Great Arab Revolt Begins
The Great Arab Revolt began on June 10, 1916, initiated by Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the emir of Mecca, against the Ottoman Empire. This revolt emerged from a context of discontent among Arab populations under Ottoman rule, particularly as the empire allied with Germany during World War I. The aim of the revolt was to achieve independence for Arab territories, which were experiencing oppressive governance. Hussein was joined by other Arab leaders, including Prince Faisal, and received military support from the British, notably through the involvement of T.E. Lawrence, famously known as Lawrence of Arabia.
The Arab forces successfully captured key territories, including Damascus in 1918, which had been an important Ottoman stronghold. However, the post-war reality was complicated by the Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret arrangement between Britain and France to divide Ottoman lands, which disregarded the aspirations of Arab independence. Consequently, after the war, the League of Nations established colonial mandates that placed Arab regions under European control, fostering resentment among the Arab populations. The aftermath of the revolt, characterized by foreign intervention and broken promises, contributed to enduring conflicts and tensions in the Middle East, shaping the political landscape for decades to come.
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Great Arab Revolt Begins
Great Arab Revolt Begins
On June 10, 1916, Sharif Hussein bin Ali (1853–1931), the emir of Mecca in modern Saudi Arabia, one of Islam's holiest cities, began the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which occupied much of Arabia and most of the Middle East. The revolt opened the way to independence for the modern Arab states of the Middle East, but the circumstances surrounding the revolt and its aftermath led to much of the turmoil and warfare in the Middle East that would follow in the decades to come.
The ancient Ottoman Empire of the Turks was once the terror of Europe. The armies of the Turks swept out of central Asia and took Constantinople, the seat of the Byzantine Empire, in 1453. They conquered much of southeastern Europe, southern Ukraine, the Middle East, and North Africa as well. The Ottomans continued to launch invasions into
Europe through the late 17th century, threatening the very existence of major powers such as Austria. Nevertheless, the rising nations of Europe eventually eclipsed the Ottomans, who were late to embrace the industrial, social, and economic progress of the 18th and 19th centuries. By the 20th century the Turks had been pushed out of Europe, except for a narrow enclave around Istanbul (their name for Constantinople), but they still ruled over much of the Middle East and a restless Arab population. Even though the Turks and the Arabs were both Islamic peoples, there were centuries of grievances between the two due to the harsh and oppressive rule of the Ottoman Empire.
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire allied itself with Germany and Austria-Hungary against the Allies, which eventually numbered 20 countries, including Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States. Much of the Arabian Peninsula, which consists largely of harsh desert terrain and was thinly populated by fierce nomadic tribes, was semi-independent of Ottoman rule. Local Arab rulers, such as the emir of Mecca, existed on the fringes of Ottoman authority. The emir allied himself with the British and French and launched the Revolt. Sharif Hussein bin Ali was joined by other rulers of Arabia, notably Prince Faisal of Al Hijaz, who was assisted by the famous British military advisor and leader known as Lawrence of Arabia (Col. T. E. Lawrence).
The Arab forces, united under Faisal and Lawrence with substantial British assistance in the form of arms and other military supplies, defeated the Turks. In 1918 the Arabs advanced out of Saudi Arabia and seized the city of Damascus in Syria, an Ottoman stronghold and an important cultural and religious center of the Islamic faith. The Arab objective was independence from all foreign rule across the Arab-populated regions of the Middle East, be that rule Ottoman or European (in the form of incorporation into the British and French colonial empires). The Arabs had been promised this independence in part by a series of letters in 1915 between Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, and Sharif Hussein. In the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, McMahon promised on Great Britain's behalf to support Arab independence if the Arabs revolted against the Turks, and this promise was a substantial factor in Hussein's decision to begin the Great Arab Revolt.
More important to Great Britain and France was the Sykes-Picot Agreement, negotiated by diplomats Sir Mark Sykes on behalf of Great Britain and Georges Picot on behalf of France and made effective on May 9, 1916. The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a plan to carve up the Ottoman Empire once the war was over. It was a secret agreement which gave France colonial interests in Greater Syria and northern Iraq, while the British were to get various possessions from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf in order to connect British-ruled Egypt with British-ruled India. Most of Palestine, which is the location of modern-day Israel, was to be placed under international supervision with the intention of eventually creating a Jewish homeland. The agreement also provided for Ottoman territory in the northern part of the empire to be ceded to the Russians, but that particular aspect was terminated with the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
After World War I, the newly created League of Nations largely recognized the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Ottoman Empire was dismantled, although what became the modern nation of Turkey was permitted to retain its independence. The League gave Great Britain colonial “mandates” over Transjordan, Palestine, and Iraq. France received mandates over Syria and Lebanon and was allowed to remove Prince Faisal from Damascus by force. This heavy-handed treatment by their former allies created much bitterness among the Arabs, as did the controversial prospect of a Jewish state in their midst. It would take decades, but by the 1950s the Arab states of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the patchwork quilt of emirates and states along the Arabian Peninsula would finally achieve independence. The legacy of foreign domination and betrayal left much resentment, however, and the consequences of European colonial rule, including the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, led to conflicts that have lasted to this day.