Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration

Narrator: As we'll see in this video

and in others, the roots
of a lot of the current

disagreements in the Middle East

and a lot of the conflict
in the Middle East

can actually be traced
back to World War I.

I realize this is an
incredibly touchy subject

that there are people who
have very strong feelings

on either side of it and
my goal here is to really

give my best attempt at
what really happened.

I encourage you to doubt any of this

and look it up yourself and come, frankly,

to your own conclusions.

Let's rewind back to October of 1915,

or 1915 in particular.

The British were already
at war with the Ottoman's.

Just as a reminder of
some of what happened

in 1915, the Gallipoli campaign,

by the end of 1915 it was pretty clear

that this was a disaster for the allies.

The Ottoman's were able
to fend off the allies,

they were in retreat.

The British were able to
fend off the Ottoman's

when they tried to attack
the Suez canal in 1915.

This is the background,
you can imagine the British

are eager to get any other allies they can

in their battle against the Ottoman's.

In particular, they are
eager to get the help

of the Arab's who have been under the rule

of the Ottoman's for hundreds of years.

That's the backdrop where you have

this correspondence between
the high commissioner

in Egypt, the British high commissioner,

Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca,

Hussein bin ʿAli, who
had his own aspirations

to essentially be the
king of an independent

Arab state.

They kept going back
and forth from mid 1915

to early 1916 talking about
what the state could be.

Obviously the British want his support,

wants him to lead a revolt
against the Ottoman's.

He's already articulated the boundaries

for a state that he would like to see.

So, that gives us a context
for this correspondence

in October of 1915.

This is from Sir Henry McMahon to Hussein.

"... it is with great pleasure
that I communicate to you

"on their behalf," the
British government's behalf,

"the following statement,
which I am confident

"you will receive with satisfaction.

"The two districts of
Mersina and Alexandretta

"and portions of Syria lying to the west

"of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama,

"and Aleppo cannot be
said to be purely Arab,

"and should be excluded
from the limits demanded."

This is referring to the limits that

Hussein bin Ali had demanded

in previous correspondence.

"With the above modifications,"
so just that region

right over there, this right over here is

Mersina, Alexandretta, this is Hama,

Homs, Damascus, so really
what he's referring to

is this region, the west,
the west of those cities

right over here.

He's saying look, you
can't really consider

this to be purely Arab,
I'm going to exclude

this out of the boundaries
of this potential

independent Arab state.

"With the above modification,
and without prejudice

"to our existing treaties with Arab chiefs

"we accept those limits,"
we accept those limits.

"As for those regions lying
within those frontiers

"wherein Great Britain is free to act

"without determinant to
the interest of her ally,

"France," so as long as
I'm not getting in trouble

with France, "I'm empowered in the name of

"the Government of Great
Britain to give the following

"assurances and make the following reply

"to your letter; Subject to
the above modifications,"

so taking this part out,
"Great Britain is prepared

"to recognize and support the independence

"of the Arabs in all the
regions within the limits

"demanded by the Sharif of Mecca."

So, essentially it
included all of this region

and actually much beyond
what I'm showing here,

kind of present day Syria, Jordan, Iraq,

parts of present day Saudi Arabia.

All of that is essentially,
the British are saying,

yeah we're going to
allow you to have that,

an independent state there.

"Great Britain will
guarantee the Holy Places

"against all external aggression

"and will recognize their inviolability.

"... I am convinced that
this declaration will assure

"you beyond all possible doubt,"

beyond all possible
doubt, "of the sympathy

"of Great Britain towards
the aspiration of her friends

"the Arabs, and will result in a firm

"and lasting alliance,
the immediate results

"of which will be the
expulsion of the Turks

"from the Arab countries and the freeing

"of the Arab peoples
from the Turkish yoke,

"which for so many years
has pressed heavily

"upon them."

This actually does help
to convince the Arab's

to rise up against the Turks,

against the Ottoman Empire,
they play a significant

role in the Palestine Campaign,

they rise up in June of 1916.

Now, the video that I did
on the Palestine Campaign,

I got several comments
of people being cynical

about Britain's intentions
and it does look like

the British were, indeed, cynical.

T.E. Lawrence famous
for Lawrence of Arabia

was often depicted as
this mystical fellow,

this guy who had this
kinship with the Arab's.

His actual correspondence with the

British government actually
do show that he did have

a kind of ... he was doing, I guess,

in the words of George
W. Bush, a little bit of

strategery, he had a more cynical view

of this relationship with the Arab's.

This is some correspondence that he wrote

in early 1916, so right
about the same time

that all of this was going on.

This says he's referring
to a possible Arab revolt,

or Hussein's activity.

"Hussein's activity
seems beneficial to us,

"because it matches
with our immediate aims,

"the break-up of the Islamic 'bloc'

"and the defeat and disruption of the

"Ottoman Empire."

Assuming he didn't really talk about this,

this being one of the
... the British didn't

talk about that when they
were talking to Hussein.

"If we can arrange that
this political change

"shall be a violent one,
we will have abolished

"the threat of Islam, by
dividing it against itself,

"in its very heart."

"There will then be a Khalifa,"

kind of a seat of Islam, "in Turkey

"and a Khalifa in Arabia,
in theological warfare."

This is T.E. Lawrence, I got this from

The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend

of Lawrence of Arabia.

Even this, somewhat
portrayed as a heroic figure,

was doing things in very strategic,

strategic terms.

To make things worse for the Arab's,

while the British were
trying to convince them

to revolt, they were also
in secret negotiations

with the French on how they would divide

the Middle East if they were able

to beat the Ottoman's.

At this point in the war
the British were already

making some progress in Mesopotamia,

but they really hadn't really started

on the Palestine Campaign right here.

So, this was all conjecture.

The British representatives was Sykes,

the French representative was Picot,

this was done with the
consent of the Russian's.

You didn't have a revolution in Russia

as of now, so in early
1916, in May this agreement

was concluded, this secret agreement.

You have the Sykes-Picot Agreement,

it's secret.

Let me write that, it
is a secret agreement

between Britain and France
and essentially they are

carving up the entire
Middle East between them.

This blue area right here,
this would be occupied

by the French, part of eastern Turkey

or modern day eastern
Turkey would be given

to the Russian's.

The British would be able to occupy,

would occupy southern Mesopotamia

essentially insuring protection of the oil

that is coming out of Persia.

Oil is becoming more
and more of a relevant

factor in kind of global power.

Then you have these two protectorates

right over here, which in theory could be

independent or an independent Arab state,

or two independent Arab
states under the protection.

Let me put that in quotes,

because "protectorate"
is always not as nice

as it sounds, under the
protection of the French

or the British which means,

"Hey you're an independent
state, but we will

"protect you in case
anyone wants to invade."

The reality of protectorate
is that it usually involves

the people doing the protecting have all

the real power and all the real influence.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement
also give this little

carve out to Britain so
they would have access

to the Mediterranean.

Palestine, or the Roman Kingdom of Judea,

this is carved out as a
separate international property

something that would be
administered by multiple

states and I guess the argument would be,

this is where the Holy Land's are,

multiple religions have
some of their holiest sites

within here and so they
carved it out like this.

Once again, this is all in secret,

they obviously don't want
the Arab's to find out

because they're about
to convince the Arab's

to join in a revolt against the Ottoman's.

Now, to make things ... once
again, this was all secret

up to this point in 1916
when it was all agreed on.

Then you forward to 1917 where we have

the famous Balfour Declaration.

This right over here is
the Balfour Declaration

and it was essentially a letter from

the Foreign Secretary
of the U.K., Balfour,

to Lord Rothschild who was
a leading [Briticizen] ,

a leading member of the Jewish community.

In it he writes, "Dear Lord Rothschild,

"I have much pleasure in conveying to you,

"on behalf of His Majesty's Government,

"the following declaration of sympathy

"with Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been

"submitted to, and
approved by, the Cabinet.

"His Majesty's Government view with favor

"the establishment in
Palestine of a national home,"

of a national home,
"for the Jewish people,

"and will use their best
endeavors to facilitate

"the achievement of this objective.

"It being clearly understood
that nothing shall be done

"which may prejudice the
civil and religious rights

"of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine,

"or the rights and political
status enjoyed by Jews

"in any other country.

"I should be grateful if you would bring

"this declaration to the knowledge of the

"Zionist Federation."

Signed Artur Balfour.

In here, he's not explicitly saying ...

and they're being very careful here,

he's not saying we're supporting a state

for the Jewish people, but he's saying

he is supporting the
return of national home

for the Jewish people,
but at the same time,

he's saying that it
being clearly understood

that nothing shall be
done which may prejudice

the civil and religious
rights of the existing

non-Jewish communities in Palestine.

Needless to say, you
can imagine that this is

making the Arab's fairly uncomfortable.

On one side it seems, based on some of the

McMahon-Hussein
correspondences that were ...

especially in 1915, that
they were being promised

an independent Arab state which included

much of this territory,
but at the same time,

in the Balfour Declaration
the British were promising

to, kind of the Jewish diaspora,

that they could have a homeland there

and it might one day, who
knows, it might one day

turn in to some type of a state.

To make the Arab's even
more uncomfortable,

this was in November 2, 1917.

By the end of November,
you have to remember

that 1917 you first had a revolution,

in Russia the Czar was
overthrown in February

and in March of 1917, and October

the Bolshevik's take over.

They want to get out of the war,

they don't like all these secret deals,

not clear that they
would even get what they

were entitled to these secret deals,

so they actually release
all the entire text

of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

They released this, so in the same month

you have the Arab's and the Ottoman's

and the Ottoman's were
very happy to see this

because it would undermine
the Arab's belief

in maybe supporting the allies,

but in one month you have
the Arab's finding out

about the Balfour Declaration,
which was a pulbic

declaration and then later that month

because of the Russian release of it,

the formally secret Sykes-Picot Agreement,

so it makes them very,
or at least a little bit

more suspicious.

So you can imagine the British Empire

trying to have it both
ways, to kind of have

support from the Jewish Diaspora

while at the same time have
support from the Arab's

in their revolt against the Ottoman's

would lead to very significant conflicts

over the decades to come.

Regardless of which side
of the issue you fall on,

a lot of the seed is
happening right around now,

right around World War I.

This has been admitted by
the British government.

This is right here, this was the then

Secretary, or Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw,

U.K Foreign Secretary in 2002.

This is a statement he made to the

News Statesman Magazine in 2002.

"A lot of the problems we
are having to deal with now,

"I have to deal with now,"

he's the Foreign Secretary,
"are a consequence

"of our colonial past ..."

Consequence of our colonial past.

"The Balfour Declaration
and the contradictory

assurances," "and the
contradictory assurances

"which were being given to Palestinian's

"in private at the same time as they were

"being given to the Israelis ...

"again, an interesting history for us,

"but not an honorable one."

This is really just the beginning

as we'll see in future
videos as we go to the

Interwar period, the British
kind of go back and forth

on this issue over, over, and over again,

but needless to say,
it's lead to a very messy

situation in the modern Middle East.