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A Line Of The Sand Essay

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A Line In The Sand Essay

In the book, A Line In The Sand, James Barr discusses the French struggle over the Middle East between 1914-1948. Throughout this book, it talks about two men, one visionary British politician and the other a veteran French diplomat; Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot. They both secretly drew a line from the Mediterranean to the Persian Frontier. Britain and France would divide and rule 5 countries which are Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon ad Syria. It made the two powers uneasy neighbors for the next 30 years. In this essay I will be talking about how the Franco-British rivalry over the Middle East shaped the development of the region in James Barr’s view. I will talk about the WW1 agreements and …show more content…

As stated, "From the very day after the Armistice I found you an enemy of France" the French prime minister accused Lloyd Georges. "Well", his British counterpart volleyed "was it not always our traditional policy?" (p. 78), truly the after war years led to even more back stabbing on both parts. Getting settled with Syria was one of the difficulties that the French went through, after the spread of the nationalist movements in hopes of reviving the promised Arab Nation and had even established a short lived government which Faisal headed. Revolutions filled with blood had started in Iraq against the British rule which led to the "election" of Faisal, who had recently been evicted from Syria by the French, as head of Iraq, and the French were furious as they thought Faisal’s reign would stir even more nationalist revolts in Syria.

Palestine has been known to be an area in the Middle East that is situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and Palestine was intensely engaged by the Ottoman Empire in 1517 which made them controlled under the

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