Hussein-McMahon+Correspondence


 * Hussein-McMahon Correspondence July 1915 - March 1916:**

A series of letters written between Sharif Hussein ibn Ali and Sir Henry McMahon. The subject of these letters was the future of Arabs in the Ottoman Empire. The British, after a staggering defeat in Gallipolli, were in desperate need of an ally that could attack from the inside and subsequently turned to Hussein for assistance.

Sarif Hussein was searching for ways to expand and continue his power, wanting especially to establish an independent Arab nation which he (and later his sons) could rule. Before WWI began, Hussein was looking to gain power, but when he contacted Kitchener about an agreement, the British refused. After the war began and the British suffered several losses, however, Henry McMahon, the British High Commisioner in Cairo, agreed to talk.

So began a correspondence between the British and Arab powers. Sharif Hussein agreed to accumulate an army of Arabs that would fight against the Ottoman Turks, as long as the British provided men, money, and equipment. At war's end, Hussein expected to aquire the land that the Arabs won for the British, though the borders for this land were ambiguous. While McMahon wanted to exclude the "portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo," which would exclude Palestine from the new Arab nation, Hussein disagreed.

At war's end, the Allies had ascertained a victory with major thanks to the Arabs of the Arab revolt that diverted upwards of 25,000 troops from British Commander Allenby, who captured Beersheeba and Jerusalem. However, through the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration, the Arabs saw little to no land at all for their efforts.