the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement — an agreement in 1916 between Britain and France that delineated future control of the Middle East — the area would have fallen under French influence. In 1919, however, the French relinquished their claims to Mosul under the terms of the Long-Berenger Agreement. The 1919 agreement granted the French a 25 percent share in the TPC as compensation. Beginning in 1923, British and Iraqi negotiators held acrimonious discussions over the new oil concession. The major obstacle was Iraq's insistence on a 20 percent equity participation in the company; this figure had been included in the original TPC concession to the Turks and had been agreed upon at Sanremo for the Iraqis. In the end, despite strong nationalist sentiments against the concession agreement, the Iraqi negotiators acquiesced to it. The League of Nations was soon to vote on the disposition of Mosul, and the Iraqis feared that, without British support, Iraq would lose the area to Turkey. In March 1925, an agreement was concluded that contained none of the Iraqi demands. The TPC, now renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), was granted a full and complete concession for a period of seventy-five years. British High Commissioners 1920–1923: Major-General Sir Percy Cox 1923–1928: Sir Henry Dobbs 1928–1929: Brigadier-General Sir Gilbert Clayton 1929–1932: Lt. Colonel Sir Francis Humphrys See also Guardians of Independence Mesopotamian campaign Ottoman Iraq RAF Iraq Command Notes Sources Further reading Barker, A. J.: The First Iraq War, 1914-1918: Britain's Mesopotamian Campaign (New York: Enigma Books, 2009). Fuccaro, Nelida: The Other Kurds (London: IB Tauris, 1999). Dodge, Toby: Inventing Iraq (2009). Fieldhouse, David K.: Western Imperialism in the Middle East, 1914–1958 (2006). Fisk, Robert: The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, (2nd ed. 2006). Jacobsen, Mark: "'Only by the Sword': British Counter‐insurgency in Iraq", in: Small Wars and Insurgencies 2, no. 2 (1991): pp. 323–63. Simons, Geoff: Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam (2nd ed. 1994). Sluglett, Peter: Britain in Iraq: Contriving King and Country, 1914–1932 (2nd ed. 2007). Vinogradov, Amal: "The 1920 Revolt in Iraq Reconsidered: The Role of Tribes in National Politics," International Journal of Middle East Studies 3, no. 2 (1972): pp. 123–39. Mandatory Iraq British military occupations Former countries in the Middle East Iraq–United Kingdom relations States and territories established in 1920 States and territories disestablished in 1932 Sykes–Picot Agreement 1920 establishments in Iraq 20th-century disestablishments in Iraq Former