The Sykes-Picot Agreement & the San Remo Conference

It was 1916 and World War I was raging. Countries were fighting for resources, land and power, and the Ottoman Empire was on its deathbed. 

With all eyes on the Empire’s territories, the secretive Sykes-Picot agreement was created to decide who would get control over what would become Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, and Iraq, as well as parts of future Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

However, in 1920, representatives at the San Remo Conference tossed these secret plans out in favor of “mandates'' AKA territory temporarily governed by an Allied power. This led to the British Mandate over Palestine, and the eventual establishment of Israel as a legal national home for the Jewish people.