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Far-Reaching Decision
As World War I raged, a highly dassified document was released to the press. The year was 1917, and the provisions of the agreement were about to affect the area now known as the Middle East permanently. According to the document, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, France and Great Britain would divide the majority of the Arab Middle East into "zones of influence" after World War I. The fact that Britain and France would largely control the areas defined in the document both scared and angered the people living in these countries.
With the end of World War I in 1918 came the end of one of the most powerful empires in history - the Ottoman Empire. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it had controlled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. All that remained in 1918...