Sykes–Picot Impact on Middle East Boarders and Oil Business

With the collapse of the Ottoman and the Russian Empires the world map underwent drastic changes after the end of World War I. International spheres of influence were reestablished, new players entered oil business, Russian oilfields were expropriated by the newly formed Soviet state. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire Mesopotamia became the region of the most active oil resource fight among the leading world states of the period such as France, the Great Britain, and the USA. The article considers the impact of Sikes-Picot agreement on the Middle Eastern modern states national boarders’ establishment giving the fact that under the Ottoman rule the region had no national division. Violent interference of the western states in the domestic set of affairs in the Middle East guided by the colonial ambitions to control new spheres of interest brought about catastrophic set of historical events in the region throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Almost the century after the Sikes-Picot agreement was signed the countries of the Middle East still suffer its consequences such as regional instability, national and religious tensions, territorial claims and an endless number of military conflicts that undermine regional stability. Unsettled Israeli-Palestinian dispute, the rise of regional terrorist organizations activities are the small examples of the regional misfortunes list.