The Sykes-Picot Agreement

While securing the support of potential clients of a British protectorate, His Majesty's government had also sought an agreement with the French as to how to divide the remains of the Ottoman Empire into a French and a British sphere of influence. (Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916.) This agreement provided for Palestine to be governed jointly by Britain, France, and Russia. As soon as Britain held sway over Palestine, however, all agreements for a joint administration were off. While the French diplomat Picot was still at General Allenby's side when he entered Jerusalem, the French soon realized that Britain had no intention of honoring its wartime agreements. Christian powers such as France and Italy who under the Ottomans had been acting as protectors of the Holy Places and of the varying Christian communities of Jerusalem were now reduced to purely nominal functions. The balance of power in Jerusalem, which had been carefully guarded by the Great Powers and that was crucial to their status in the Middle East, was completely undone by a British empire that had outfoxed her competitors and forestalled their attempts at securing a foothold in this coveted city after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.