In a thoroughly revised edition of this classic text, Middle Eastern historian and Iraq expert Peter Sluglett revisits Britain's creation of Iraq in the twentieth century. Sluglett presents a comprehensive history of British policy towards Iraq from the beginnings of the Mesopotamia campaign in 1914 through to the creation of Iraq in 1920 and then to the end of the Mandate and Iraqi independence in 1932. After the First World War ended in 1918, the victorious European allies were forced by international pressures not to implement direct colonial rule over the former Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Instead, they created a system of mandates under the aegis of the newly constituted League of Nations for the governance of the Middle East. While France was assigned Lebanon and Syria, Britain was assigned Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan. Britain in Iraq traces the development and implementation of the mandate in the face of considerable opposition in both Iraq and Britain, and shows how the British created and maintained in power a 'reliable' group of Iraqi clients through whom it was hoped that imperial interests would be safeguarded in the future. The book explores overall questions of policy, and the changing nature of the relation-ship between Britain and Iraq over the eighteen years of occupation and mandate. It touches on a number of issues that are still relevant today, including relations between the majority Shi'i and minority Sunni populations, the position of the Kurds in Iraq, and the question of the boundary between Turkey and northern Iraq. It also examines the development of policies towards defence, land tenure and the tribes, and education. Britain in Iraq is an important contribution to both Middle Eastern and British imperial history and is crucial to our understanding of Iraq today.