Transcript How the Sykes-Picot agreement redrew the map of the Middle

Aim: How did World War I
redraw the map of the Middle
East?
• Background:
1) 1798: Napoleon invades Egypt
2) 1805: Muhammad Ali seizes control of Egypt
3) 1815: Congress of Vienna – a) Legitimacy
b) Balance of Power – British prop up weak Ottoman Empire
4) 1820s: Greeks gain independence from Ottoman Empire
5) 1850s: Crimean War – England and France prevent Russia from
taking over Ottoman territory, including Istanbul, and Bosporus and
Dardanelles
6) 1854-1869: Building of Suez Canal
7) 1878: Russia defeats Ottoman Empire; Romania and Serbia gain
full independence from Ottoman Empire
8) 1908: Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina
9) 1912: First Balkan War
10) 1913: Second Balkan War
11) 1914: WW I: Ottoman Empire enters War on Germany’s side
12) 1915: Siege of Gallipoli: British forces fail to take Bosporus and
Dardanelles from Ottoman forces; General Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk)
defeats British efforts.
Turkey – decline of the Ottoman Empire – and the
emergence of a nation-state
• Young Turks – group of soldiers who want
the Ottoman Empire to modernize. Start
in late 1800s. Leader is the military hero
Kemal Ataturk
• 1918 - Turkey emerges as “secular”
Muslim country. Laws protecting the
“secularism” nature emerge. Turkish Law
is derived from English Common Law and
not Sharia Law. Fez is outlawed, and the
Western suit and dress is preferred.
Egyptian Nationalism – Suez Canal make vary
important strategic location
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Muhammad Ali Pasha mid 1800s – ruler (king) of Egypt and Sudan who
with Ottoman Empire’s permission tries to modernize Egypt’s Army.
Borrows money from Great Britain to do so, which will be excuse by British
to get involved in Egyptian politics and allow them and French to build and
own the Suez Canal. Thus British and French also support his family rule
1860s – Nationalist movements are created as British and French
intervention increases with the building of the Suez Canal (connects
Mediterranean Sea to Red Sea). The focus for the next 50 years of the
Nationalists are to end British “rule” (massive intervention)
1922 – Egypt given independence by the British after WWI despite rebelling
against the British during WWI
1930s – Egyptian Nationalists identify more with Arab Nationalism and
become a leading spokesmen for Arab independence everywhere
1952 – Gamel Nasser and the Egyptian Army overthrow the Egyptian king
and become a “Republic” (1 party elected rule)
-Nasser 1952-1969, Sadat 1969-1980, Mubarak 1980-2011
2011 – Arab Spring overthrows Military Republic and demand a more
Arab Nationalism The three major
agreements that the
British government gave:
A) The Hussein-McMahon Accord
“As for those regions lying within these frontiers wherein Great
Britain is free to act…I am empowered to give the following
assurances:
1) Subject to the above modification, Great Britain is prepared to
recognize and support the independence of the Arabs
in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sharif
(Husayn) of Mecca.
2) Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places against all
external aggression…I am convinced that this declaration will
assure you beyond doubt of the sympathy of Great Britain…
B) The Balfour Declaration
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His
Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with
Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and
approved by, the Cabinet. "His Majesty's Government view
with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people, and will use their best
endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may
prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status
enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the
knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
But while the British made
promises to both Arab
Nationalists and Jewish
Nationalists….
The British and French
had already agreed to
carve out Ottoman
territory for their own
national self-interest!!!
• C) The Sykes-Picot Agreement : 1916
(Mandates established)
• It is accordingly understood between the French and British
governments:
• That France and great Britain are prepared to recognize and protect
an independent Arab states or a confederation of Arab states (a)
and (b) marked on the annexed map, under the suzerainty of an
Arab chief. That in area (a) France, and in area (b) Great Britain,
shall have priority of right of enterprise and local loans. That in area
(a) France, and in area (b) great Britain, shall alone supply advisers
or foreign functionaries at the request of the Arab state or
confederation of Arab states.
• That in the blue area France, and in the red area great Britain, shall
be allowed to establish such direct or indirect administration or
control as they desire and as they may think fit to arrange with the
Arab state or confederation of Arab states.
• That in the brown area there shall be established an international
administration, the form of which is to be decided upon after
consultation with Russia, and subsequently in consultation with the
other allies, and the representatives of the Sharif of Mecca.
• That Great Britain has the right to build, administer, and be sole
owner of a railway connecting Haifa with area (b), and shall have a
perpetual right to transport troops along such a line at all times
..……It shall be agreed that the French government will at no time
enter into any negotiations for the cession of their rights and will not
cede such rights in the blue area to any third power, except the Arab
state or confederation of Arab states, without the previous
agreement of his majesty's government, who, on their part, will give
a similar undertaking to the French government regarding the red
area.
• The British and French government, as the protectors of the Arab
state, shall agree that they will not themselves acquire and will not
consent to a third power acquiring territorial possessions in the
Arabian peninsula, nor consent to a third power installing a naval
base either on the east coast, or on the islands, of the red sea. This,
however, shall not prevent such adjustment of the Aden frontier as
may be necessary in consequence of recent Turkish aggression.
• The negotiations with the Arabs as to the boundaries of the Arab
states shall be continued through the same channel as heretofore
on behalf of the two powers.
How the Sykes-Picot agreement redrew the map of the Middle East
And what was the
American policy at
this time?
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points,
January 8, 1918
It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are
begun, shall be absolutely open and that they shall involve and permit
henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of conquest
and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants
entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some
unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world.…
We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched
us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they
were corrected and the world secure once for all against their recurrence.
What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is
that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made
safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live
its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair
dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish
aggression….
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall
be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy
shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
• II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside
territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the
seas may be closed in whole or in part by international
action for the enforcement of international covenants.
• III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic
barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade
conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace
and associating themselves for its maintenance.
• IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national
armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent
with domestic safety.
• V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial
adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict
observance of the principle that in determining all
such questions of sovereignty the interests of the
populations concerned must have equal weight with
the equitable claims of the government whose title is
to be determined.
XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire
should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other
nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should
be assured an undoubted security of life and an
absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous
development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently
opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all
nations under international guarantees.
XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which
should include the territories inhabited by indisputably
Polish populations, which should be assured a free and
secure access to the sea, and whose political and
economic independence and territorial integrity should be
guaranteed by international covenant.
XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under
specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual
guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity
to great and small states alike.
The King-Crane Commission Report,
August 28, 1919
US President Wilson proposed that a commission should investigate the will of the
inhabitants. Originally, the British, French and Americans were to send delegates, but
both the French and British withdrew their support. The French withdrew because
they understood that the findings would be inimical to France. The British withdrew
because they did not want to antagonize the French. The US sent two amateurs,
Henry King, the President of Oberlin College, and Charles Crane, a Chicago-based
businessman and contributor to the Democratic party. Crane was known as an
eccentric. The result was a report that threw kerosene on the fire of great power
rivalry. Middle East expert Gertrude Bell denounced the report as a deception. The
French were enraged by what they viewed as British manipulation of witness and
testimony. The report was not considered, and was not made public until it was
leaked several years later by isolationist elements in the United States. Though
Wilson had announced that the United States had no territorial ambitions, and
charged the commissioners with gathering facts only, the report is replete with
references to the possibility of an American mandate in the Middle East.
Though the major concern of the report was the allocation of Syria to France, it has often
been cited because of testimony given by Arab inhabitants of Palestine against the
formation of the British mandate. Almost all these delegations advocated union with
an independent Syria.
http://www.mideastweb.org
T.E. Lawrence’s proposal for the reconstruction of
the Middle East
“The Imperial War Museum is to display
for the first time a newly-discovered
map outlining TE Lawrence's
proposals for the reconstruction of the
Middle East at the end of the First
World War. These proposals, never
before seen in such detail, show that
Lawrence opposed the allied
agreement, which eventually
determined the borders of Iraq as it is
today. The document is one of a
number of previously unseen exhibits
featured in Lawrence of Arabia: the
life, the legend, a major new exhibition
at the Imperial War Museum London
about one of the most famous British
icons of the twentieth century.
The peace map, recently uncovered in
The National Archives, Kew, illustrates
the proposals Lawrence made to the
Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet
in November 1918. “
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From the press anouncement of Imperial War Museum's
T.E. Lawrence exhibition, autumn 2005 - spring 2006
Jewish “Aliyah” to Israel
• 1880s-1920s Jews from Russia begin to
migrate in large numbers, mostly to
escape Pogroms (attacks on Jewish
communities).
• Establish city of Tel Aviv (and inhabit
mostly Western sea coast area)and slowly
become large minority in Palestine
Mandate
• World Zionist Organization (Theodor
Herzl’s organization) purchases much land
for inhabitants to live on