Southern Asia 1922: Saudi Expansion

Changes to the map 27 August 1921–5 May 1922

Unification of Saudi Arabia: The Saudis have conquered the Emirate of Ha'il (Jebel Shammar). After Ikhwan raids against the British mandate of Iraq, the Ikhwan tribes have been divided between the Sultanate of Nejd and Iraq.

Egypt: Egypt has been granted independence by Britain, however it remains a veiled British protectorate.

Persia: The Persian government and disaffected tribes have allied to overthrow the State of Khorasan. Persia has also occupied the breakaway Soviet Republic in Gilan.

Franco-Turkish War: France has abandoned its claim to Cilicia and, at the Treaty of Ankara, ended its war with Turkey and agreed on a new Syria-Turkey border.

Transcaucasia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia have united to form the Federative Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of Transcaucasia.

Russian Civil War: The rebel Emirate of Bukhara has united with the Basmachi in its war against the Soviets.

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.