The woman who helped create a kingdom

After World War One had ended and the Ottoman Empire had been defeated, there was much confusion about British policy in the Middle East. Some believed

Mesopotamia should remain under British rule, while others, including Gertrude Bell, believed in Arab independence. After writing a white paper for Parliament on the state of the region, the first ever written by a woman, Bell attended Winston Churchill’s 1921 Cairo Conference and eventually got her way. She helped to draw up the borders of the new state of Iraq and appoint its first ruler, King Faisal I, while still helping to maintain British influence in the region.

Bell was the only woman among the 40 or so delegates at the Cairo Conference