Southern Asia 1917: Sinai Campaign and Battle of Aqaba

Changes to the map 11 March 1917–6 July 1917

The British advance in Palestine has come to a halt at the Gaza-Beersheba line, after the failed offensives of the First and Second Battles of Gaza. It will stay in this position until October.

In Arabia, the Arab rebels have marched across the Nefud Desert to seize the important port of Aqaba. This is the famous battle of T. E. Lawrence, or 'Lawrence of Arabia', although the importance of his role as military advisor to the Arabs is debated. He does however cross the Sinai to personally inform his British commanders of Aqaba's fall, even though British ships were involved in the capture of the town. The seizure of Aqaba effectively removes the Ottoman presence in the Red Sea and allows the British to supply and support Arab raids into the Jordan valley, helping to eventually break the stalemate in Palestine.

In Mesopotamia, the British are driving the Ottomans before them as they take Fallujah and Samarra.

In Persia, the British are launching raids against the rebel tribes around Shiraz. The Russians have driven the Ottomans back, temporarily reaching as far as Kizil Rabat across the border in Mesopotamia in April, but their morale is breaking, not helped by famine in western Persia, and they are now withdrawing.

In Anatolia, the Ottomans have turned on the demoralized Russians and retaken Mus. Here as in Persia, Russian troops are being gradually withdrawn - although the British estimate there are still some 120 thousand Russians opposing 64 thousand Turks.

British Protectorates in the Persian Gulf

The British Residency of the Persian Gulf maintained British India's influence in a number of Gulf states from the 19th Century until 1947. These states were nominally independent - and shown as such in most atlases from the period - but all signed treaties guaranteeing British control over their foreign affairs.

The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman was the only one of these states with significant international relations, having obtained trade agreements with the US and France before it signed its treaty with Britain. Maps of the time often show Trucial Oman and even Qatar as regions of Oman.

Trucial Oman was the region to the west of Oman which collectively signed treaties with Britain. The sheikhdoms of this region were often called the Trucial States, and later became the United Arab Emirates. However at this time they had little unity, with no regional council until 1952.

Indian Empire

The British Indian Empire, also known as the British Raj, was comprised of a complex of presidencies, provinces, protectorates, and agencies. Only the top level subdivisions are shown here.

The area under direct British rule was known as British India and made up of presidencies and provinces - a presidency simply being the name for an older province.

Outside British India, but often included within the sphere of the presidencies/provinces, were the hundreds of protectorates or 'princely states'. These were indirectly ruled states, the largest being Hyderabad, Kashmir, and Mysore. The others were either collected into agencies - which might in turn contain other smaller agencies - or fell under the sway of the provinces.