Lebanon

Map of Lebanon (Public Domain).

Lebanon (Arabic Lubnan) is a country in the Middle East. It borders Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Its official language is Arabic. The capital and largest city of Lebanon is Beirut.

Lebanon was created in its present form after World War I and administered by the French as a mandated territory until World War II. The country is religiously diverse, containing Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Maronite Christians, Druze, and various smaller religions. Lebanon went through a long civil war from the 1970's until the 1990's that was caused by differences among its religious groups and tensions between Syria and Israel. It was further damaged by a war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, an Islamist terrorist organization. The war ended with both sides claiming victory, and many issues in Lebanon's politics are still unresolved.

Geography

The center of Lebanon is dominated by Mount Lebanon, which, despite its name, is actually an entire mountain range. Extensions of the Mount Lebanon range span almost the entire country north to south. On the eastern border of the country are the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, which are partially in Syria. The large Bekaa valley, which contains Lebanon's most fertile agricultural land, lies between these two mountain ranges. The Litani river dominates the south of Lebanon. It rises in the Bekaa valley along with the Orontes river, which flows thourgh north Lebanon before passing into Syria. Lebanon contains many smaller rivers, most of which originate in Mount Lebanon. The coast of Lebanon has many harbors, including the ports of Beriut, Tripoli, Sidon, and Tyre. These harbors have been used for trade since ancient times.

History to 1918

Ancient History

In antiquity, Lebanon was the homeland of the Phoenicians. They probably first came into Lebanon from south of the area sometime around 3500 BC. The Phoenicians were known for their sailing skills and established a network of trading centers that spanned the entire Mediterranean, some of which (Carthage, for instance) eventually became great powers in their own right. In about 1800 BC, Phoenicia was conquered by the Egyptians. Over the ensuing centuries, the region would be fought over by empires such as the Babylonians and Assyrians. Eventually it was conquered by the Persians. In 332 BC, Lebanon, along with the rest of Persia, fell to Alexander the Great. Alexander's empire broke up after his death. In 64 BC, the Romans took control of Lebanon. It would remain a province of the Romans, and later the Byzantines, for many centuries. Christianity was established in Lebanon by 395.

Islamic and Medieval History

In 640, Lebanon fell to the newly Muslim Arabs, whose language and culture became dominant. Lebanon was a province in the Sunni Umayyad and Abbasid empires, and later the Shia Fatimid Empire. In 975 it was briefly recaptured by the Byzantines, but soon fell back into Fatimid hands. By the 11th century, they were replaced by the Seljuq Turks as the effective power in the region.

This era established three major religious communities. The Maronite Christians lived mostly in Mount Lebanon, where they existed largely independently from the Muslim Empires swirling around them, although they gradually adopted the Arab language. The coastal cities, such as Beirut, Tripoli, and Tyre, were inhabited by Orthodox Christians and Sunnis. A mostly Shia population inhabited the south. Starting in 1021, these groups were joined by communities of Druze refugees fleeing persecution in their native land of Egypt. The Druze settled in the south of Mount Lebanon (replacing Shia as the local majority) and elsewhere in present day Syria and Israel.

In 1093, the Crusaders occupied Mount Lebanon and the adjacent coast on their way to Jerusalem. During the Crusader era, the Maronite Church recognized the superiority of Rome and became a Eastern Rite church within Catholicism, which it remains to this day.]

Starting in the 1260's, the crusader kingdoms were gradually occupied by the Egyptian Mamluks. The Mamluks were in turn conquered by the Ottomans in 1516. However, during this time Mount Lebanon was in reality controlled by local Christian and Druze lords who ruled over it and some of the surrounding area in the name of the dominant power (Mamluks, Ottomans, etc). The Druze leader Fakhr al-Din, who, before his execution by the Ottomans in 1633, controlled Mount Lebanon and some of the surrounding areas, was the most notable. Druze power wained after his death.

The Mutasarrifiya

In the 1860's, longstanding tensions between Maronite and Druze in Mount Lebanon erupted into a sectarian war. Christian disorganization allowed the Druze to gain the upper hand, and as many as 11,000 Christians were killed. The French and British intervined to save the Christians, and in the aftermath supported the creating of a Maronite-dominated semi-autonomous province known as the Mutasarrifiya (from mutasarraf, Arabic for "administrator", which was its governor's title). It included Mount Lebanon and the adjacent coast (except Beirut). The Mutasarrifiya had no ports of any significance, little agricultural land, and few resources in general. Maronite nationalists therefore began to lobby European powers for the creation of a "Greater Lebanon" including Beirut, the Beqaa valley, and expanded territory to the north and south of the Mutasarrifiya's current boundaries. The Ottoman Empire was hostile to the existence of the Mutasarifiya and sought to abolish it and place the area under the control of the Ottoman central government. During World War I, the French (the main patrons of the Mutasarifiya and the Maronite community) fought the Ottomans, allowing them to finally end the Mutasarifiya in 1915.

History Since 1918

Currently in Progress

The French Mandate

In 1918, World War I ended and the defeated Ottoman Empire collapsed. Its Arab provinces were carved up into territories called mandates, which were divided between the victorious allies. Lebanon, along with Syria, was assigned to the French. The French agreed to support the "Greater Lebanon" the Maronites had worked for, expanding the Mutasarrifiya to included the port cities of Beirut, Sidon, and Tripoli and giving it extensive territories to its north, south, and west. The Muslim inhabitants of these areas largely opposed the new, Maronite-dominated Lebanon and agitated for the its incorporation into Syria.

In 1926, the French issued a new constitution for Lebanon, based on the French model, although they reserved ultimate veto power for themselves. The French manipulated elections to produce governments favorable to them, angering the majority of Lebanese and helping to unite the Maronite and Sunni communities against them.

In 1941, British and Free French forces invading Lebanon to prevent it from falling under the control of the Vichy Regime, a pro-Nazi French government formed by the Germans after their takeover of France. To achieve Lebanese support, the British talked the French into promising Lebanon independence. Elections in 1943 produced an anti-French government under president Bishara al-Khuri that declared independence. Al-Kuri and Riyadh al-Sulh, a Sunni politician, negociated an agreement known as the National Pact, which divided Lebanon's government among its sects. Specifically, Lebanon's president would be a Maronite, its prime minister a Sunni, and its speaker of parliament a Shia. In addition, parliament would have six Christians for every five Muslims (roughly consistent with the overall population of Christians and Muslims at the time).

The French arrested the members of the new government after it tried to declare independence, but were pressured into releasing them by the British. In late 1943, the French recognized Lebanon as an independent nation. The last French troops left Lebanon in 1946.

The "Merchant Republic"

Lebanon prospered during its first years of independence. Under President al-Khuri, the country followed pro-business, laissez-faire economic policies. Lebanon's economy boomed, and the real-estate and banking did especially well. Beirut became the commercial hub of the Middle East, and the capital of the so-called "Merchant Republic".

All was not as it seemed, however. The boom mostly benefited Lebanon's predominately Maronite upper class, which passed the benefit to members of the Maronite community. Members of other sects, as well as many lower class Christians, did not see any benefit. These disadvantaged members of society filled slums along the outer edges of Beirut, especially the "belt of misery"-the impovershed, mostly Shia southern suburbs of Beirut. Many joined Arab nationalist or Islamic organizations hostile to al-Khuri's government and the Maronite-dominated Lebanon. Disadvantaged Maronites were drawn into organizations such as the Kata'ib, also called the Phalange, founded by Pierre Jumayyil in 1936, which preached right-wing Maronite nationalism.

In 1948, another ingredient was added to this already toxic mix. Palestinian refugees, fleeing the wars that led to Israel's creation, settled in camps along the outside of Lebanon's major cities. Mostly Sunni Muslim, they soon became embroiled in Lebanon's sectarian politics.

In 1952, an alliance of opposition politicians bought down al-Khuri, replacing him with Camille Chamoun. Chamoun lacked a real power base, and soon managed to alienate both Christians and Muslims. Muslims in particular came to see him as too pro-Western and pro-Maronite, and opposed him with increasing bitterness. In 1958, they rebelled against his government, igniting Lebanon's first civil war. An intervention of US troops under President Eisenhower quelled it later that year. Chamoun agreed to step down, and General Fuad Shihab assumed the presidency.

A military man, Shihab used the army and intelligence to keep order, and kept down sectarian infighting for a while. However, his government did not address the root causes of Lebanon's sectarian resentments, and they continued to fester below the surface. Shihab's successors followed his policies, but sectarian problems gradually reemerged and contributed to more and more instability.

The Road to War

After Israel's defeat of the Arabs in the 1967 Six-Day War, The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and other militant Palestinian organizations gained increasing power in Lebanon, using the country as a base for anti-Israeli attacks, provoking Israel to retaliate. This pattern escalated until, in 1968, an Israeli commando operation against the Beirut international airport destroyed thirteen planes belonging to Middle East Airlines (Lebanon's national airline), in revenge for a Palestinian hijacking of an El Al (the Israeli national airline) airliner earlier that year.

These events increased the sectarian divided in Lebanon. Many Lebanese Muslims sympathized with the Palestinians, while most Christians saw them as a threat. The tension escalated, leading to clashes between the Lebanese army and Palestinian groups in 1969. The army failed to curb the Palestinians and Muslims in Tripoli rioted. In 1969, the army gave in and signed the Cairo agreement, in which it pledged not to enter Palestinian refugee camps. Lebanon's factions began to coalesce into a pro-Christian side and a pro-Muslim/Palestinian side.

In 1970, Sulayman Faranjiyya was elected president of Lebanon as a compromise candidate between the country's increasingly hostile factions. Shortly before this, Jordan had suppressed the Palestinian groups based in it. Faranjiyya allowed the displaced militants to take refuge in Lebanon, adding fuel to the already dire Palestinian problem. That year, Hafiz al-Assad became president of Syria and began inciting the Palestinians against the Lebanese government.

President Faranjiyya did nothing to improve the situation. He alienated the Sunni Muslim prime minister, Sa'ib Salam and Kamal Junblatt, the leader of the Druze Progressive Socialist Party and an ally of the Muslim/Palestinian faction. In 1973, Faranjiyya attempted to replace the Prime Minister Salam with a much less important politician, angering the Sunnis. Faranjiyya did nothing as the economic boom of the Merchant Republic, that had helped to dampen sectarianism, faded. Instead, Faranjiyya's cabinet became notorious for its corruption, and the gap between Lebanon's sects grew wider and wider.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians had taken advantage of the chaos to arm themselves, and again clashed with the Lebanese army. Christian leaders, such as Pierre Jumayyil, head of the Phalange party, realized that war was near and began to build militias of their own. The rival Muslim parties, since 1969 allied as the National Front, did the same. Lebanon was coming apart at the seams, and civil war was inevitable.

The Civil War

• The opening of the war
• The Syrian intervention
• The first Israeli intervention
• The Phalange-Syria split
• The Israeli invasion in 1982
• Aoun's war and the Syrian takeover

The Syrian Era

• Reconstruction
• The Lebanese government under Syrian rule

Lebanon since 2005

• The "Ceder Revolution"
• The 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war
• The 2007 political crisis

Politics

Political power in Lebanon is shared among the country's many religious groups in a system known as confessionalism, which was established by the National Pact in 1943. Specifically, the President is always a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister is always a Sunni, and the Speaker of Parlament is always a Shia. Additionally, all of the religions are guaranteed a fixed number of seats in the Lebanese parliament. The religious quotas were heavily modified by the Ta'if agreement.

Lebanonese politics were dominated by Syria until recently, and are historically very unstable. There is currently a political crisis surrounding the inability of the factions in parliament to agree on a president.

Culture

Lebanon's culture is a mixture of Arab and Western influences, and is heavily influenced by the multiplicity of religious groups. Lebanese Christians (especially Maronites) tend to feel separated from the Islamic culture around them, and look more toward Europe. The Maronites and the French in particular have historically had a special relationship, due to their shared Catholicism. France has supported Maronite interests against other communities, and Maronites have shown an attachment to French culture-it is not uncommon for Maronite parents to give their children French names rather than Arabic ones and send their children to French speaking schools and universities.

By contrast to Christians, most Muslims identify much more with the wider Arab and Islamic world, and their culture is much more similar to the culture of other Arab countries. It is very rare for a Muslim Lebanese to, for example, give his or her child a French name.

Demographics

Lebanon's population is made of many different religious groups, and, due to power sharing between these groups, is a highly politicized issue. The last census, taken in 1932, showed a population of 782,415 people, made up of 29% Maronites, 22% other Christians, 21% Sunnis, 17% Shias, and 7% Druze. No census has been taken since then because of the political implications. Studies of Lebanon's modern population show a rise in the proportion of Muslims, to about 60% of the population, with Shias being the biggest single sect at about 35% of the total. Lebanon's total population is probably close to 4 million.

Except for small Armenian and Kurdish minorities, Lebanon's population is almost entirely Arabic speaking.

Economy

Section will contain information about the Lebanese economy.