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30 Battle of Beersheba Preparations ✡

While Jewish people in Europe were emerged as an imperial contender in the sion automatically brought Britain into
languishing in poverty and humiliation, Middle East. Such a move caused Brit- conflict against Turkey, and the initial
the Middle East became an economic ain, France and Russia to move closer points of conflict were the Suez Canal
and geo-political backwater. together. Germany’s pathway led her to and Persian Gulf. The Turkish Army
establish closer links with the Ottoman made its first attempt to seize control
Dynamics of change Turkish Empire. This direction became of the Suez Canal in February 1915 –
apparent when the German emperor, but failed. The Allies then attacked the
This scenario of Israel’s national rejec- Kaiser Wilhelm II, visited the Sultan in Dardanelles in order to break through
tion began to change from the early Constantinople in October 1898. The to their Russian ally. British, French,
16th century, a change due in part to Kaiser then continued on to Jerusalem ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand
the actions of Martin Luther on 31 Oc- and opened the new German Lutheran Army Corps) and other soldiers then
tober 1517 in Wittenberg in Germany, Church on 31 October 1898 – Reforma- landed at Gallipoli and fought there
when he challenged the doctrines of the tion Day. throughout the year. This was the first
Roman Catholic Church. Thereafter campaign the Anzacs had fought as
Protestant Christians gained access to ‘Zionists believed sovereign nations.
the Bible, and began reading of those
covenant promises and praying for Is- Germany would Political ramifications
rael’s full restoration - to their Messiah
and to their land. In Britain this charge assist their return The Gallipoli Campaign thrust the
was led by the Puritans, and then from future of the Ottoman Turkish Empire
the 1790s by the evangelicals. to Israel, but this onto the political agenda. Sensing the
Then from the end of the 18th cen- imminent defeat of the Sultan’s armies,
tury the European powers became em- was not to be’ Britain, France and Russia now began
broiled once again in the affairs of the deliberating upon the future of this
Middle East. This was due to a French vast Empire.
attempt under Napoleon to cut Britain’s While on this visit the Kaiser also Following a Russian demand for
link to India and her eastern empire by met several times with Theodor Herzl, control over the Dardanelles and Bos-
landing forces in Egypt and Palestine. the leader of the newly formed Jewish phorus regions, the British formed a
Britain needed to maintain that nationalist movement, Zionism. Jew- committee to determine its long-term
strategic link to India (and later to ish nationalism was ‘birthed’ in the aspirations in the region. This commit-
Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere). mid-1800s and became a widespread tee later reported that it was essential
During the following 80 years the Brit- movement by the late 1890s. The Zion- that France not gain sole control over
ish, French and Russians jockeyed for ists believed that Germany would assist Syria, and especially the eastern bank of
predominance alongside either Turkey their return to the land of Israel by the Suez Canal. Negotiations then be-
(the northern empire) or Egypt (the becoming their protector and advocate gan in earnest between the British, rep-
southern empire). Three locations in with the Turkish Sultan. But this was resented by Mark Sykes and the French,
that region were of prime importance not to be: the Germans chose to side represented by François George Picot.
– the Suez Canal, the Persian Gulf and with the Muslim Turks and not the Discussions also began with the Emir
the Dardanelles/Bosphorus Straits. Jewish nationalists. Hussein, Sherif of Mecca, concerning
When war broke out in 1914, the an Arab uprising against the Turks.
Battle lines are drawn Turkish Empire made the fateful de-
cision to side with the German and Defeat at Gallipoli
In the late 19th century Germany Austro-Hungarian Empires. This deci-
Plans for the defeat and possible dis-
memberment of the Turkish Empire
were premature. The Turks defeated
the Allies at the Dardanelles. British
pride was dented – how could they be
defeated by a supposedly second-rate
army? Following this embarrassing de-
feat the Allied forces returned to Egypt
to be rested before being dispatched
to France and Belgium to fight on the
Western Front.
The Turks, however, made a second
assault on the Suez Canal. The British
then formed a new force, which in time
became the Egyptian Expeditionary
Force – EEF. This force was composed
of British infantry and cavalry - as well as
the many thousands of Anzac horsemen
An image of Beersheba taken around 1917 (who had brought their horses from Aus-