Sykes-Picot Agreement

In 1916, during the First World War, Britain and France secretly agreed on how to divide much of the Arab Middle East between them if the Ottoman Empire were defeated. Negotiated by the British diplomat Sir Mark Sykes and the French diplomat François Georges-Picot, with the assent of Russia, the arrangement became a lasting symbol of European imperial meddling in the region. Its significance lies less in how closely it was carried out, since it was substantially revised, than in what it came to represent: borders and political systems drawn by outside powers with little regard for local wishes.

The background was the Ottoman Empire's entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914. As the Allies began planning for its collapse, they had to reconcile competing ambitions. Britain was concerned with the route to India, the Suez Canal, and access to oil in Mesopotamia. France claimed historic interests in Syria and Lebanon. At the same time, British officials were corresponding with Sharif Hussein of Mecca, encouraging an Arab revolt against the Ottomans. The exchange, known as the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, is widely read as promising Arab independence, though its wording and geographic scope remain debated.

The agreement was reached in early 1916, with an exchange of notes in May. It envisioned France controlling or influencing the coast of Syria, Lebanon, and parts of southern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia, while Britain would take southern Mesopotamia, including Baghdad and Basra, along with ports in what is now Israel. Between these zones lay areas where Arab states or a confederation of states might exist under French or British influence. Palestine was to be placed under an international administration, reflecting its religious importance and the rival interests involved.

The deal stayed secret until after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks found the documents in Russian archives and published them. The disclosure embarrassed the Allies and angered Arab leaders, who saw a contradiction with earlier assurances. It also sat uneasily alongside the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which supported a Jewish national home in Palestine.

The final postwar settlement differed from the original plan. After the San Remo conference in 1920, Britain and France received League of Nations mandates, with France holding Syria and Lebanon and Britain holding Iraq and Palestine. Mosul, initially in the French sphere, ended up in British-controlled Iraq, and Transjordan was later created as a separate emirate. Historians often caution that the modern Middle East was shaped by many forces, including the mandates, Ottoman legacies, and local politics, not by Sykes-Picot alone. Even so, the name endures as shorthand for colonial division, and it has been invoked by movements and commentators ever since, notably in 2014 when the Islamic State claimed to be erasing its legacy.