Sykes-Picot Agreement And The Mandate System: An Analysis

The world was completely unaware of the bloody future that awaited them before 1914, the world was at peace and ignorant not willing to see the future. For the ever country in the world was to busy trying to become more powerful then the next, and the best way to accomplish that were alliances. Alliances were made so that if one country went to war, their allies would also go to war with the same enemy. But this strategy proved deadly when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed and the entire country was dragged into war. World War one began in 1914 and ended in 1918, and it was the first total war fought via trench warfare, which proved to be a bloody combination. World War I shook the entire world by making the distance fear of world destruction a reality, and how it could be started by one death, the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. At first the countries of the world felt as though it would be a quick and easy war

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

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.

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 cause of World War I was Imperialism. By the late 19th century, Europe has took up so much of Earth, especially in Africa and southern Asia. The war in 1913, Britain controlled more than twelve million square miles of overseas possessions. France had over four million (Doc.F). This didn't look good for Germany and Austria-Hungary who lost one million square miles of possessions between them. They trailed England and France sixteen to one. Germans saw England as a giant octopus with it’s tentacles around the world sucking out the Earth’s resources (Doc.E). Arms and a alliance were necessary to fight this colonial monster. But the arms and alliances were the means for dealing with the real problem. The underlying problem was the unequal distribution of the colonial pie.

World War I happened in 1914-1918. It was a big destruction. Hundreds of thousands died in single battle, while thirty million died as a result of the war. Progressives believed that new ideas and honest, efficient government could bring about social justice. Many progressives were from all political parties, social classes, ethnic group, and religion. Imperialism is a policy which strong nations extend their political, military, and economic control over weaker territories. The growing trend to emphasize science and secular values over traditional ideas about religion became known as modernism. Following European success, Japan and the United States also began to consider the benefits of imperialism, the policy where strong nations extend

The modern conception of the Middle East was molded in the early 20th century. The French and the British both formulated their foreign policy in the Middle East to help advance their own self interests. Power hungry and desperate for new land, British and French governments struggled to shape the Middle East. Britain’s unwillingness to learn about the people living in the Middle East, coupled with their underestimation of Arab nationalism, made for an inauspicious state. People in these Middle Eastern nations were unable to advocate for themselves and were taken advantage of by corrupt government officials or imperializing western powers. The French and British erred by disregarding pertinent information about the nationalist feelings of the

The term Eastern Question defined the games of politics and diplomacy in the Middle East from the mid-eighteenth century until the breakup of the Ottoman Empire orchestrated by Western European powers after First World War. The Ottoman Empire was increasingly becoming very dysfunctional, ravaged by internal conflicts between rulers, governors, and opposing factions, which put Western powers on edge, prompting military coalitions that abridged the Ottomans territorial controls and influences. After the fall of Adrianople the Europeans scrambled for two years to find a solution for the lands controlled by the Ottomans for fear that one country would “benefit exclusively. “ This is a clear example that the Europeans themselves were staunchly divided

World War I was the beginning of a new era in world history. It marked the downfall of empires and the growth of new democratic nations. Although it was a violent war and cost former empires in lives and resources, after the war the world saw more independent nations and, as the title of the Clements text says, “The Emergence of the Americas” (Clements). Although each nation had different paths to, during, and after the war, in general the nations of the Americas benefit greatly while those in Europe had to deal with its consequences. Due the various paths each nation took, the various sources (Clements, Oxford, Zinn, Jackson, and Keylor) also reflect this divergence in consistency of WWI accounts and effects. The five sources can be compared

Imperialism is domination. “...Europeans in the late 19th century increasingly chose to safeguard their access to markets, raw materials, and returns on their investments by seizing outright political and military control of the undeveloped war” (Document #9). It shows the history of imperialism in Europe, and how it created conflict and competition for other empires.. “...the imperialism of all European states has chronically poisoned international relations” (Document #5). It shows imperialism has spread throughout Europe, creating war through jealousy and disrupting the balance power. Imperialism was one of the causes of World War I.

Once the world begins to compete over resources, the first ever depiction of intense greed for power and dominancy was demonstrated in the World War I. The fierce and blood shedding war was a threat for the world peace and international relations. The war did not last for more than four years and three months, beginning from august 4, 1914 till November 11, 1918. But the after effects of the war were a burning question to all the sovereign states of the world. As the war was an attempt of sixty states to oust the 4 empires; the German Empire, the Hapsburg Empire, Turkish Empire and the Russian Empire. In the course of the World War I ten million fighters lost their lives and about thirty million were wounded, besides the valuable lives of the soldiers the war coasted about £ 35,000 million

World War I, or “the war to end all wars,” was indeed one of the most brutal wars that had caused much devastation. World War I occurred due to many immediate causes, such as the Balkan wars, the Moroccan crisis, and the obvious trigger of the assassination of Ferdinand. Though these disputes among the Great Powers had ignited the confrontations, one could not undermine the power of the long-term causes, such as militarism and alliances. After examining the letters by von Ihering and the speech by Jules Ferry, one could see that nationalism was not a natural phenomenon, but a product of political and intellectual development especially tied with wars; and imperialism was a necessity of the rapid growth of industrialization to benefit those Great Powers. On the other hand, they were also two important underlying

Ottoman Empire was an Islamic empire, which ruled Middle East and some other parts of the world for almost 400 years. On one hand Ottoman Empire became an ally with Germany in the First World War and on the other hand some of the Arab leaders held a revolt against the empire, which were the main reasons of its collapse. While Arab leaders were dreaming of an Arab unification, European powers were seeking their interest and try to secure the territories they took over in the war period. Versailles conference was held between Arab and the European leaders to define borders and create new states. Due to weakness of Arab leaders and their lack of experience most of the decisions were made in favor of the Europeans expectations of the state. And as a result Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon were emerged (Pappe, 2005) and (Fawcett, 2005).