historyThe Public Domain Review1916 · Middle East
The Map That Changed the Middle East (1916)
The Sykes–Picot Agreement was a secret 1916 deal between Britain and France, negotiated by Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, that divided the Ottoman Arab provinces into British and French spheres should the Ottoman Empire lose the First World War. The map accompanied a letter from the French ambassador Paul Cambon to Sir Edward Grey, dated 9 May 1916, and the signed agreement followed seven days later. The Ottomans were defeated in 1918, and the lines drawn on the map became the basis of the borders of modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.
The agreement shaped the modern Middle East: it conflicted with earlier British promises to Arab leaders and with the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and its legacy is still debated. Knowing it explains many of the region's borders and disputes.
background
The Sykes–Picot Agreement was a 1916 secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France, with assent from Russia and Italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in an eventual partition of the Ottoman Empire.
The agreement was based on the premise that the Triple Entente would achieve success in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I and formed part of a series of secret agreements contemplating its partition. The primary negotiations leading to the agreement took place between 23 November 1915 and 3 January 1916, on which date the British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, initialled an agreed memorandum. The agreement was ratified by their respective governments on 9 and 16 May 1916.
From Wikipedia: Sykes–Picot Agreement (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Image: The Public Domain Review
