Sykes-Picot Agreement
Mideast border blueprint
The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a secret 1916 pact between Britain and France to divide the Ottoman Empire's Middle Eastern territories after World War I.
The agreement drew borders that largely ignored ethnic and religious boundaries, carving out spheres of influence that would become modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
When the Bolsheviks published the secret treaty in 1917, it inflamed Arab nationalism and bred lasting resentment.
Today Sykes-Picot is shorthand for arbitrary Western interference in the Middle East: ISIS declared it was erasing the Sykes-Picot borders.
- Balfour DeclarationLetter backing Jewish state
- BritainIsland off northwestern Europe
- World War IFirst global military conflict
- Israeli-Palestinian conflictTerritorial and national dispute
- Ottoman EmpireTurkish sultanate, 1299-1922
partitioning · British Mandate · spheres of influence · France · Treaty of Versailles · oil politics · Russia · ethnic tensions · territorial disputes · Mesopotamia · Lawrence · Iraq · colonialism · resource exploitation · League of Nations · Arabia · Balfour · Palestine
- World War Itrenches, trench warfare, eastern front, Western Front, soldiers
- treatiestreaty, treaties, peace treaty, peace treaties, bilateral treaty
- WWI AgreementsTreaty of Versailles, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of Trianon, Paris Peace Conference
- Ottoman WWIOttoman Empire, Gallipoli, Central Powers, desert warfare, Russian front
Sykes-Picot Agreementself-determination
Control over one's fate
decolonization · popular sovereignty · Treaty of Lausanne · national sovereignty · independence movements