Lines in the Sand: Making the Modern Middle East
From a secret pencil line in 1916 to the states, wars and oil routes of today.
How one event spilled into the next
A secret line is drawn
Britain and France divide Ottoman Arab lands between themselves.
Mandates replace the empire
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine become French and British mandates.
New states, new wars
Israel's founding and the first Arab–Israeli war set a long conflict in motion.
The borders still hold — and hurt
Kurdish, Syrian and Palestinian questions trace back to these lines.
Did you know?
The Sykes–Picot line was literally drawn with a ruler from Acre on the coast to Kirkuk in the east.
Britain promised the same land to Arab leaders, to France and, in the Balfour Declaration, as a Jewish national home.
Iraq was assembled from three Ottoman provinces — Mosul, Baghdad and Basra — with very different peoples.
The Kurds were promised a state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres; the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne quietly dropped it.
Key figures
- Sharif Hussein of MeccaLed the Arab Revolt on British promises
- Mark Sykes & François Georges-PicotDrew the secret partition
- Gertrude BellHelped draw Iraq's borders
Where this comes from
- James Barr, A Line in the Sand (2011)
- Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans (2015)
- David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace (1989)
Dates marked by tradition or legend are given as approximate.
Other sides of the story
Gathering perspectives…
What do you remember?
Preparing your quiz…
Every border, every spillover
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