World War I
When the first world war broke out in Europe many women, including Bell, joined in on the fight. From the point she joined in on the war effort, Bell moved quickly up the ranks. Her first steps in World War I was to volunteer for the Red Cross in France. There she worked to help the wounded soldiers. However, it was not long until Great Britain saw that Bell could help in the war effort in a different way and recruited her to spy on Cairo. Not only did she gain a new name, Major Miss Bell, with her new job but she also became the first woman recruited for such a position.
It was during her time as an officer that she started to focus her attention on another political issue. During World War I, Turkey was in charge of the Middle East and had to join Germany. It was during this time she began to work with T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia. Together, Bell and Lawrence began to formulate a plan to help the Arabs in their battle against the Turks.
The Building of Iraq
For many people, the name Gertrude Bell brings about the founding of Iraq, which was first known as Mesopotamia. In fact, to many of the older residents of Iraq, they consider Bell the unofficial queen of Iraq. Even though she was not from the area before and during World War I, she became passionate about the residents of Iraq being able to gain their independence. When it comes to modern-day Iraq, Bell is credited with helping create the borders and even helped elect the King after World War I.
Today, we know much about Bell’s work with establishing modern day Iraq through her letters from Baghdad. For example, much of the British political influence that was seen in Iraq after the first world war was because of Bell’s work in establishing the area. Bell was one of the many people who worked out the negotiations for Iraq’s independence from Turkey. In fact, Bell loved Iraq so much that she permanently moved there in 1917 and lived there until her death on July 12, 1926.
Bell’s building of the country known as Iraq did not end with World War I and the negotiations for the country’s independence. Bell continued to help the country grow after the war when she established the Baghdad Archaeological Museum, which she opened in the 1920s. Bell had always been interested in archaeology and had completed archaeological digs in the Middle East before World War I. When establishing the museum, Bell used her knowledge and the artifacts her and others had of the history of Iraq in order to help build the museum. While the museum closed for a period due to vandalism in 2003, the now known as Iraq Museum was reopened in 2016, and it still honors the legacy of Gertrude Bell.
