France’s Imperial Ambitions and The Establishment of the French Mandate in Syria

Abstract

When the Allied powers advanced into Syria, the political divisions of the country followed the lines of the provincial administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, and in the late Ottoman period territorial borders of Syria were virtually nonexistent. British troops under Marshal Edmund Henry Allenby entered Damascus in 1918 accompanied by troops of the Arab Revolt led by Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca. General Allenby, and in accordance with the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France, assigned to the Arab administration only the interior regions of Syria (the eastern zone). Palestine (the southern zone) was reserved for the British, and on October 8, French troops disembarked in Beirut and occupied all the Lebanese coastal region until Naqoura (the western zone) replacing British troops there. The French immediately dissolved the local Arab governments in the region. The French demanded full implementation of the Sykes–Picot Agreement and the placement of Syria under their influence. On November 26, 1919, the British withdrew from Damascus to avoid confrontation with the French, leaving the Arab government face to face with the French.

Soon after the Allied Power’s occupation the southern part, Palestine, was assigned to the British Mandate, and the other, Syria and the Lebanon, was assigned to the France Mandate. The process of political radicalization was initiated during the era of the French Mandate; the French legacy to Syria was almost a guarantee of political instability. The creation of Greater Lebanon destined the Lebanese to an unstable political system which is based on sectarian rivalries. The purpose of this study is to examine France’s imperial objectives and the fragmentation of Greater Syria; at the same time examining France’s implementation of colonial tradition of ruling by division policy in 1920s which has planted the seeds of today’s problems in Syria.

Keywords

• French Imperialism,Colonial Tradition,World War I,Syria,Mandate

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