What did the Hussein-McMahon correspondence promise to Arab leaders during World War I?

The Hussein-McMahon correspondence (1915–1916) was a series of letters between Hussein ibn Ali, the emir of Mecca, and Sir Henry McMahon, the British high commissioner in Egypt. In exchange for Arab assistance in fighting the Ottoman Empire during World War I, the British effectively promised support for the establishment of an independent Arab state.12

However, the correspondence was not a formal treaty and remained highly ambiguous. Disagreements persisted regarding the specific boundaries of this proposed state, particularly concerning French interests in the region and British interests in Baghdad and Basra.1

Ultimately, the promises made in these letters were undermined by the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France, which partitioned Ottoman territories, and the Balfour Declaration, which supported a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Consequently, the Arabs achieved far less autonomy than they had anticipated from the arrangement.12