Lebanon (country)

E

The Ottomans

In 1516 the Ottoman Turks conquered the entire eastern Mediterranean coast from the Mamelukes. Two local dynasties successively came to dominate the Mountain under Ottoman rule: the Maans (1516-1697) and the Shihabs (1697-1842). The most ambitious of these rulers was Fakhr al-Din II, who forged an alliance with the Italian Duchy of Tuscany. Although of Druze origin, he ruled tolerantly, attracting Maronite peasants to his southern districts.

With the end of the Maan line, local notables chose the Shihabs to be emirs (princes). After 1711, because of the defeat and expulsion of one Druze faction, the Maronites came to predominate. Reflecting this shift of power, members of the Shihab family converted to Christianity. In 1770 a Maronite Shihab became the emir. His successor, Bashir II, who reigned from 1788 to 1840, subdued the Druze and emerged as master of Lebanon and a power in the Levant. Gaining support from the Ottomans, the European powers, and discontented Maronite peasants, the Druze ended Shihab rule in 1842.

F

The Later Ottoman Period

The turmoil of these years finished the Maronite-Druze cooperation upon which Lebanon’s autonomy rested. The Ottomans now played a more direct role, but their administrative reforms proved unworkable. In 1858 the political, religious, social, and economic tensions between Druze and Maronite, Muslim and Christian, and landlord and peasant erupted in a civil war that ended in 1860 after considerable bloodshed and an apparent Druze triumph. The Ottomans and the European powers, however, sent forces to restore order and to punish those Muslims they considered at fault in the war. In 1861 they established a new administration for Lebanon that lasted until World War I. The new regulations provided that the country be governed by a non-Lebanese Ottoman Christian, counselled by local notables but directly responsible to İstanbul. The World War I years brought famine and devastation, increasing the flow of Christian immigrants to the Americas.

G

French Rule

Strictly speaking, the history of Lebanon within its current borders and with its distinctive mix of Muslim and Christian populations begins only in 1920, when the French, who had gained control through secret wartime agreements, combined the largely Muslim-inhabited coast and plain with the Christian-dominated Mountain to create the state of Greater Lebanon under their mandate. For practically all of the preceding two millennia this territory had been part of larger provinces within continent-spanning empires. Although Lebanon had rarely formed a distinct political entity, Maronites had developed a belief in Mount Lebanon as a country with a history and a character of its own. Because the French fostered this belief, their rule was supported by the Maronites, who gained economically and politically from it. In 1926 the French established the Lebanese Republic, but complete independence was not achieved for Lebanon until 1946, when the last French troops were evacuated.

H

Independence

French gerrymandering of Lebanon’s frontiers created an economically viable state with politically explosive religious conflicts. In 1943 the predominant Maronites worked out a power-sharing arrangement, the National Pact, with the Sunni Muslims and smaller groups. Real power, however, rested not with elected leaders but with an increasingly wealthy elite and a class of almost feudal warlords, defended by their own armies.

The presidents have often been at the mercy of forces and groups beyond their control, although both Camille Chamoun and Fuad Chehab (Shihab), presidents of the 1950s and early 1960s who pursued opposing policies, were strong, effective leaders. Christians controlled key state posts. Financiers and property speculators flourished, government policies encouraged business, and the amenities and climate attracted tourists and investors from abroad. Little of this prosperity, however, touched the mass of the population—increasingly Shiite—and their discontent exploded in demonstrations, riots, and, after 1975, civil war.

I

Foreign Relations

Lebanon has followed a delicately balanced policy with its neighbours and the major powers. Maronites prefer close relations with the West and distance from the Arab world; many Muslims, on the other hand, advocate neutrality and Arab unity.

Lebanon was practically non-belligerent in the Arab-Israeli conflicts, but Palestinian refugees from Israel after its creation in 1948, despite attempts to segregate them in society, acquired influence in the country and caused problems by raiding Israel from Lebanese bases. By 1973 some 10 per cent of the population were Palestinians. Movements for Syrian and Arab unity also disrupted the country. In 1949 and 1961 coups were launched to promote union with Syria. In 1958 pro-Nasser Arabs led an insurrection that was ended by US intervention and President Chamoun’s retreat from anti-Arabist policies. Subsequent governments paid at least lip service to Arab unity.