Dreams of a Homeland: The Orientalism of the Mandate System

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the origin of the Mandate System in the Middle East using the Orientalist framework from Edward Said’s Orientalism. The Mandate System was a controversial concept and had a profound effect on the history of the Middle East. Many people were involved in its conception, including Prime Minister David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom (1916-1922), and member of the Permanent Mandates Commission William E. Rappard. This thesis explores the development of Orientalist discourse in the writing of these two individuals, and in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which formally established the Mandates System as a concept. Through the analysis of these writings it was concluded that, on the basis of the aforementioned Orientalist framework, that Orientalist discourse was present to a significant degree in these writings, and thus in the Mandate System itself.