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From
the sixteenth century until 1918, the area of Greater Syria, (that includes modern
day Lebanon) made up only a small part of the vast Ottoman Empire that extended
from central Europe, east to Persia, down to the south of the Arabian Peninsular
and across most of North Africa.
Lebanon as
a state is a relatively new arrangement, being formed in the 1920's by the central
part of the Ottoman vilayet (province) of Beirut, the Beqaa Valley that at the
time was part of the Vilayet of Syria.
Intercommunity
fighting in 1859 and 1869, culminating in the massacre of over 10,000 Marionites
led France, alarmed at the plight of fellow christians, to sent troops into Beirut
to end the bloodshed and restore order.
When the French
lost control of Egypt, they focused on Greater Syria as a possible land link with
the Indian Ocean. They strengthened their ties with minority groups in Mt Lebanon
and the Syria/Palestine area, and took the Catholic communities in the Middle
East under their wing. The French founded a system of educational facilities,
and by 1914 more than half the children attending school in Syria/Mt Lebanon and
Palestine were studying at French institutions.
Under French
pressure, the Ottomans reorganised the area of Mt Lebanon into a single administrative
unit, named the Mutasarrifa (Special province) of Mt Lebanon under the control
of a Christian Ottoman Governer. From that time the Marionite, Christian and French
interests flourished.
The whole
area prospered, and with it a revival of Arabic literature, Arab nationalism -and
a desire to remove their Ottoman rulers.
But the French, though happy with the economy, failed to hear the warning bells. |
