Mountains of Jordan

Britain separated Transjordan from the mandate of Palestine. Emir Abdullah Ibn Hussein, the son of the Sheriff of Mecca, was made King..

In the early 20th century, the Middle East was reshaped by various agreements and mandates as a result of the aftermath of World War I. One such instance was the separation of Transjordan from the British Mandate of Palestine.

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Britain and France divided much of the Middle East into mandates under the supervision of the League of Nations. The British Mandate of Palestine, established in 1920, initially included the territory that is today known as Jordan, or at that time, Transjordan.

Transjordan was a sparsely populated region to the east of the Jordan River. Its separation from the rest of the British Mandate of Palestine occurred in 1921, at the Cairo Conference. The British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, with the agreement of the Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill, decided to install Emir Abdullah Ibn Hussein as the leader of this new entity.

Abdullah was the second son of Sheriff Hussein of Mecca, a key figure in the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule during World War I. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom in Iraq, which ended with the enthronement of his brother Faisal, Abdullah arrived in Ma'an in what is now southern Jordan. With a small group of followers, he was moving north to claim Damascus when the British invited him to take on the governance of the newly formed Transjordan.

Transjordan was officially recognized as a state by the Council of the League of Nations on 16 September 1922. Initially, it was ruled by Abdullah as Emir under the auspices of the British Mandate. In 1946, as the British prepared to end their mandate, the Transjordanian Parliament proclaimed Abdullah as King, transforming the Emirate of Transjordan into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Under Abdullah's leadership, the kingdom navigated the complexities of regional politics and inter-Arab relations, as well as the issues surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The decisions and processes during his rule significantly influenced the geopolitics of the Middle East in the years to come.