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August:World War I begins. The Ottoman Empire sides with the Central Powers
(Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire).
December 18:Britain declares a “protectorate” over Egypt, enhancing its effective con-
trol of the country.
1915
July 14:Sharif Hussein ibn Ali, the amir of Mecca, and Sir Henry McMahon, the
British high commissioner in Cairo, begin corresponding. Their correspondence,
which continues into 1916, leads to the “Arab revolt” against the Ottoman Empire
in exchange for a British promise to support an independent Arab state.
1916
May 16:British and French diplomats exchange letters incorporating the Sykes-Picot
Agreement for the division of the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire following World
War I. Under this agreement, Britain was to control most of Iraq, France was to oversee
Lebanon and coastal Syria, and most of Palestine was to be under international control.
1917
November 2:In a letter to Lionel Walter Lord Rothschild of the Zionist Federation,
British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour offers his government’s support for a
“national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. This British endorsement
becomes known as the Balfour Declaration.
December 9:A British force under Gen. Edmund Allenby captures Jerusalem, which
had been under Ottoman control.
1918
October 2:A combined British and Arab force under General Allenby captures Dam-
ascus from the Ottomans.