Sykes-Picot Agreement And The Mandate System: An Analysis

Mandates had only applied in the Middle East and were the cause to several conflicts. The mandates allowed imposition of the French and British

The “glue” for the Ottoman Empire was ethnic and religious tolerance. Islam was also a benefit to the Empire because it was a common religion throughout the Empire, which united many people together.

In a time notorious for religious wars and acts of injustice, some empires chose to keep an open mind and benefited greatly. The Ottoman empire used other empires’ religious intolerance to their advantage. They had all religions, even their own, make a contribution to the empire. Muslims and people of conquered lands were forced to served in the military. On the other hand, Jews and Christians had to heavy taxes. By allowing Jews and Christians a safe place to practice their religion it made the empire desirable. With other empires forcing conversions, expelling, or even murdering paying tax was no problem. In exchange for paying these tax the

The Middle East started out being controlled by the Ottoman Empire. On the map in document 1 it is very clear that from 1683- 1914 the control was shrinking in size but still majority of the Middle East. This shows that before world War one control over the Middle East was declining a lot which will represent a huge change after the war. The war began and the Ottoman Empire was coming to an end

During the mid 1900’s Britain and France had to give up mandates which allowed Middle Eastern countries to gain their independance.

With the end of the War came the end of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Middle East nation states. These new states consequently ended the possibility for a single Arab Nation. Each state came under the influence of Britan or France. Although these new states were not technically colonized, each country was significantly swayed by the European powers. For example those states under British influence were lead by monarchs while French states often gravitated towards republics. These spheres of influence greatly impacted a

The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic religion and those who practiced were called Muslims. The Ottoman Empire survived for more than five centuries. The empire represented a new phase in the long encounter between Christendom and the world of Islam. They established a system by which other religious factions my practice within the empire in exchange for a head tax. Sought to bring unity to the Islamic World and to serve as the strong sword of Islam by protecting the “strong sword of Islam. It ended the Christian Byzantine Empire by conquering Constantine in 1453. (Ways of the World 434)

The Ottoman Empire was a military power, and demonstrated that they were a force to be reckoned with. Their successful conquering of Rome, Byzantium solidified their standing as a world power in 1453. The Ottoman Empire held to strict religious beliefs and practiced a form of Islam called Sunnism. Additionally, the Ottoman Empire made use of a system where the leaders in power also controlled the leaders of the church. The system was called casesaro-papism.

Aided by European conflicts and growing nationalism, imperialized people won their autonomy in the 1900s. While this feat represented the will of determined ethnicities, the minimal presence of European powers allowed the uprisings to succeed. Unlike the 1900s, many powerful nations are heavily invested in the state of the Middle East, resulting in a fragile system of alliances that can easily crumble with increasing conflicts. Therefore, although the Iraqi Kurdish people overwhelmingly desire independence, the deterioration of the global ecosystem justifies the need for the United States to support a unified Iraq.

The Middle East was one of the areas that the Ottoman Empire was controlling before World War I. After the abolishment of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, France and Britain split up the Middle East into seperate areas, one was Mandatory Palestine. They were many different types of people living in Mandatory Palestine, but the two largest groups were Jewish people and Arab people. These groups both wanted to have an independent country but they couldn’t come up with a solution. In the year 1947, Britain made the decision that they did not want Mandatory Palestine to be under their control anymore. They asked the United Nations to take care of the problem and said British troops were to be gone by 1948.

World War One was not simply a war between nations but a conflict between imperial empires. The Great War meant that certain empires collapsed under the war pressures and their colonies were redistributed between the Allies. Furthermore, the notion of ‘total war’ in the modern sense required the utilisation and mobilisation of colonial forces. After the war this meant European imperialism had to be severely reformed. After the war most European powers wanted to maintain and enforce imperialism however, the ideology of self-determination created political awareness within colonies. The mandate system was enforced by the League of Nations which acted as a front for imperialism and suppressed the ideologies being displayed in overseas colonies.

The first modern conflict was record in 1902 and was the unification of Saudi Arabia. The wars in the Middle East relate to the story because the United States had just gotten out of a war itself. “I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War. Instead of being the warm centre of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business”. ( Fitzgerald 6).

One might even say that World War I began and ended with Middle East-related conflicts. (The beginning, the event that formed the immediate cause of the war, was the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a group of Bosnian high school students in June 1914, and that assassination was a direct result of the long process of separating Balkan countries from the fading Ottoman Empire. The end, the last treaty arising from the war nearly five years after it ended, was the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, ending the conflict with Turkey that arose from the failed Treaty of Sevres in 1920 that was supposed to have ended World War I in the Middle East.) Since Middle Eastern issues are so important in World War I, and World War I is so important in understanding modern Middle Eastern

Middle East considers one of the most studied areas in the world due to its rich history of politics, social, economic, and its culture and civilization. Its borders are still arguable geographically, generally in the west it starts from morocco until Iran in the east, however, many scholars don’t agree on including Turkey either as a Middle Eastern or as a European country (Milton-Edwards, 2006. P: 4). The origin of the name was invented by the colonies as a necessity to describe the place geographically, which was the era of bringing “Middle East” the language of academic writings and political scientists. Changes, innovations, and new ideologies create gaps between the transformations of any perspectives to a different

The part of the Middle East being discussed involves the following: Iraq, Transjordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. All of which were directly impacted by the borders which were set up by European countries in the early 20th century. The borders had benefits of course, but they also brought with them quite a few problems. While the Middle Eastern borders are important to dividing that part of the world into different countries, the borders seem to have brought with them a lot of problems that the people living in this part of the world have had to deal with. There are multiple factors involved with this topic, including a few treaties, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the start of World War I. The different treaties were the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration, both of which involved European countries deciding the future of these countries. All of these factors had a direct impact on the Middle East and had a lasting effect on the people who live in this area of the world.