If you look at a pre WWII Middle East map, you’re basically looking at a massive jigsaw puzzle that hasn’t been finished yet. It’s messy. It’s awkward. Honestly, it’s mostly just lines drawn in the sand by British and French dudes who had probably never even stepped foot in the deserts they were carving up.
Most people assume the borders we see today—Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon—are ancient. They aren’t. Not even close. Before the world went to war for the second time, the region was in this weird, uncomfortable puberty. It was transitioning from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire into something new, but it was still very much under the thumb of European empires.
The Ghost of the Ottomans
Everything starts with 1918. Before that, you didn't really have "countries" in the modern sense. You had the Ottoman Empire. For 400 years, if you lived in Baghdad or Jerusalem, you were an Ottoman subject. Then came the Great War. The Empire collapsed. The British and French moved in like vultures at a buffet.
They used something called the Sykes-Picot Agreement. It’s a name that gets thrown around a lot in history books, but basically, it was a secret deal to split the loot. Britain took the bottom half. France took the top.
By the time the pre WWII Middle East map solidified in the 1930s, you had these "Mandates." That’s a fancy word for "colonies with a deadline." The League of Nations told Europe they had to "help" these regions become independent. In reality? Europe just wanted the oil and the Suez Canal.
The British Sandbox: Iraq and Jordan
The British were obsessed with the route to India. To protect it, they needed a buffer. So, they created Iraq. They literally took three different Ottoman provinces—Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul—and smashed them together.
Think about that for a second.
You had Shia populations in the south, Sunnis in the middle, and Kurds in the north. They didn't necessarily want to be one country. But the British map said they were. They even imported a king, Faisal I, who wasn't even from Iraq. He was from the Hejaz (modern-day Saudi Arabia). It was a total "square peg, round hole" situation.
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Then you have Transjordan. That’s what Jordan was called back then. It was basically a gift to Faisal’s brother, Abdullah. If you look at the pre WWII Middle East map, Jordan’s eastern border has this weird zig-zag. Legend says it’s called "Winston’s Hiccup" because Churchill supposedly drew it after a particularly boozy lunch. Whether the hiccup story is 100% true or just a great bit of historical gossip, the point stands: these borders were arbitrary. They weren't based on geography or tribal lines. They were based on ink and ego.
The French Slice: Syria and Lebanon
While the British were playing kingmaker in the south, the French were being equally aggressive in the north. They had the Mandate for Syria and Lebanon.
France wanted to protect the Maronite Christian population, so they carved Lebanon out of "Greater Syria." This move permanently altered the demographics and politics of the Mediterranean coast. If you look at a map from 1935, Lebanon looks tiny compared to its neighbors, but its political weight was massive because of that French connection.
Syria was a nightmare for the French. People weren't happy. There were constant revolts. The French kept trying to divide Syria into even smaller states—an Alawite state, a Druze state, the State of Aleppo. It didn't stick. Eventually, they had to keep it as one restive territory.
The Wildcard: Saudi Arabia
Not everything was a European puppet show. Down in the Arabian Peninsula, Ibn Saud was busy. He didn't care about European mandates. He was a warrior.
By 1932, he had conquered the Hejaz and the Nejd, officially forming the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is one of the few places on the pre WWII Middle East map where the borders were defined by local conquest rather than a European pen. It changed the game. Suddenly, you had a massive, independent, religiously conservative powerhouse sitting on top of what would soon be the world's largest oil reserves.
Oil.
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We have to talk about it. In the 1930s, the world was starting to realize that the Middle East wasn't just sand and history. It was fuel. Standard Oil of California (Socal) struck gold—black gold—in Saudi Arabia in 1938. This happened right on the cusp of the war. It turned a map of desert into a map of strategic necessity.
Palestine and the Looming Storm
You can't talk about the pre WWII Middle East map without looking at the British Mandate for Palestine. This is where the ink gets really messy.
Following the Balfour Declaration in 1917, the British had committed to supporting a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. At the same time, they had made promises to Arab leaders. By the late 1930s, the tension was a powder keg.
The 1936-1939 Arab Revolt was a massive deal. It forced the British to reconsider everything. They issued the White Paper of 1939, which limited Jewish immigration right as the situation in Europe was becoming a horror show for Jews. The map of Palestine in 1939 was a map of roadblocks, military outposts, and simmering resentment. It was a holding pattern that everyone knew couldn't last.
The Forgotten North: Turkey and Iran
People often forget Turkey and Iran when talking about this era, which is a mistake.
Turkey was the successor to the Ottomans, but under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, it turned its back on the Middle East. It looked toward Europe. The borders of Turkey were settled by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. By 1939, Turkey was a secular republic, trying desperately to stay out of the coming global meat grinder.
Iran, meanwhile, was under Reza Shah Pahlavi. He was an admirer of Atatürk. He wanted to modernize. He changed the name from "Persia" to "Iran" in 1935 to sound more "Aryan" and modern. The borders there were relatively stable compared to the Mandates, but the British and Soviets were both eyeing Iran’s oil fields with hungry eyes.
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What the Map Doesn't Tell You
Maps are liars. They show solid lines and solid colors.
In 1938, if you walked from Baghdad to Damascus, you wouldn't see a giant wall. You’d see nomadic tribes who had been crossing those "borders" for a thousand years. To them, the British and French lines were invisible. The map was a European fantasy layered over a much more complex reality of tribal loyalty and religious identity.
The pre WWII Middle East map represents a moment of "stasis before the explosion."
World War II changed everything. It bankrupted Britain and France. It made them too weak to hold onto their mandates. The lines they drew stayed, but the people inside those lines began to demand the right to redraw their own destinies.
Actionable Steps for History Buffs and Researchers
If you're trying to truly understand this era beyond a quick Google search, you need to look at primary sources that aren't just Western-centric.
- Compare the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres with the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. This shows you how Turkey managed to claw back land that the Europeans originally tried to take. It's the ultimate "before and after" for Middle Eastern sovereignty.
- Look at the "Red Line Agreement" maps. This was a deal between oil companies in 1928. It shows you where the West thought the oil was. Usually, where the oil was, the borders became "stricter."
- Use the Gulf History Manifesto digital archives. They have high-resolution scans of British colonial maps. Look at the "Notes" sections in the margins. You'll often see British officers admitting they don't know where one tribe's land ends and another begins.
- Study the 1937 Peel Commission Map. This was the first serious proposal to partition Palestine. It’s a haunting look at a "what if" scenario that never happened but set the stage for 1948.
- Read "A Line in the Sand" by James Barr. It’s probably the best modern account of the British-French rivalry. It reads like a spy novel but it’s all meticulously researched history.
The borders on the pre WWII Middle East map weren't inevitable. They were choices. And we are all still living with the consequences of those choices nearly a century later. Understanding that those lines were once wet ink on a table in London or Paris is the first step to understanding why the region looks the way it does today.