeping operations.
Palestine and the UN Partition Plan (1947)
The UN’s most significant early intervention came in Palestine. After rising tensions between Jews and Arabs and Britain’s decision to end its mandate, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 (1947), proposing partition into Jewish and Arab states with an internationalised Jerusalem.
UN Resolution 181 (1947): proposed partition of Mandatory Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum. This map clarifies proposed borders and enclaves referenced in the notes. It includes detail beyond the sentence—such as district names—useful for orientation but not required by the syllabus. Source
Jewish leaders accepted the plan, proclaiming the State of Israel in May 1948.
Arab states rejected it, leading to the First Arab–Israeli War (1948–1949).
The UN established UNTSO (United Nations Truce Supervision Organization) in 1948, its first peacekeeping mission, to monitor ceasefires and mediate armistice agreements.
Peacekeeping and Conflict Mediation
The UN developed various mechanisms to address Middle Eastern conflicts:
UNEF I (United Nations Emergency Force): Deployed after the Suez Crisis (1956) to supervise the withdrawal of British, French, and Israeli forces from Egypt, marking a landmark in UN peacekeeping.
UNEF II (1973): Established following the Yom Kippur War to monitor ceasefires and disengagement.
UNIFIL (1978–present): Created in Lebanon to oversee Israeli withdrawal and assist the Lebanese government.
UNSCOM and UNMOVIC: Tasked with disarmament inspections in Iraq following the Gulf War (1991) and later crises.
These missions reflected evolving UN roles, from traditional ceasefire monitoring to more complex operations including disarmament, state-building, and humanitarian aid.
Refugees and Humanitarian Work
The UN also addressed humanitarian consequences of conflict. After 1948, it established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to support Palestinian refugees displaced by the Arab–Israeli conflict. UNRWA provided education, healthcare, and social services, highlighting the UN’s enduring involvement in the Palestinian question.
Security Council and Great Power Influence
While the UN aimed for impartiality, the Security Council’s structure—granting veto power to five permanent members (USA, USSR/Russia, UK, France, China)—often reflected Cold War rivalries and Great Power interests. These dynamics shaped responses to Middle Eastern crises:
USSR and USA used vetoes to protect allies, limiting decisive UN action in conflicts like the Six-Day War (1967) and Lebanon (1982).
Nonetheless, the UN facilitated crucial diplomatic efforts, including Resolution 242 (1967) calling for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and recognition of all states’ right to peace.
The UN and the Gulf Wars
The Gulf War (1990–1991) marked a high point of UN-authorised collective action. Resolution 678 authorised a US-led coalition to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait, demonstrating the UN’s capacity to coordinate large-scale intervention. However, divisions resurfaced over the 2003 Iraq War, launched without explicit UN approval, highlighting tensions between Great Power unilateralism and collective security principles.
Continuities and Legacies
From the League’s mandate system to the UN’s peacekeeping and mediation, international organisations profoundly shaped the Middle East:
They provided legal legitimacy for Great Power involvement.
They mediated conflicts through resolutions, ceasefires, and peacekeeping missions.
They influenced state formation, borders, and governance.
They faced persistent limitations due to Great Power rivalries and local resistance.
The legacy of mandates and UN interventions continues to shape Middle Eastern politics, demonstrating how international institutions have both structured and constrained the pursuit of peace and sovereignty in the region.
FAQ
The League of Nations assigned mandates based on Great Power influence, military presence, and pre-existing wartime agreements such as the Sykes–Picot Agreement (1916). Britain and France, as victors in the First World War and key Allied powers, were seen as capable of administering territories.
The League classified mandates into A, B, and C categories based on readiness for independence. Middle Eastern territories were Class A mandates, believed to be closest to self-government but still requiring supervision. In reality, the League largely formalised territorial control that Britain and France had already negotiated, prioritising imperial and strategic interests.
Arab nationalists argued the mandate system was colonialism by another name, ignoring self-determination and local aspirations. It was criticised for:
Installing foreign rulers and administrators without consultation.
Drawing artificial borders that split ethnic and religious communities.
Suppressing nationalist uprisings, such as the Iraqi revolt (1920) and Great Syrian Revolt (1925–1927).
These grievances fuelled anti-colonial sentiment and shaped later independence movements, with many viewing the League as legitimising European dominance rather than preparing territories for self-rule.
Arab leaders rejected the plan because they believed it violated the principle of self-determination, as the Arab majority in Palestine opposed partition. They also viewed the plan as favouring the Jewish population, who owned less land yet were allocated a larger share.
Concerns included:
Loss of Arab land and displacement of Palestinian Arabs.
Internationalisation of Jerusalem, which both communities claimed as their capital.
Perception that the UN was advancing Western political agendas.
This rejection led to the outbreak of the First Arab–Israeli War (1948–1949) immediately after Israel declared independence.
Initially limited to ceasefire observation and truce supervision, UN peacekeeping expanded in scope over time. Key developments included:
UNEF I (1956): The first armed peacekeeping force, marking a shift from observation to enforcement of ceasefires and withdrawal agreements.
UNEF II (1973): Deployed after the Yom Kippur War, incorporating diplomatic liaison roles.
UNIFIL (1978–present): Combined peacekeeping with humanitarian support in Lebanon.
These missions reflected a broader UN role in stabilising conflicts, managing post-war transitions, and supporting state sovereignty, despite limitations from Great Power rivalries and veto use in the Security Council.
The borders drawn under the mandate system often ignored ethnic, tribal, and religious realities, prioritising strategic and imperial concerns. This had long-term consequences:
Iraq’s borders combined Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Shi’a Arabs into one state, contributing to sectarian tensions.
Syria and Lebanon were divided into multiple sectarian states, shaping political fragmentation.
Palestine and Transjordan were carved from a single mandate, influencing the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
These colonial-era boundaries became the basis for modern states, many of which continue to experience instability linked to their mandate-era origins.
Practice Questions
Question 1 (2 marks):
What was the purpose of the League of Nations mandate system in the Middle East after the First World War?
Mark Scheme:
1 mark for identifying that the mandate system was intended to administer former Ottoman territories on behalf of the League of Nations.
1 mark for explaining that it aimed to prepare these territories for eventual independence/self-government under the guidance of advanced nations.
Question 2 (6 marks):
Explain two ways in which the United Nations attempted to mediate conflicts in the Middle East between 1945 and 1991.
Mark Scheme:
Up to 3 marks for each valid explanation, with depth and detail required for full marks.
Award 1 mark for identifying a relevant example, 1 mark for describing what the UN did, and 1 mark for explaining how this helped mediate conflict.
Indicative content:
Example 1: UN Partition Plan for Palestine (Resolution 181, 1947) – proposed creation of separate Jewish and Arab states, attempting to resolve growing tensions in Mandatory Palestine. (1 mark identification, 1 mark description, 1 mark explanation)
Example 2: Deployment of UNEF I (1956) – supervised the withdrawal of British, French, and Israeli forces following the Suez Crisis, helping to stabilise the situation and reduce the risk of further conflict. (1 mark identification, 1 mark description, 1 mark explanation)
Other valid examples might include UNRWA’s humanitarian work for Palestinian refugees or Resolution 242 (1967) calling for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories.
