# Travel >> Destinations >> United Kingdom

Commonalities of British and French Mandates in the Middle East

After WWI, the League of Nations assigned Class A mandates to Britain and France over former Ottoman Arab territories. Despite rivalries, their mandates shared structural similarities:

1. Legal Basis: League of Nations Mandates

Article 22 of the Covenant: "well-being and development" of peoples "not yet able to stand by themselves" — preparation for independence.

2. Stated Objective: Tutelage Toward Sovereignty

Both pledged to build institutions, infrastructure, and self-governing capacity — though timelines were vague and self-interest intervened.

3. Territorial Division

British: Iraq, Palestine (incl. Transjordan), later split into Mandatory Palestine & Emirate of Transjordan.
French: Syria, Lebanon (Greater Lebanon carved out for Maronite majority).

4. Administrative Imposition

Centralized bureaucracies, European legal codes, land registries, tax systems.
British: Indirect rule via local elites (Iraq monarchy, Palestinian notables).
French: Direct rule, assimilationist (écoles laïques, French language, centralized prefects).

5. Economic Reorientation

Integration into imperial economies: cash crops (cotton, silk), resource extraction (Iraqi oil from 1927), infrastructure (railways, ports) serving metropole needs.
Currency boards pegged to pound sterling (British) or franc (French).

6. Cultural & Educational Impact

Missionary schools, French/English language elites, printing presses, modern universities (American University of Beirut, 1866; Baghdad College, 1932).
Women's education advances (especially in Lebanon, Iraq).

7. Nationalist Resistance

Iraq: 1920 Revolution → monarchy (1921), treaty independence (1932).
Syria: 1925–27 Great Revolt; 1941 independence proclaimed, 1946 French withdrawal.
Palestine: Arab Revolt 1936–39; Zionist-British conflict; 1948 war.
Lebanon: 1943 independence (National Pact).
Transjordan: 1946 independence (Hashemite Kingdom).