Sanremo Conference

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The conference delegates

The Sanremo Conference took place from April 19 to 26, 1920 in Sanremo, Italy, and served, among other things, to prepare for the Peace of Sèvres (August 1920) with Turkey. On it, the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers ( Great Britain , France , Italy ) decided on various mandates ( Syria and Lebanon , Mesopotamia , Palestine ) as part of the redivision of the defeated Ottoman Empire .

background

Division of the Middle East into zones of influence in the Sykes-Picot Agreement

The conference took place against the background of sometimes contradicting commitments by the belligerent powers to the peoples of the Middle East during the First World War . Whereas the Hussein-McMahon correspondence of 1915/16 was aimed at mobilizing the Arab tribes to revolt against the Ottomans , the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on the establishment of a home for the Jewish people represented a concession to political Zionism . In addition, those involved represented Zionism Great Britain and France had their own interests, which were expressed in the Sykes-Picot Accords , a secret British-French agreement of 1916.

In the immediate post-war period, the interests of Arab nationalism , which sought to end the de facto state of occupation in the Middle East, collided with those of the occupying powers, which wanted to legalize their leading role.

Attendees

At the conference France, Great Britain and Italy were represented by their respective Prime Ministers ( Alexandre Millerand , David Lloyd George and Francesco Nitti ), Japan by its ambassador to France and plenipotentiary at the Paris Peace Conference Matsui Keishirō . Representatives of Belgium and Greece were also heard on negotiating points that affected them. The USA was only represented by one observer. As a representative of Zionism was Chaim Weizmann arrived.

The Emir Faisal , who was proclaimed King of Syria in March 1920 , had been invited to Europe, but did not appear in person due to the lack of recognition from the Allies. He was represented at the conference by Nuri as-Said .

Content of the negotiations

France was awarded the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon , while Great Britain received Palestine (on both sides of the Jordan ) and the British mandate Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq ) including the area of ​​Mosul . The exact demarcation was initially open. France received from Great Britain the right to a quarter of northern Iraq's oil production, which had to be transported through its own pipelines. Palestine, which was later separated from Jordan, should have been placed under international administration under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The mandates initially came from the Allied Supreme Council, ratification by the League of Nations took place on July 24, 1922.

Other points of negotiation concerned the forthcoming peace treaty with Turkey , the delay in German reparations and the lifting of trade sanctions against Soviet Russia .

  • British Mandate Palestine (1920)

  • French mandate Syria and Lebanon (1922)

consequences

The wish of the former allies of the victorious powers of the First World War for independence was shattered by the agreement. On March 8, 1920, a pan-Syrian congress declared the independence of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and parts of northern Iraq and appointed Faisal I as king. The Arab defeat in the Battle of Maysalun against French troops destroyed these plans after independence. The conference is seen as one of the causes of the Middle East conflict .

literature

  • Helmuth KG Rönnefarth, Heinrich Euler: Conferences and contracts. Contract Ploetz. Part II, Volume 4: Most Recent 1914–1959. 2nd, expanded edition. AG Ploetz Verlag, Würzburg 1959, p. 50f.
  • Randall Price: Fast Facts on the Middle East Conflict. Harvest House Publishers, 2003, ISBN 0-7369-1142-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b James Stuart Olson , Robert Shadle: Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism. Greenwood Publishing, 1991, pp. 543 f.
  2. ↑ From tension to jubilation. Israelnetz.de , April 20, 2020, accessed on May 4, 2020 .
  3. ^ Sir Ernest Llewellyn Woodward: Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939. HMSO, 1963, p. 318.
  4. ^ BS McBeth: British Oil Policy 1919-1939. Frank Cass, London 1985, ISBN 0-7146-3229-5 , p. 34.
  5. ^ Louise Fawcett: International Relations of the Middle East. Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-960827-0 , pp. 47 f.
  6. ^ King's Complete History of the World War, William C. King, The History Associates, 1922, 665
  7. ^ Randall Price: Fast Facts on the Middle East Conflict. Harvest House Publishers, 2003, ISBN 0-7369-1142-1 , p. 53