ABSTRACT
The pre-war concept that Britain and France supported the Ottomans to maintain stability in the region was swept away when the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the German side. Now, ideas about how to reshape and possibly dismantle it guided British and French policy in the Middle East. Within two months, the British concluded a secret understanding with the French in January 1916 about the disposition of after the war known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement. In fact, the system of mandates under the League of Nations, part of the June 1919 Treaty of Versailles that established the League, foresaw the independence of Syria, Iraq, and Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. The charismatic leader who had changed the whole situation there was Ottoman general Mustafa Kemal. The treaty also acknowledged the new arrangements being made for the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies, as well as accepting the terms of the Balfour Declaration.
