In the years 1914 to 1919, World War I raged throughout Europe and the Middle East. When Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated and war broke out between Germany and the Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia, the Ottomans were torn on which side they should enter the war on. Eventually the Ottomans decided they would enter on the side of the Germans because they felt that the Germans had no intention of claiming what was left of the Ottoman Empire and the rest of the European powers did. The moment that the Ottomans declared their alliance with Germany during World War One, the Triple Entente began dividing up the Middle East making bookings in advance assuming that they would win the war. There were two main agreements, one was an internal agreement between the French and the British, the second was a correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and Sharif Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca regarding an Arab State. The argument could be made that the two agreements contradicted each other To a large extent the Sykes-Picot agreement contradicted promises made in the McMahon Hussein correspondence. Firstly concerning the region of Palestine, the implication was made that Hussein would receive Palestine as a part of his Arab state seeing as the Aleppo-Hama-Damascus line did not extend through the Jordan river and encompass Palestine. Secondly, the territories west of the Aleppo-Hama-Damascus Line were supposed to be saved for discussion at a later date that never appeared. Lastly, The region of Mesopotamia was also set aside for a later date that never arrived. However, the vagueness of the language did allow for the British to make the claim that they were not in violation of any promises made to Hussein with regards to Palestine. In the region that encompassed Palestine and the holy lands the implication was made in the view of the Arabs that the region would be a part of the arab state negotiated by Sharif Hussein. In previous negotiations the between the Arabs and the British, the British outlined a section of territory that was not allowed to be a part of the arab state. They claimed that it wasn't fully arab and therefore could not be included in an Independent Arab State. The aforementioned boundary was dubbed the Aleppo-Hama-Damascus line and everything west of the line was in the mind of the British to be excluded from the Arab state. However the official discussion of ex