Lines in the Sand—Sykes-Picot, Balfour, and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

Empire of Liberty: America's Foreign Entanglements from the Founders to the Forever Wars - Ep. 06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGaV3OVd8gs

This episode traces the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the modern Middle East through three documents: the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and the Balfour Declaration. We examine the key figures who shaped these events—Enver Pasha and the Young Turks, Winston Churchill and the Gallipoli disaster, T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, the Hussein and Saud families—and explore how promises made and broken a century ago created conflicts America has inherited and cannot resolve.