As Iran's war expands, how Europe shaped today's West Asia conflicts

After the Ottoman Empire collapsed in World War I, European powers redrew West Asia's map through secret deals and mandates, creating borders and tensions that still shape the region today

As West Asia gets embroiled deeper in a war not seen in many decades, with the US and Israel carrying out attacks on Iran under Operation Epic Fury and Iran’s retaliatory strikes spreading across the Gulf, the crisis has once again drawn attention to the fragile political map of West Asia.

 

The roots of many of the rivalries, alliances and territorial disputes that define the region today can be traced back more than a century, to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. In the years that followed, secret wartime agreements, peace treaties and colonial mandates redrew the region’s borders and created several modern states. The foundations of the modern West Asian order laid during this period continue to shape regional and global politics today.

 

 

How the Ottoman Empire’s collapse redrew West Asia

 

For centuries, the Ottoman Empire controlled vast territories across West Asia, North Africa and southeastern Europe. By the early twentieth century, it ruled much of the Arab world, including modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and parts of the Arabian Peninsula.

 

However, the First World War dealt the final blow to the empire. The Ottomans joined Germany and the Central Powers during the war. When the war ended in 1918 with the defeat of the Central Powers, Allied forces occupied key Ottoman territories and began planning how to divide the empire.

 

The Ottoman state was dismantled and, in its place, new political arrangements emerged across West Asia, as European powers moved quickly to divide its territories through secret wartime agreements, peace treaties and colonial arrangements.

 

Between 1916 and the early 1920s, deals such as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Treaty of Sèvres and the League of Nations mandate system laid the groundwork for the emergence of several modern states.

 

How the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement mapped out West Asia

 

One of the earliest plans for dividing Ottoman lands came during the war itself.

 

In May 1916, Britain and France secretly negotiated the Sykes-Picot Agreement, named after British diplomat Mark Sykes and French diplomat François Georges-Picot. The terms of the agreement outlined how the two powers would divide the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire if they emerged victorious.

 

The agreement provided for the division of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence for Britain and France after the war:

 

• France would receive territory corresponding largely to modern Syria and Lebanon.
• Britain would receive territory corresponding largely to Iraq, Jordan and southern Palestine.

Although later negotiations altered some of the agreement’s terms, it remained an important reference point in later discussions about the borders of West Asia.

 

What did the Treaty of Sèvres attempt to do?

 

After the war ended in 1918, Allied powers attempted to formalise the breakup of the Ottoman Empire through the Treaty of Sèvres, which was signed on August 10, 1920.

 

The treaty effectively dismantled the Ottoman Empire and required it to renounce control over its Arab territories in West Asia and North Africa.

 

It also proposed major territorial changes and political arrangements across the region. However, the treaty was never fully implemented because Turkish nationalists strongly rejected it, leading to armed resistance and a new political settlement.

 

How the mandate system divided the region

 

Rather than granting immediate independence to former Ottoman territories, the Allied powers introduced the mandate system under the League of Nations.

 

Under this framework, territories were administered by European powers until they were considered capable of self-government.

 

The San Remo Conference of 1920 resulted in mandates over most of the former Ottoman Arab lands, with France granted control over Syria and Lebanon and Britain granted control over Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq).

 

These territories were recognised as provisionally independent but remained under foreign administration for several years.

 

How Turkey overturned the post-war settlement

 

The Treaty of Sèvres faced strong resistance in Anatolia. The Turkish nationalist movement, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, launched the Turkish War of Independence between 1919 and 1923.

 

They opposed the division of Anatolia and fought against occupying forces and their allies, forcing a renegotiation of the peace settlement.

 

Eventually, the Treaty of Sèvres was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which recognised the sovereignty and borders of modern Turkey.

 

How West Asian states eventually gained independence

 

While Turkey emerged as a sovereign republic in the early 1920s, most Arab territories remained under European mandates for decades.

 

Over time, nationalist movements and political negotiations led to the gradual emergence of independent states across the region. Iraq became independent in the early 1930s, while Syria and Lebanon gained independence in the 1940s as the French mandate ended.

 

Why the Sykes-Picot legacy is still debated today

 

The Sykes-Picot Agreement is frequently cited in discussions about modern West Asia because it symbolises an era when European powers planned the division of Ottoman territories.

 

While the final borders of today’s states were shaped by later treaties and political developments, the decisions taken during and after the First World War played a central role in establishing the region’s modern state system.