Trace the growth of Arab nationalism after the First World War. How far was it a reaction to Oil imperialism?

Answer:

Arab nationalism grew after 1918 from disappointed wartime promises into a powerful movement for independence and unity. Oil imperialism was a major stimulus, particularly after 1945, but the movement's origins lay in the political betrayal of the war years.

Origins in wartime betrayal

• The Husain-McMahon correspondence promised Arab independence for revolt against the Ottomans.
• The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 divided the region between Britain and France.
• The Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised a Jewish national home in Palestine.
• The mandate system of 1920 imposed European control in place of promised freedom.
• Faisal's Arab kingdom in Damascus was destroyed by the French in 1920.

Inter-war nationalism

• Revolts broke out in Iraq in 1920, Syria in 1925 and Palestine in 1936.
• Egypt's Wafd secured nominal independence in 1922, with British forces remaining.
• Iraq gained formal independence in 1932, still bound by treaty to Britain.
• Pan-Arab thought developed through writers such as Sati al-Husri.
• Jewish immigration to Palestine made that question central to Arab politics.

Oil and the post-war phase

• Major discoveries in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf transformed the region's value.
• Concessions on grossly unequal terms were held by British and American companies.
• Mossadegh's nationalisation of Iranian oil in 1951 was overthrown by a coup in 1953.
• Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956 and survived the tripartite attack.
• OPEC was founded in 1960 and the oil weapon used in 1973.
• Control of oil became the central economic demand of Arab nationalism.

Assessing the role of oil

• Nationalism preceded the oil age, arising from the betrayal of 1916-20.
• Palestine, not oil, remained the emotional core of Arab grievance.
• Oil nonetheless gave the movement its economic programme and its leverage.
• It also divided the Arab world between oil-rich and oil-poor states.

The fate of pan-Arabism

• The United Arab Republic of Egypt and Syria collapsed in 1961.
• Defeat in the Six-Day War of 1967 gravely weakened Nasser and pan-Arabism.
• Particular state interests increasingly outweighed the pan-Arab ideal.
• Islamism later displaced secular nationalism as the dominant idiom.

Arab nationalism was therefore a reaction to political betrayal first and to oil imperialism afterwards. As historians of West Asia observe, the mandates and the Balfour Declaration created the grievance, while control of oil supplied the movement with both a concrete objective and, in Nasser's hands, the means to challenge the imperial powers.