War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

104 WARBYREVOLUTION

over McMahon'ssuggestionthatCairomakeanoverturetoIbn

Rashid(thenorthernArabianprinceandenemyofIbnSaud),and

overCairo'sdispatchofpan-ArabagentstothePersianGulftoincite

ArabrebellioninMesopotamia."

GermanEfforts toStrengthenthe HolyWar
InformationhadalsoarrivedinCairoandDelhiinthefirstmonths
Of1915notonlyaboutincreasedGermanactivityinTurkey(particu-
larlyamongtheArabsandjewsandArmeniansoftheOttomanEm-
pire)butalsoaboutattemptsbytheReich toreacheasternandcen-
tralAfrica.TheGermanforeignandcolonialministriesas well as
GeneralStaffhatchedrepeatedschemestosendemissariesacrossthe
Red SeatoAbyssinia,theSudan,andfurtherintoAfricatodistribute
armstoMuslimsandinciteholywaragainsttheBritish.Someofthe
plansreflectedthewishofBerlintoretaliateagainsttheintensepres-
surealreadyappliedbytheBritishandFrenchtoGermany'scolonial
holdingsinAfrica.Anglo-FrenchtroopshadseizedTogolandand
theKamerun,andBritishandimperialforceshadinvadedGerman
South-WestAfricaandEastAfrica.s
TheGermansintendedtoreachAfricathroughTurkey;through-
outthewar,however,suchplansborelittlerelationtotherealitiesof
theReich'smilitaryandpoliticalpositionintheMiddleEastand
Africa.Britishcontrolofthehighseas as well asofEgypt,theRed
Sea,andmuchofEastAfricaprecludednearlyanychanceofa suc-
cessfulGermanpenetrationofthehugecontinent."Nevertheless,
duringJanuary 1915 theforeignandcolonialministriesdiscusseda
plandevisedbyDukeAdolfFriedrichzuMecklenburg,theformer
governorofTogoland,to createamilitaryexpeditioncomprising
SudaneseandEgyptiantroopsforattacksontheBelgianCongoand
BritishEastAfrica. A few weekslater,despitetheTurkishdefeatat
thecanal,anofficialinthecolonialministryandformerofficerin
GermanEastAfrica,theretiredLieutenantFritzBronsartvon
Schellendorff,submittedaplantotheGermanchancellor,Bethmann
Hollweg,whichcalledfor"white"ChristianGermanytoconquercen-
tralAfrica."