CHAPTER 1
Overview
F
or better or worse, the Middle East of the early twenty-first century was largely
shaped by decisions made by European leaders during and shortly after World
War I. Their decisions, motivated by political or strategic considerations, had
little to do with the cultural, geographic, historical or other realities in the region.
Moreover, residents of the Middle East had only modest influence over what leaders
in London and Paris decided.
The most important of these decisions involved the division of the Arabic-
speaking portions of the former Ottoman Empire into virtual colonies of Britain and
France and Britain’s commitment to promote the region of Palestine as a “national
home” for the world’s Jews. These actions ultimately led to the creation of the mod-
ern states of Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. After the Ottoman Empire col-
lapsed in the ashes of World War I, its Turkish core emerged as the modern state of
Turkey. In turn, the creation of countries along artificial boundaries—without regard
to the differing ethnicities and relations of the peoples who lived there—set the stage
for much of the conflict that has since roiled the Middle East (see map, The Ottoman
Empire at World War I, p. 4).
World War I was important in the emergence of the twentieth-century Middle
East. Although it raged primarily in Europe, from 1914 to 1918, the conflict also
affected much of the eastern Mediterranean. Britain, France, Russia, and (starting in
1917) the United States allied themselves against Germany and the declining empires
of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Turks. The outcome of the war remained uncer-
tain until the United States intervened, which helps explain the eagerness of leaders
on both sides to gather as many allies as possible, even in places as remote from the
front lines as the deserts of Arabia.
In 1915 Britain sought out Arab allies for a military campaign to put pressure on
the Ottoman Empire from the south. Britain found an ally in the person of Sharif
Hussein ibn Ali, who held the prestigious post of guardian of the Islamic holy sites in
Mecca. Over the course of seven months during late 1915 and early 1916, Hussein
secretly exchanged letters with Sir Henry McMahon, the senior British official in the3