Originally published at: http://timeghost.tv/carving-up-the-middle-east-and-preempting-rommel-between-2-wars-1920-part-3-of-4/
Facebook Twitter Google+ EmailLink In 1920 the colonial powers of the British Empire and France reverse course on their commitment to grant independence to the peoples of the Middle East. In a game to grab the oil fields of Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and to control the Suez Canal they tighten their grip on the…
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Excellent observation about the trade imbalance between Britain and the colonies. In some cases it remained after WW2. Even in Cyprus, one of the smallest Crown Colonies, in 1947 the British imports reached £13.585.000 and the Cypriot exports were at £ 5.141.000 (a trade deficit of £ 8.444.000)
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Great job you guys! A very good, in-depth covering of events. Only thing lacking is really the Iraqi Revolt, but you can’t have everything and the video was already running quite long. Maybe give it a nod in the 1930 episode, where you get back to talking about the region?
Really nice to see that my work was useful too, and I can’t help but get a small shiver when my name appears on the credit screen at the end - I’m glad that you found my real name, and not just used my forum nickname. Anyways, thank you for doing the show, and letting us small mortals be a part of it! 
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You’re one of the immortals now 
thanks for the help!
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You’re one of the immortals now
And all shall love me, and despair!
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An interesting fact about the Paris Peace Talks is that Ho Chi Minh (who would later lead Vietnam in the Indochinese wars or Vietnam war) was also there, under the name “Nguyễn Ái Quốc”. He wrote a letter directed to Woodrow Wilson in which he asked the president to discuss Vietnam’s independance from France, since Wilson had promised “Self-Determination” to colonies after the Great War. He gave the letter to Wilson’s secretary, who promised to give it to Wilson. However, there is no record of Wilson having received the letter or even discussed Vietnamese independance, so many believe that the letter was never given to Wilson. What effect do you think it would have had if Wilson had read the letter?
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Probably nothing. It seems to me that Wilson liked to talk big about ideals he probably truly believed in, but when it came down to business in Paris, he set up the League, but didn’t (or was unable to) do very much for colonized people - I mean, the LoN awarded the Arab territories as mandates (read:colonies) to FR & GB. There’s no way Wilson could have pushed France to leave Indochina, had he read the letter, and no evidence that he would even want to, letter or not.
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