ON THIS DAY · 16 MAY 1916

Sykes–Picot Agreement

16 May 1916 — In the same year that Britain makes promises to Hussein, Britain and France secretly draw lines across the post-Ottoman Middle East: “A” for France, “B” for Britain. The Bolsheviks publish the map in 1917. The double promise shapes a century.

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Map: Sykes–Picot Agreement, 16 May 1916 — 16 MAY 1916 · THE GREAT WAR, 1871–1923

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v 0.2.1 · Natural Earth physical geography · February 1917 shipping-zone amendments · German barred-zone declaration, February 1917

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. Source polygons retained with original identities; geographic selections and corrections by Maps of History.. CC BY 4.0
Made with Natural Earth; geographic reference and physical land only. No modern political boundary is used as a historical boundary.. Public domain
Commercial and Financial Chronicle,10 February 1917, preserved by Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.. Historical factual coordinate transcription; no scan redistributed
US Naval Institute Proceedings, March 1917, German declaration transcribed; February 3 Dutch safety-strip correction described separately.. Published 1917 historical document; factual boundary coordinates transcribed

Annual source features can describe claims, legal territory or military control. Occupied extensions are separated from the prewar Central Power homelands, while the original source names and shapes remain available.

The displayed state is isw 17. Geographic reference dates and reconstruction methods are recorded for each feature.

reconstruction: 1917 · reconstruction: February 1917 · vector: 1815–1937 · vector: 1840–1978 · vector: 1848–1935 · vector: 1864–1921 · vector: 1866–2023 · vector: 1877–1935 · vector: 1877–2023 · vector: 1885–1925 · vector: 1890–1978 · vector: 1890–2023 · vector: 1895–1917 · vector: 1895–1941 · vector: 1895–1978 · vector: 1898–2023 · vector: 1900–1918 · vector: 1900–1986 · vector: 1905–1921 · vector: 1905–1923 · vector: 1905–1925 · vector: 1905–1927 · vector: 1905–1928 · vector: 1905–1942 · vector: 1905–1949 · vector: 1905–1999 · vector: 1908–1931 · vector: 1908–1935 · vector: 1911–1925 · vector: 1911–1929 · vector: 1912–1919 · vector: 1912–1921 · vector: 1912–1955 · vector: 1913–1918 · vector: 1913–1919 · vector: 1914–1938 · vector: 1915–1918 · vector: 1915–1921 · vector: 1915–1940 · vector: 1916–1917 · vector: 1916–1918 · vector: 1916–1919 · vector: 1917–1917 · vector: 1917–1919 · vector: 1917–1921

Layer records and reconstruction methods

The moment in context

A declaration in Europe could put people on several continents to work. Most colonies became legally at war when their ruling powers entered the conflict, without a separate decision by their inhabitants. Imperial governments could then draw on shipping, bases, money, food and raw materials as well as men. India furnished a vast volunteer army; African porters carried supplies for campaigns across difficult country; and Chinese laborers dug and repaired ground behind the Western Front. Many who sustained the fighting had never chosen the quarrel.

From WWI outside Europe, chapter 9 of The Great War, 1871–1923 (MAY 1917).

The place: Sykes–Picot Agreement — map and full story →

Teach this in 5 minutes

Why it happened — Empires at war. The belligerents controlled networks that already spanned the world: shipping lanes, coaling stations, colonial armies and undersea cables. Once…
The turn — The wartime agreements, 1916. Britain’s agreements altered the future political problem without moving an army. In 1915–16 it encouraged Arab expectations of independence; in May…
What it changed — Imperial authority challenged. Imperial subjects had seen European armies suffer and rely on their labor and loyalty. Wilson’s “self-determination” and Lenin’s anti-imperialism…

Then ask the room: Is “A European civil war with global casualties” a fair description of 1914–18? The argued answer is on the chapter page →

The atlas that shows it

The Great War, 1871–1923

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