Expert: Mark Smith - 11/9/2008

Question
Why exactly did Britain want the Turkish Empire?

Answer
Hello Natasha.
Prior to World War I Great Britain did not want to see the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, it saw Turkey as a useful ally against Russian expansion. GB did annex Cyprus in 1878 to use as a staging post on the route to India and the Far East and in 1882 it began a military occupation of Egypt to protect the Suez Canal. At the outbreak of war with Turkey in 1914 GB formally annexed Egypt. The guiding factor being to safeguard the route to India.
The rise of nationalism in the outer provinces of the Ottoman Empire suited the Allies, particularly GB, who succeeded in ousting the Turks from the Near East and the Arabian peninsula. With the surrender of Turkey in 1918 it was obvious that the Ottoman Empire had been blown apart, so a solution that was advantageous to the victorious Allies was necessary. Only the lands belonging to ethnic Turks was to remain, all the outer provinces were either granted independence such as Armenia and Georgia (short-lived as it turned out as the Russians annexed them in 1920) or they were taken under the wing of the newly founded League of Nations who then granted a Mandate to France and GB to govern them and lead them to independence. This is what happened to Mesopotamia, Palestine, Lebanon etc. The Mandated Territories were never formally part of the British or French Empires, they were governed on behalf of the League of Nations.
Mark