When was lebanon colonized by the french

It is near impossible to create a clear cut, all-purpose definition of the colonial period for the Middle East as a whole. Middle Eastern states experienced different circumstances, were ruled by different colonial metropoles and became independent at different stages and in different ways.

There are also different understandings of what exactly constitutes colonial rule and, as a consequence, the exact timeline of the colonial period. Cole and Kandiyoti usefully divide the Middle Eastern colonial period in to several stages: informal imperialism, formal colonial domination, and neo-colonialism.

In this essay I will largely be discussing the legacy of the first two of these three stages and in particular will focus on the period of formal colonial domination.

For Lebanon, the colonial period began with the collapse of the Ottoman empire following World War 1. During the war, the French and British began to divide up the region according to their colonial interests, many of which had long pre-dated the war see Shorrock This resulted in the now infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement of This division of the Middle East became formalised at the end of the war by the League of Nations Mandate system.

In the League of Nations officially granted France a Mandate for Syria, which at this point included Lebanon, while the British were allocated a Mandate for both Palestine and Iraq. Rather than being based on any specific geographic or historical division, the borders of Lebanon were almost entirely a creation of the French. As I will discuss later, there had been some sense of an autonomous Lebanese territory prior to the French Mandate, however this was far smaller in area then the new Lebanon.

Nonetheless, the French drew on this precedent and divided Lebanon from Syria. This not only allowed the French to fulfil the wishes of their Maronite Christian allies, but was also a convenient way of reducing the support base of the rival Pan-Arab nationalist movement that was growing out of Damascus Salem ; Zamir It was in this way that the modern borders of Lebanon were delineated and demarcated and the foundations of a Lebanese nationalism were laid.

In contemporary Middle Eastern politics these borders have been the cause of much conflict and turmoil. This has not only included domestic conflict within Lebanon, but also regional conflict involving Lebanon, Syria and Israel. When the French withdrew from the Mandate in the mids, the newly independent states of Syria and Lebanon failed to conclusively establish a formal border.

In the s a joint Lebanese-Syrian committee was convened to conclusively determine the border but an agreement could not be reached. The committee was subsequently disbanded in The potential consequences of these issues for both regional and international security has resulted in calls for actions from states such as the United States and France, as well as the United Nations.

The issues they face can all be seen as political consequences of the legacy of the colonial period. Of all the contemporary political issues arising from the Lebanon-Syria border, arguably the most pressing is the Shebaa Farms dispute.

The area known as the Shebaa Farms is a small piece of land currently occupied by Israel but with contested ownership between Syria and Lebanon. The area is relatively small, it consists of only 14 farms and is less than 20sqkm in size, but has nevertheless become a serious flashpoint for conflict.

When the French divided the region under the Mandate, the farms lay on the Syrian side of the border. On the ground the facts were quite different. The area was populated by Lebanese farmers and few Syrians lived in the area. From the French Mandate until the area could therefore have been said to be de jure Syrian but de facto Lebanese.

They have remained an occupying power in the area since. The issue came to the fore in May when Israel ceased its year occupation of Lebanon and withdrew all of its military forces from Lebanese territory. Since Israel understood the Shebaa Farms to be Syrian rather than Lebanese, they did not withdraw from the area.

However, Lebanon claimed that since Israel had not withdrawn from the Shebaa Farms they remained in violation of Resolution Somewhat ironically, Syria sided with Lebanon and declared the Shebaa Farms to be Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah, a militant group formed in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, has since used the occupation of the Shebaa Farms to gain legitimacy and support for their continued violent action against Israel Chelala ; Cimino The on going conflict caused by the Shebaa Farms dispute, exemplified by the July War, highlight the devastating and ongoing legacy of the colonial period in Middle Eastern politics.

Chelala ; Cimino In addition to geopolitical issues, the legacy of the colonial period can also be seen in Lebanese nationalism and its role in Middle Eastern politics. Of all the Middle Eastern nationalisms, Lebanese nationalism is often considered the most straightforward in relation to its connection to the colonial period. The mainstream discourse surrounding Lebanese nationalism is that it was created by the French as a tool to further their colonial ambitions.

To reach an accurate understanding of the legacy of the colonial period on Middle Eastern politics it is important to examine this claim in further detail. Of course, there are competing understandings of what Lebanese nationalism should mean, as well as competing nationalisms, most notably Arab nationalism and Syrian nationalism, within Lebanon.

It is therefore crucial that I first define exactly what is meant by the term nationalism in this instance. Commonly, nationalism refers to either one of two separate but related ideas. The first of these can be described as the ideology of nationalism.

This is arguably the most common usage of the term in International Relations. Thompson has shown, in the following decade, as the Lebanese Republic was established in and a parliament elected in , the French increasingly resorted to authoritarian proxy-rule.

French High-Commissioners, hamstrung by austerity in Paris, disproportionately favoured their Christian clients and, more generally, empowered wealthy, patriarchal elites, endorsing their skilled appropriation of sectarian political logic to divide access to power and resources.

The result, long before the Lebanese civil war of the s and 80s, was to limit the political potential of genuinely national ideas of citizenship. They face a steep challenge. French financial, commercial and cultural interests would continue to be interlaced with the Maronite community in particular. More generally, access to political and economic power was organised around sectarian identities, even during the laissez-faire boom years of , when a cloud of money partially obscured the political realities.

Even the later rise of Shia political power, through the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, would create a new sectarian player rather than destabilising the underlying system. Any such changes will need to overcome deeply entrenched structures dating back to the French Mandate period itself.

Simon Jackson Published 03 Sep Proclamation of Greater Lebanon in Beirut, c. More long reads. This is clearly not a viable solution. Lebanon — a land where no census has been feasible since due to political sensitivities — is a realm of proxy-bloodshed and geopolitical intervention. Its economic situation is entwined with its socio-political reality, which is itself intertwined with the global system. Even such bold attempts would certainly not spell the end of the crisis; this can only come with global change.

He received his PhD from the University of Sussex, where he taught between and His main interests are in Post-, anti-, and decolonial work, ethnic and racial studies, inequalities, and the study of Islam, while his current research focuses on the lived experiences of discrimination and exclusion of visibly Muslim Lebanese citizens with a particular focus on the role of urbanity.

Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Bad Behavior has blocked access attempts in the last 7 days. Search for:. Ali Kassem April 5th, Colonialism and Imperialism: The Case of Lebanon 3 comments 8 shares Estimated reading time: 10 minutes.

Kassem Badawi Street in Beirut, with the downtown skyscrapers visible in the background. Credit: Watfa Najdi In February , an envoy from the International Monetary Fund visited Lebanon, a small Mediterranean confessional democracy of around 5 million inhabitants. Downtown Beirut, reconstructed after the war and now a tourist hub.

Credit: Bassam Frem The tides soon shifted.