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The Sykes-Picot agreement (1916)

The Sykes-Picot agreement (1916)

Point 6 of 7 — Lesson 29: The First World War, the Great Arab Revolt and the Sykes-Picot AgreementQuestion bank: 0 questions (0 with pictures)

06The Sykes-Picot agreement (1916)

The plot exposed

  • While the Arab forces under Prince Faisal bin Hussein were winning victories in Syria, a wide-scale plot against the Arabs came to light.
  • Bolshevik (communist) Russia, after leaving the war following the Bolshevik revolution, leaked the texts of a triple agreement made by Tzarist Russia with England and France to divide the Ottoman state's possessions.
  • Bolshevik Russia declared its rejection of this plot, so what remained was an agreement between England and France only, known as Sykes–Picot.

Its clauses: dividing the Fertile Crescent

Point of comparisonFranceEngland
What each obtainedSouthern Anatolia including Adana and Alexandretta; the Syrian coast (west of Aleppo, Homs and Damascus) up to northern Iraq including MosulIraq (the provinces of Basra and Baghdad); parts of southern Syria up to the eastern frontier of the Sinai Peninsula; Haifa and Acre
  • An international regime was to be established in Palestine.
  • The desert Arab region was divided between Iraq and Syria into two spheres of influence: one British and one French.

Implementing the agreement

  • Prince Faisal prevented the Arab forces from entering Beirut, and England allowed France to land its troops there and the Arab flag that had been raised was hauled down.
  • Despite the efforts of Sharif Hussein (king of the Hejaz) to win the members of the Peace Conference to the cause of Arab independence, he and his sons Faisal and Abdullah met the most stubborn attitudes.
  • The Allies held a conference at San Remo (1920) which decided to revise Sykes–Picot so that the whole of Iraq and Palestine should be under a British mandate and Syria and Lebanon under a French mandate.

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