Soldiers in the Desert, Mesopotamia, 1917

France and Britain divided the Middle East into separate spheres of influence in March 1916: Britain gained control of Mesopotamia and Palestine and France took Syria and Kurdistan under this colonial arrangement during the First World War. The war in Mesopotamia against Turkey continued and in April 1916 a British force of over 8,000 soldiers surrendered to the Turkish army at Kut-el-Amara. By 1917 Turkish forces had withdrawn to Baghdad and the British had retaken Kut. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)