British politicians idealized the Kurds as a persecuted minority, but British records show that oil riches, not concerns for minority rights, drove official policy. Kurdish opposition to British colonialism, combined with the threat of a Turkish takeover in the north, further complicated imperial policy.
The Kurdish Problem and the Mosul Boundary: 1918-1925
British historian Peter Sluglett writes about how the British colonial boundary of northern Iraq and the inclusion of the Kurds in the new state was inseparabe from the issue of oil. British claims to defend the Kurds was a matter of oil interests, not an authentic commitment to their rights.
British Colonialism and the Kurds in Iraq: 1926-1932
Peter Sluglett writes about the tangle between Arab nationalism, British colonial control and the aspiration of the Kurds for autonomy in colonial Iraq.