How the End of World War I Brought the Beginning of Drone Warfare

While their counterparts in France were locked in stalemate during World War I, British troops protecting oil resources in the Persian Gulf were anything but.

They pushed north against the Ottoman Empire, taking Baghdad in 1917. They routed the Ottomans at Mosul in October 1918. The news of their adventures boosted British morale. And they built an occupation administration as they went, even as they promised the region’s inhabitants imminent freedom.

After the war ended on Nov.