Officially, the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (also known as the French Mandate of Syria) (French: Mandat français pour la Syrie et le Liban, Arabic: الانتداب الفرنسي في سوريا و لبنان al-Intidab al-Firansi fi Suriya wa Lubnan) was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
During the two years that followed the end of the war in 1918 – and in accordance with the Sykes-Picot Agreement that was signed between Britain and France during the war – the British held control of most Ottoman Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and the southern part of the Ottoman Syria (Palestine and Jordan), while the French controlled the rest of Ottoman Syria (modern Syria, Lebanon, Alexandretta) and other portions of southeastern Turkey. In early 1920s, the British and French control of these territories became formalized by the League of Nations' mandate system, and France was assigned the mandate of Syria on 29 September 1923, which included the territory of present day Lebanon and Alexandretta (Hatay) in addition to Syria proper.
The administration of the region under the French was carried out through a number of different territories including the Syrian Federation (1922–24), the State of Syria (1924–1930) and the Syrian Republic (from 1930) as well as the smaller states of the State of Greater Lebanon, the Alawite State and Jabal ad-Druze (state).
The French mandate of Syria lasted until 1943, when two independent countries emerged from the mandate period, Syria and Lebanon, in addition to Hatay which had joined Turkey in 1939. French troops completely left Syria and Lebanon in 1946.
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