European powers actively sponsored Arab nationalist movements for their own advantage

Evidence

Another factor of importance was European interest. Several of the European powers found some advantage in encouraging nationalist ideas among the Arabs, and at various times France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Russia played a role in influencing, sponsoring, and even organizing movements of this kind. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 835

Categorization

• XREF: Buttons into how great-power patronage manufactured putatively indigenous nationalist movements — an existing claim in the Islam-West representation cluster.