The development of the modern nation states throughout the Arab world
is a fascinating and heartbreaking process. 100 years ago, most Arabs
were part of the Ottoman Empire/Caliphate, a large multi-ethnic state
based in Istanbul. Today, a political map of the Arab world looks like a
very complex jigsaw puzzle. A complex and intricate course of events in
the 1910s brought about the end of the Ottomans and the rise of these
new nations with borders running across the Middle East, diving Muslims
from each other. While there are many different factors leading to this,
the role that the British played in this was far greater than any other
player in the region. Three separate agreements made conflicting
promises that the British had to stand by. The result was a political
mess that divided up a large part of the Muslim world.
The Outbreak of World War I
In the summer of 1914, war broke out in Europe. A complex system of
alliances, a militaristic arms race, colonial ambitions, and general
mismanagement at the highest government levels led to this devastating
war that would claim the lives of 12 million people from 1914 to 1918.
On the “Allied” side stood the empires of Britain, France, and Russia.
The “Central” powers consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
At first, the Ottoman Empire decided to remain neutral. They were not
nearly as strong as any of the other nations fighting in the war, and
were wracked by internal and external threats. The Ottoman sultan/caliph
was nothing more than a figurehead at this point, with the last
powerful sultan, Abdulhamid II, having been overthrown in 1908 and
replaced with a military government led by the “Three Pashas”. They were
from the secular Westernized group, the Young Turks. Financially, the
Ottomans were in a serious bind, owing huge debts to the European powers
that they were not able to pay. After trying to join the Allied side
and being rejected, the Ottomans sided with the Central Powers in
October of 1914.
The British immediately began to conceive of plans to dissolve the
Ottoman Empire and expand their Middle Eastern empire. They had already
had control of Egypt since 1888 and India since 1857. The Ottoman Middle
East lay right in the middle of these two important colonies, and the
British were determined to exterminate it as part of the world war.
The Arab Revolt
One of the British strategies was to turn the Ottoman Empire’s Arab
subjects against the government. They found a ready and willing helper
in the Hejaz, the western region of the Arabian Peninsula. Sharif
Hussein bin Ali, the amir (governor) of Makkah entered into an agreement
with the British government to revolt against the Ottomans. His reasons
for allying with the foreign British against other Muslims remains
uncertain. Possible reasons for his revolt were: disapproval with the
Turkish nationalist objectives of the Three Pashas, a personal feud with
the Ottoman government, or simply a desire for his own kingdom.
Whatever his reasons were, Sharif Hussein decided to revolt against
the Ottoman government in alliance with the British. In return, the
British promised to provide money and weapons to the rebels to help them
fight the much more organized Ottoman army. Also, the British promised
him that after the war, he would be given his own Arab kingdom that
would cover the entire Arabian Peninsula, including Syria and Iraq. The
letters in which the two sides negotiated and discussed revolt were
known as the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, as Sharif Hussein was
communicating with the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry
McMahon.
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| Arab rebels with the British-designed Flag of the Arab Revolt |
In June of 1916 Sharif Hussein led his group of
armed Bedouin warriors from the Hejaz in an armed campaign against the
Ottomans. Within a few months, the Arab rebels managed to capture
numerous cities in the Hejaz (including Jeddah and Makkah) with help
from the British army and navy. The British provided support in the form
of soldiers, weapons, money, advisors (including the “legendary”
Lawrence of Arabia), and a flag. The British in Egypt drew up a flag for
the Arabs to use in battle, which was known as the “Flag of the Arab
Revolt”. This flag would later become the model for other Arab flags of
countries such as Jordan, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and Kuwait.
As World War One progressed through 1917 and 1918, the Arab rebels
managed to capture many major cities from the Ottomans. As the British
advanced into Palestine and Iraq, capturing cities such as Jerusalem and
Baghdad, the Arabs aided them by capturing Amman and Damascus. It is
important to note that the Arab Revolt did not have the backing of a
large majority of the Arab population. It was a minority movement led by
a few leaders who sought to increase their own powers. The vast
majority of the Arab people stayed away from the conflict and did not
support the rebels or the Ottoman government. Sharif Hussein’s plan to
create his own Arab kingdom was succeeding so far, if it were not for
other promises the British would make.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement
Before the Arab Revolt could even begin and before Sharif Hussein
could create his Arab kingdom, the British and French had other plans.
In the winter of 1915-1916, two diplomats, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and
François Georges-Picot of France secretly met to decide the fate of the
post-Ottoman Arab world.
According to what would become known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement,
the British and French agreed to divide up the Arab world between
themselves. The British were to take control of what is now Iraq,
Kuwait, and Jordan. The French were given modern Syria, Lebanon
and southern Turkey. The status of Palestine was to be determined
later, with Zionist ambitions to be taken into account. The zones of
control that the British and French were given allowed for some amount
of Arab self-rule in some areas, albeit with European control over such
Arab kingdoms. In other areas, the British and French were promised
total control.
Although it was meant to be a secret agreement for a post-WWI Middle
East, the agreement became known publicly in 1917 when the Russian
Bolshevik government exposed it. The Sykes-Picot Agreement
directly contradicted the promises the British made to Sherif Hussein
and caused a considerable amount of tension between the British and
Arabs. However, this would not be the last of the conflicting agreements
the British would make.
The Balfour Declaration
Another group that wanted a say in the political landscape of the
Middle East were the Zionists. Zionism is a political movement that
calls for the establishment of a Jewish state in the Holy Land of
Palestine. It began in the 1800s as a movement that sought to find a
homeland away from Europe for Jews (most of which lived in Germany,
Poland, and Russia).
Eventually the Zionists decided to pressure the British government
during WWI into allowing them to settle in Palestine after the war was
over. Within the British government, there were many who were
sympathetic to this political movement. One of those was Arthur Balfour,
the Foreign Secretary for Britain. On November 2nd, 1917, he sent a
letter to Baron Rothschild, a leader in the Zionist community. The
letter declared the British government’s official support for the
Zionist movement’s goals to establish a Jewish state in Palestine:
“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.”
Three Conflicting Agreements
By 1917, the British had made three different agreements with three
different groups promising three different political futures for the
Arab world. The Arabs insisted they still get their Arab kingdom that
was promised to them through Sharif Hussein. The French (and British
themselves) expected to divide up that same land among themselves. And
the Zionists expected to be given Palestine as promised by Balfour.
In 1918 the war ended with the victory of the Allies and the complete
destruction of the Ottoman Empire. Although the Ottomans existed in
name until 1922 (and the caliphate existed in name until 1924), all the
former Ottoman land was now under European occupation. The war was over,
but the Middle East’s future was still in dispute between three
different sides.
Which side won? None fully got what they wanted. In the aftermath of
WWI, the League of Nations (a forerunner to the United Nations) was
established. One of its jobs was to divide up the conquered Ottoman
lands. It drew up “mandates” for the Arab world. Each mandate was
supposed to be ruled by the British or French “until such time as they
are able to stand alone.” The League was the one to draw up the borders
we see on modern political maps of the Middle East. The borders were
drawn without regard for the wishes of the people living there, or along
ethnic, geographic, or religious boundaries – they were truly
arbitrary. It is important to note that even today, political borders in
the Middle East do not indicate different groups of people. The
differences between Iraqis, Syrians, Jordanians, etc. were entirely
created by the European colonizers as a method of dividing the Arabs
against each other.
Through the mandate system, the British and the French were able to
get the control they wanted over the Middle East. For Sharif Hussein,
his sons were allowed to rule over these mandates under British
“protection”. Prince Faisal was made king of Iraq and Syria and Prince
Abdullah was made king of Jordan. In practice, however, the British and
French had real authority over these areas.
For the Zionists, they were allowed by the British government to
settle in Palestine, although with limitations. The British did not want
to anger the Arabs already living in Palestine, so they tried to limit
the number of Jews allowed to migrate to Palestine. This angered the
Zionists, who looked for illegal ways to immigrate throughout the
1920s-1940s, as well as the Arabs, who saw the immigration as
encroachment on land that had been theirs since Salah al-Din liberated it in 1187
The political mess that Britain created in the aftermath of WWI
remains today. The competing agreements and the subsequent countries
that were created to disunite Muslims from each other led to political
instability throughout the Middle East. The rise of Zionism coupled with
the disunity of the Muslims in that region has led to corrupt
governments and economic decline for the Middle East as a whole. The
divisions that the British instituted in the Muslim world remain strong
today, despite being wholly created within the past 100 years.
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