Dividing the Middle East - The Great Loot - Extra History - Part 1

📜 History of Dividing the Middle East: The Great Loot - Way back in one of our first Extra History series, on the beginning of World War I, we talked about how at the end of the war the victorious powers carved up the Middle East—men in drawing rooms deciding the fate of peoples they did not understand, and in some cases, lands they had never visited.
This is the story of how that came to happen, a tale of revolts, secret treaties, betrayal, a struggle for homelands, and a British counterinsurgency operation in Iraq.

*Miss an episode in our Dividing the Middle East Series?*

#ExtraHistory #MiddleEast #History

[shudheshvelusamy]

I shudder to think about how many magnificent mustaches they had to draw for this episode.

[alexandersturnn]

Ah yes... Arguably the biggest "What could possibly go wrong?"-Moment in History.

[huseyin]

"If you see two fishes fighting in the river, know that a long legged Englishman has just passed from there!"

[Vienna]

“I’ll just draw this line through here, it’s my land now, and it not like this land is gonna stop being my mine or anything, what could go wrong”

[cammrose]

British in 1916: “Whoops! It seems that drawing lines dividing communities causes conflict in the region.”
British in 1947: “I’ll feckin’ do it again”

[oranjethefox]

Ima just draw this line here, I see no problem!


foresight, something empires lacked...

[coyote]

Arabs: You can't just draw lines on a map totally ignoring cultural and religious differences!
England and France: Hehe pen go scribble

[bonboll]

British: 'promises land and independence to the Arabs'
also the British: 'well yes but actually no'

Arabs: "say sike right now"
British: "Sykes-Picott agreement"
Arabs: "Not that Sike!"

[vivetv]

Arabs: You are gonna honor your promise and give us our own country, right?
Britain: Well yes, but actually no.

[BlueflameKing]

And so we begin the treaty that would turn the Middle East into a bloody battlefield for the next century.
Edit: Dang, most likes I ever got acomment, thank you for the likes and replies.

[kellybeck]

As Alternate History Hub puts it: the events that out the Middle East on the darkest timeline.

[johnnybadboy]

“The Ottoman Empire was not the sick man of Europe.”

*_spends 4 minutes explaining why the Ottoman Empire was weak_*

[ahmedshaharyarejaz]

The Sykes-Picot agreement is why so many people from the Middle-East and even North Africa are now in Europe and are still going there.

[aaronman]

T.E. Lawrence: Mentioned

My Mind: “SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM LIGHTS THE FLAME”

I may have listened to too much Sabaton while in isolation.

[crusaderiguess]

I noticed a lie: The Ottomans threw in with the central powers, yet they show a ottoman Soldier shaking hands with a Frenchman

[thefrogger]

"One man named T. E. Lawrence..."
*Me:* AS THE DARKNESS FALLS AND ARABIA

[oboe]

T E Lawrence. Honestly one of the most interesting people of the 20th century, who's death even has some conspiracy about it! Can't wait to see the rest of the episodes!

[mpspenguin]

nothing like good ol' imperial powers drawing straight lines because it looks nicer on a map without a care for the consequences (see: Africa)

[thenarrator]

I am a little bit conflicted on the choice of skin color of the Abdulhamid the Second because I have seen his photo, he is whiter than an Englishmen. Not to mention, Turks are mostly white as well and even some Arabs under the ottomans could be considered white, not brown-ish.

[enjoyer]

oil:is found in the ottoman empire
American "religious" tourist NOTE THAT DOWN NOTE THAT DOWN