Secret diplomacy carved the Near Orient into spheres of influence before World War I

Evidence

Yet together, Britain and France were agreed in principle on the necessity, when the time came, for the partition of Asiatic Turkey. Both before and during World War I secret diplomacy was bent on carving up the Near Orient first into spheres of influence, then into mandated (or occupied) territories. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 554

Categorization

• XREF: Provides the concrete geopolitical mechanism behind the mandate system later critiqued in postcolonial theory; links to readings on modern bureaucratic rationality enabling mass exclusion.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 554