Bellringer

• Find a partner and grab a whiteboard

and a marker. Write down everything
that you remember about the Sykes-
Picot Agreement and the Balfour
Declaration. Try to identify the key
points of each document and what
they were about. If you need to use
your devices you can.
The Making of the
Modern Middle
East
Division of the Ottoman
Empire
• After World War 1, the Allies had to
decide what to do with the Ottoman
territories
• Desiring control over the resource rich
regions of the Middle East, the French
and British plotted to make the Middle
East a cash cow
Sykes-Picot
Agreement
• Plan to redistribute Ottoman
territory between Britain,
France, and Russia
• Secretly drafted by British
and French delegates
• Gave Britain and France
control of the resource rich
regions of the Middle East
• It was discarded for the San
Remo agreement, which used
a mandate system
Balfour Declaration

• Issued by the British government on

November 2, 1917
• Promised that the British government
would support the creation of a Jewish
state
• Also promised that non-Jewish
communities would be protected
o This promise was never enforced
Why is this significant?
• The Sykes-Picot agreement was never
enforced, but it revealed the imperialist
intentions of the European victors
• When the European powers created the
borders of the modern-day Middle East,
they ignored many important factors
o Social and Ethnic Tensions
o The opinions of the Middle East
• Foreign intervention in the Middle East is
the source of Western hatred among terror
groups and many other Middle Easterners
What do you know?
• Take a second to write down what
you know about the Palestine-Israeli
conflict. Talk with a partner and try
to answer the following questions:
o Why are they fighting?
o When did the fighting start?
o Who started it?
The Creation of Israel
• The British had been in control of Israel
under the Palestine Mandate
• After the Holocaust, the call for a Jewish
homeland intensified globally
• In 1947, the League of Nations declared
that the Jews had a right to a homeland in
Israel
• In 1948, Israel declared itself an
independent nation, and war immediately
began
At What Cost?
• Millions of Palestinian Arabs were
forced to leave their homes and seek
refuge in other countries
• In addition to losing their homes, Arabs
lost the ability to safely access Jerusalem
• After a series of wars, Israel gained
control and occupied most of Palestine
o Even the lands that the League of
Nations promised to the Palestinians
What do you think?