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History of Lebanon

Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula.. 5 eras, 2500 BCE to today.

Phoenicia, 2500–64 BCE Draft, not yet reviewed

The Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic-speaking people who inhabited city-states in Canaan along the Levantine coast of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily in present-day Lebanon. Phoenician society was organized into independent city-states, notably Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre. Renowned for seafaring and trade, the Phoenicians established one of antiquity's most extensive maritime networks, active for over a millennium. The Phoenician cities flourished most in the 9th century BC, but subsequently declined under the expansion of empires such as the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid.

Seat of power: Sidon

Mount Lebanon Emirate, 1516–1840 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Emirate of Mount Lebanon was a part of Mount Lebanon that enjoyed variable degrees of partial autonomy under the stable suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire between the mid-16th and the early-19th century. The Maan and Shihab government of different parts of Mount Lebanon, between 1667 and 1841, was an Ottoman iltizam, or tax farm, rather than a dynastic principality, and the multazims were never reigning princes. The relations between the Porte and the Shihab emirs revolved around the payment of taxes, and the official legitimation of their position as multazims. Over the more than three centuries of the two dynasties (1516-1840) only two significantly strong leaders emerged, Fakhr al-Din II (1591-1635) and Bashir Shihab II (1788-1840).

Seat of power: Deyr el-Qamar

mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon, 1861–1918 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the 19th-century Tanzimat reform. After 1861, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian Mutasarrif (governor), which had been created as a homeland for the Maronites under European diplomatic pressure following the 1860 Druze-Maronite conflict. The arrangement formalized confessional representation in local administration and is often discussed as a key moment in the institutionalization of sectarian governance in Mount Lebanon. The Mutasarrifate era is characterized by the spread of national consciousness, science and culture among the Lebanese.

Seat of power: Deyr el-Qamar

Rulers

French mandate of Lebanon, 1920–1943 Draft, not yet reviewed

The State of Greater Lebanon, informally known as French Lebanon, was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic in May 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon. The state was declared on 1 September 1920, following Decree 318 of 31 August 1920, as a League of Nations Mandate under the proposed terms of the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon which was to be ratified in 1923. The British were given Palestine and Iraq, while the French were given a mandate over Syria and Lebanon. General Henri Gouraud proclaimed the establishment of the state with its present boundaries, after support from the majority of Lebanese regardless of religion, and Beirut as its capital.

Seat of power: Beirut

Lebanon, 1943 to today Draft, not yet reviewed

By 1943, Lebanon had gained independence from Free France and established a distinct form of confessional government, with the state's major religious groups being apportioned specific political powers. The new Lebanese state was relatively stable, but this was ultimately shattered by the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Lebanon was also subjugated by two military occupations: Syria from 1976 to 2005 and Israel from 1985 to 2000. The Lebanese liquidity crisis, coupled with nationwide corruption and disasters such as the 2020 Beirut explosion, precipitated the collapse of Lebanon's currency and fomented political instability, widespread resource shortages, and high unemployment and poverty.

Seat of power: Beirut

Rulers

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.