Book Description

The Gallipoli Campaign which began on 25 April 1915 was one of the biggest Allied defeats of World War One. Yet it stirred the imaginations and passions of many, evoking thoughts for some of the reconquest of the ancient Byzantine capital of Constantinople, and for Jewish and Arab nationalists of the establishment of independent nations. The Gallipoli (or Dardanelles) Campaign was pivotal in the formation of the modern Middle East, as it ultimately resulted in the collapse of the 400 year old Ottoman Turkish Empire, which led in turn to the establishment of the Arab nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia - and the Jewish nation of Israel. Gallipoli was the beginning of a road that led to Beersheba, Jerusalem and Damascus. Those military successes by the soldiers of the British Empire (assisted by Feisal and Lawrence), created the political environment for the establishment of those new nation entities. The destinies of many nations were associated with Gallipoli, including Australia and New Zealand (the Anzacs) which fought their first battle there as sovereign nations. This is an updated version of Anzacs, Empires and Israel's Restoration 1798-1948 (published in 1998), but includes more archival material and culminates on 25 April 1920, when the League of Nations legally laid the foundations for Israel and for some of those Arab nations to come into existence.