DBWI: The Sykes-Picot Agreement goes into effect

In June 1916, the Arabs rose up in revolt against the Ottoman Empire, an effort supported by the British and French, who were at time fighting the Great War against the Central Powers of which the Ottomans were a part.

Ostensibly, the British were helping the Arabs fight for an independent Arab nation which would stretch from Syria to Yemen. In reality, the Arabs were pawns in the Entente's larger scheme: to partition the Middle East among themselves.

1. France was supposed to acquire Lebanon with a capital in Beirut. There was also to be a sovereign Arab state in Syria based around Damascus under French protection.

2. The British were to acquire Haifa and the port of Akra, allowing a Mediterranean terminal for Mesopotamian oil

3. Palestine was to be protected by France, Russia and Britain combined.

4. France would acquire southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

5. Britain were to acquire southern Iraq.

6. Russia was to acquire Constantinople and the Armenian regions of Anatolia

This deal was authored by Mark Sykes and Francois Georges Picot and signed by Edward Grey and Paul Cambon and would've divided the Middle East into spheres of influence.

However, this agreement would never be implemented due to the French defeat at Verdun that same year. in quick succession, France surrendered, Britain signed a armistice with Germany and after Tsar Nicholas II was deposed in a bloodless coup, the deal was revealed by the Russian press.

In disgrace, Thomas Edward Lawrence, the main commander in the field during the Arab revolt, committed suicide as the British were forced to withdraw aid for the rebellion.

German assistance to the Ottomans pushed back the rebellion, but the Ottomans soon crumbled from within during the 1920s and as a result, the Arabs were able to declare independence on their own terms.

So let's say that the French win at Verdun and the war goes for on a while longer and the Allies win. What if this treacherous agreement was put into action?
 
What if this treacherous agreement was put into action?

The Arab tribes immediately rise up against the French and British. They may not win in the end, but they sure as hell would make occupation a long and painful undertaking.

I have to say, it would be interesting to see what would happen to T.E. Lawrence ITTL. By all accounts he had "gone native" - learning traditional swordfighting, speaking the language, writing the script and wearing Arab clothing etc. Perhaps he deserts from the British army and goes over to the Arab camp. A man with his skillset is bound to make an Arab insurgency a nightmare to the Anglo-French colonials. Would certainly make Lawrence of Arabia a much more epic movie (it's already a masterpiece, just saying).
 

CaliGuy

Banned
The Arab tribes immediately rise up against the French and British. They may not win in the end, but they sure as hell would make occupation a long and painful undertaking.
The British, French, and Russians will be able to exploit sectarian tensions in the Middle East in order to strengthen their own domination of this region, though.
 
What would this mean for Israel? In our timeline, Faisal I and Chaiz Weizmann negotiated a autonomous Jewish homeland in what used to be Palestine - undermining Faisal for years, the first great Arab leader screwing over Arabs to get some assumed patronage, even as it did get him some minor patronage from the West. Does the Kingdom remain a Kingdom without this original sin? And what for the dream of a Jewish home? Britain agreed to back a Jewish settlement in Palestine too, if we'd won, but surely we'd have been more likely to go "nah" & screw the Zionists over more than a nascent monarchy hoping for Jewish banking friends*. The post-war unorganised pogroms in Russia and flailing Austro-Hungary wouldn't happen in an Allied victory, sure, but what happens if there's a pogrom somewhere else, what countyr would those Jews flee to?

* OOC: The zionists did play on anti-semitic stereotypes of Jews Running Things for us and IIRC Faisal too because if it worked, what the hell.
 

orwelans II

Banned
I don't think there ever was a formal Anglo-French agreement in place for that region. These were just two somewhat minor officials dealing with possible future spheres of loose influence. The Russians published the ''deal'' mostly as a propaganda tactic to spread their own influence in the Near and Middle East after they broke off with their former allies and it worked, both for them and for their new best friends in Berlin

If the Entante turned the war around they'd have created some sort of a unified Arab state there or they'd have divided the region to accomodate different ethnic, regional and religious groups. They wouldn't have used random straight lines in the sand like absolute idiots and they'd only keep some strategic ports under their own rule at most.
 
Like the International City of Beruit that the Germans set up but on a bigger scale? That'd make sense.

You think the Entente would've carved up part of Asia Minor for Greece? IIRC the Greeks really wanted parts of Thrace and Anatolia, and there's a lot of Greeks there. Maybe that would've prevented the Greek and Armenian genocides and the retaliatory mass ethnic cleansing/deportation of Greek Muslims to Turkey - hard to carry out mass murder when armed soldiers are all over the place.
 
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