LEBANON HISTORY

The Republic and Independence

a) The French mandate
During the First World War (1914 – 1918), famine, diseases and grasshoppers drowned the Lebanon: thousands of its inhabitants died (l/4), especially in the Christian regions (Jbeil, Batroun, Jezzine...).

After this war, the Lebanon, as well as Syria, were placed under French mandate. The French general Gouraud gave it back its territories amputated during the "Mutassarifiah". Thus, September 1, 1929, the Great Lebanon received its present borders.
This was a reply to the aspiration of the Lebanese people, especially of the Maronites, to create a Lebanese nation.

The country was submitted to the authority of a high French commissary. It received an administrative commission, heir of the ancient council that ruled the small Lebanon of the Mountain, and was provided with a local administration supervised by French counselors.

The 23 May 1926, an elected parliamentary council provided the Lebanon with a constitution and proclaimed the Republic of Lebanon. Henceforth, the Parliament elected or designated the Heads of State.

The return of the amputated territories, having a Muslim majority, swung the preceding equilibrium in the "Mutassarifiah" in which the Christians constituted 80% of the population. In 1922, out of 100 persons, only 55 were Christian.

During the Second World War, Free France proclaimed, in 1941, the independence of the Lebanon that was not due before the end of the war, and before the destiny of the Middle East was defined.

b) The Independence
Having despaired of waiting for the independence, the Lebanese Parliament repealed all the dispositions, in the constitution of the country, that made reference to the mandate. The French authorities arrested the President of the republic Mr. Bechara El-Khoury, the prime minister Mr. Riad As-Solh, ministers and a deputy. The popular movement and the British intervention forced the Free French to liberate the Lebanese persons in charge and to proclaim a real independence on the 22 November 1943.

The French troops as well as the British army left the country in 1946. The Lebanon became a sovereign country that participated to the Arab League and became a member in the United Nations.

c) The exercise of Independence
Once it won its independence, the Lebanon witnessed an economic "boom" and a cultural, artistic and touristic renaissance that gave it back the jewel twinkle of the Middle East.

The country had a promising and successful future: opening on civilizations, cultures, religions, community and cultural pluralism, political modernization (the Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East, save Israel, which practices a real parliamentary democracy), and on the economic "miracle" (Middle-East Switzerland).

The XIXth century Renaissance grows rich in the Lebanon: literary productions in Arabic, French and English; lexicographic and encyclopedic work; pieces of romance, poetry, theater, cinema, songs, painting, and sculpture. Bilinguism, the multiplicity of universities, private and public, as well as foreign and local schools have constantly fed this culture.

d) The war of the Lebanon (1975-1989)
Since the country lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, it had to pay the price of the Arab wars with Israel, the Palestinian resistance against Israel, the wars between Arabs, and of the rise of the Arab nationalism. The Lebanese people were divided in front of each Arab problem, and ended by rendering the country the stage of the wars of others: Arabs, Israelis, great powers, Palestinians, Kurds, Chiites of Iran, Arab nationalist parties...

As from 1975, the country witnessed a bloody fratricide war. The external powers as well as the weight of the Palestinian armed forces stirred up the conflict.

An Israeli military intervention in 1982 complicated the whole matter, cast more powder on the fire, and helped to draw a clear confessional canton.

17 years of war were sufficient to alter the face of the Lebanon: 90 thousand were killed, thousands have disappeared, thousands were mutilated, half a million ousted, thousands of emigrants; villages, especially Christian, wiped off, people out of houses, Beirut cut into half and its city center destroyed, the touristic infrastructure hit, a devaluation of the national currency, a decline in the economy, this is the result and evaluation of the war in the Lebanon.

Taef agreements, which put the country on the route of peace, were, perhaps, the prelude to a peace that has spread since the Geneva conference. The conference aimed at solving the contentious problem of the Middle East, Lebanon being its first hostage. The Lebanese people are still expecting the liberation of their national territory from the foreign and friendly armies, and the upholding of the total independence and sovereignty of their country. Do they still have the right to dream and watch their dreams come true???