At the start of the 20th century the Ottoman Empire controlled what is now Jordan and Syria. During the First World War an Arab Revolt, supported by Britain, succeeded in removing the Ottomans from most of the Middle East. As a result of the secret 1916 Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement the Ottoman Vilayet of Syria was split in two, with France gaining the north and Britain the south. France's section was then organised into the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. Britain's section (roughly, modern western Jordan) was contested between Britain, the newly formed Arab Kingdom of Syria, Zionists in the new Mandate of Palestine, and further south Ibn Saud of the new kingdom of Saudi Arabia, resulting in a confused period in which the region was essentially an ungoverned space. Eventually in 1921 Britain declared a formal mandate over the region, creating the Emirate of Transjordan under the semi-autonomous rule of King Abdullah I.