Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement of 1899 Following their successful 1871 Najd expedition, the Ottomans solidified their influence over Kuwait. In 1892, Muhammad Al-Sabah ascended to the Kuwaiti throne. Mohammad's ineptitude as a ruler led to a gradual emergence of his brother in law Yusuf bin Abdullah Al–Ibrahim as an éminence grise. Al–Ibrahim went on to pursue Turkophile policies, which alienated the nationalist circles of Kuwait's society. In May 1896, Mohammad was assassinated by his half brother Mubarak Al-Sabah who then seized power. The Ottomans believed that the revolt was a part of a larger British plot to create a Pan-Arab anti-Ottoman alliance. The Ottomans cited Mubarak's
History of the Arabs autonomy within a unified Ottoman state rather than Arab independence from the empire. Al-Fatat hosted the Arab Congress of 1913 in Paris, the purpose of which was to discuss desired reforms with other dissenting individuals from the Arab world. However, as the Ottoman authorities cracked down on the organization's activities and members, al-Fatat went underground and demanded the complete independence and unity of the Arab provinces. After World War I, when the Ottoman Empire was overthrown by the British Empire, former Ottoman colonies were divided up between the British and French as League of Nations mandates. Arabs in modern times