Southern Asia 1917: Transcaucasian Commissariat

Changes to the map 7 November 1917–18 December 1917

Russia is in a state of disintegration as the Bolsheviks seize control, with their opponents heavily divided. On the southern edges of the former Empire, the Transcaucasian Commissariat, Bukhara, and Kokand are effectively independent. The Tashkent Soviet supports the Bolshevik cause but is currently isolated from the core centers of Moscow and Petrograd.

In Persia, the withdrawing Russians - now largely under the Transcaucasian Commissariat - have left Urmia to the Assyrian militia. These militias had been formed by the Russians from local Christian Assyrians in 1915 in response to persecution by the Ottomans. The Bolshevik denouncement of the Anglo-Russian division of Persia has encouraged the Persian government to ask Britain to follow suit and dismiss the South Persia Rifles.

In Palestine, the British have secured Jaffa and the holy city of Jersualem.

British Protectorates in the Persian Gulf

The British Residency of the Persian Gulf maintained British India’s influence in a number of Gulf states from the 19th Century until 1947. These states were nominally independent - and shown as such in most atlases from the period - but all signed treaties guaranteeing British control over their foreign affairs.

The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman was the only one of these states with significant international relations, having obtained trade agreements with the US and France before it signed its treaty with Britain. Maps of the time often show Trucial Oman and even Qatar as regions of Oman.

Trucial Oman was the region to the west of Oman which collectively signed treaties with Britain. The sheikhdoms of this region were often called the Trucial States, and later became the United Arab Emirates. However at this time they had little unity, with no regional council until 1952.

Indian Empire

The British Indian Empire, also known as the British Raj, was comprised of a complex of presidencies, provinces, protectorates, and agencies. Only the top level subdivisions are shown here.

The area under direct British rule was known as British India and made up of presidencies and provinces - a presidency simply being the name for an older province.

Outside British India, but often included within the sphere of the presidencies/provinces, were the hundreds of protectorates or ‘princely states’. These were indirectly ruled states, the largest being Hyderabad, Kashmir, and Mysore. The others were either collected into agencies - which might in turn contain other smaller agencies - or fell under the sway of the provinces.