QUIZ TIME!
- Why was the Ottoman Empire powerful?
- What was the aim of the Gallipoli Campaign?
- What did the Jews understand from the Balfour Declaration?
- What did the Arabs get from the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence?
- What was the aim of the Sykes-Picot Agreement?
- Which country exercised direct control of Southern Mesopotamia?
Background information
- A product of years of negotiation
- In 1914, war broke out in Europe between Britain with allies and Germany, Austria-Hungary and later that year, the Ottoman Empire. The war on the Western Front developed into a stalemate.
- At the end of WWI the Balfour Declaration was released when the Ottoman Empire had been defeated.
- There was much discussion over who got what and Palestine was one of the main discussions.
- The British Government was sensitive to the strong Zionist movement.
- The letter had no force of law, however the Jews thought of it as their source to getting hold of their homeland.
The Importance of The Balfour Declaration
What was the Balfour Declaration?
What was the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence?
- Letter written on 7th December 1917 from Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild
- Made public the British support of Jewish homeland in Palestine
- Led the league of nations to trust the United Kingdom with the Palestine mandate in 1922
- It caused some important events regarding the Jews.
- The Jews seeked help from the British to gain all of Palestine.
- They felt that the land was and always had been rightfully theirs.
- They created the Balfour Declaration not because of what the Jews wanted, but because they knew that the jews could come after it.
- The Jewish agency was created an opportunities arose for Jews to move to the homeland.
- Britain started to restrict power and limit the immigration of Jews into Palestine to gain support from the Arabs which was basically the Balfour Declaration all over again.
- An exchange of letters from 14th July 1915 to 30th January 1916.
- Hussein Bin Ali and Sir Henry McMahon.
- Regarding the future political status of the land under the Ottoman Empire.
- The letters said that the Arabs would revolt in alliance with the United Kingdom in return to the UK respecting Arab independence.
- Promise by the British that after World War One, land previously held by the Turks would be returned to the Arab nationals.
Balfour Declaration
What were the results?
What was the Balfour Declaration?
Background information
The importance of the Balfour Declaration
The actual letter
- Hussein interpreted the correspondence as an indication that Palestine would be given to the Palestinians once the war had ended.
- The British government was later to dispute this interpretation.
- Land that "cannot be said to be purely Arab" was excluded from the agreement – as far as the British were concerned.
- Hussein, and very many Arab people, considered Palestine to be "purely Arab". The British saw Palestine differently as the Turks, while they had been masters over Palestine, had allowed other religious groups to exist in Jerusalem – hence their belief that Palestine "cannot be said to be purely Arab".
- By the time war ended in November 1918, two distinct schools of thought had developed regarding Palestine:
- Neither were to emerge as the League of Nations had given Palestine to the British to govern as a mandate. Many Palestinians felt that they had been betrayed by the British government.
The Balfour Declaration
Theodor Herzl
Zionism
- Theodor Herzl can be said to be the founder and the man with the vision behind Zionism.
- He argued that if the Jews were forced to form a nation, they could lead a normal existence by concentrating on one territory.
- Organized the First Zionist Congress in 1897, in Basel, Switzerland.
- In 1903, the British government offered a region in Uganda for the settlement of Jews, but Zionists wanted Palestine.
Hussein- McMahon Correspondence
What was the Hussein-McMahon correspondence?
What were the results?
What was the Sykes- Picot Agreement?
What is Zionism?
- Zionism is the Jewish national movement for the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel, known as Palestine.
- It grew in popularity in the late 19th Century in central and Eastern Europe.
- However Zionism was a continuation of the past attachment of the Jews to Palestine.
A secret agreement between the British representative Sir Mark Sykes, and the French representative Francois Georges-Picot. They agreed that Palestine was to be designated as an "international enclave".
Agreement divided Arab provinces of Ottoman empire outside the Arabian peninsula into areas of British and French influence and control.
Decolonization in the Middle East
1918- 1945
The Ottoman Empire
By Martha Gilbert, Ragnhildur Kjerulf and Luke Whitfield
How was the Middle East divided?
- It was a state founded by Turkish tribes in northwestern Anatolia in 1299.
- The 16th and 17th Century was the peek of its power; it was one of the most powerful states in the world. Because it was a:
- Multinational
- Multilingual empire
- Controlled majority of south east Europe, Western Asia and North Africa
- In the 1700s and 1800s the Ottoman Empire started to decline. This was due to wars, rebellions and uprisings. Causing the Empire to lose territory, political and social stability.
- At the end of WWI the Ottoman Empire had officially fallen.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement divided up the Middle East into different zones of control or influence.
The Middle East during WWI
Ottoman Empire
Sykes- Picot Agreement
What was the Ottoman Empire?
The territory including Cilicia, the coastal strip of Syria, Lebanon, the majority of Galilee, up to a line beginning north of Acre and ending at the northwest corner of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) was put under the direct control of France. To the east of that area in the district of Syria an Arab state was to be created which would be under French influence.
Great Britain was to exercise direct control in the areas of Southern Mesopotamia and the area around the Acre-Haifa Bay in the Mediterranean along with the right to build a railroad between there and Baghdad. The area east of the Jordan River and the Negev south of a line between Gaza and the Dead Sea was chosen an Arab state under British influence.
Why was the Ottoman Empire involved in WWI?
Why was the Ottoman Empire involved in WWI?
What was the Ottomans Empire involvement in WWI?
The reason why the Ottoman Empire entered WWI was due to:
- The pressure from Germany
- The opportunism of Turkish minister of war, Enver Pasha.
Other reasons:
- Are that the Ottoman Empire believed that Germany would win the war, due to previous victories.
- As well due to the friction between the Ottoman Empire and the Triple Entente.
What was the Sykes- Picot Agreement?
How was the Middle East divided?
What were the results?
What was the Ottomans Empire involvement in WWI?
- The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers and formed the Triple Alliance with them, which was signed in August 1914.
- The Ottoman Empire entered the war on the 28th of October 1914, by bombing the Russian Black Sea ports.
- The Ottomans participation in the war did not only cause a threat to Russia’s Caucasian territories but also the communication between the British and the Indian via the Suez Canal.
Leading to the end
Palestine 1918 to 1948
- The Ottomans had been of a significant support for the Central Powers war effort.
- On the 30th of October in 1918 the Ottomans signed the Armistice of Mudros.
- The Armistice of Mudros was a pact that was signed by the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain, which stated the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI.
- The Triple Entente made numerous proposals of how to divide the Ottoman territories between them.
- Britain's response was a joint British and French operation, which took place on the Gallipoli peninsula between 25th of April 1915 till the 9th of January 1916.
- The aim of the Gallipoli Campaign was to capture the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople and to secure a sea route to Russia.
- However this campaign failed with an unsuccessful naval operation to try and force a way through the Dardanelles .
- Palestine was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 whilst remaining under the rule of the Turks until World War One.
- After this, parts of the Ottoman Empire were handed over to the French to control and some parts were handed over to the British, including Palestine.
Green border= Ottoman Empire in 1798
The new leader of Russia, Lenin had found and then released a copy of the Sykes-Picot Agreement that ended up being printed in the Manchester Guardian on November 26, 1917 because the Russian Communists had released the contents of the agreement to the public. The public leak of the secret Sykes-Picot was a cause of great embarrassment for both Britain and France.
When Arabs in the Middle East learned the Sykes-Picot, they began distrusting the West. Sykes-Picot is usually referred to as a turning point in relations between Arabs and the West. Many Arabs feel that they had been mislead by other treaties and promises made to them since it didn’t specifically call for the creation of an independent Arab state.
The British rule of Palestine lasted about 30 years from 1917 until 1948.
The influence of these 30 years was very deep and wide-ranging.
Under British rule, Palestine had become a political unit, not a marginal province of something else.
The British had made Jerusalem the capital of Palestine.
Overall, they were successful at controlling Palestine.