French Mandate of Syria - Background

Background

With the defeat of Ottomans in Syria, 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.

Faisal established the first Arab government in Damascus in October 1918, and named Ali Rida Pasha ar-Rikabi a military governor.

The new Arab administration formed local governments in the major Syrian cities, and the Pan-Arab flag was raised all over Syria. The Arabs hoped, with faith in earlier British promises, that the new Arab state would include all the Arab lands stretching from Aleppo in northern Syria to Aden in southern Yemen.

However, 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 8 October, 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 26 November 1919, the British withdrew from Damascus to avoid confrontation with the French, leaving the Arab government face to face with the French.

Faisal had voyaged several times in Europe, beginning in November 1918, trying to convince Paris and London to change their positions, but without success. Signifying the determination of France on its intervention in Syria was the naming of General Henri Gouraud as a high commissioner in Syria-Cilicia.

At the Paris Peace Conference, Faisal found himself in an even weaker position when the European powers decided to ignore the Arab demands.

In June 1919, the American King-Crane Commission arrived in Syria to inquire about the local public opinion regarding the future of the country. The commission's workspace extended from Aleppo to Beersheba. They visited 36 major cities, met with more than 2000 delegations from more than 300 villages, and received more than 3000 petitions. Their conclusions confirmed the opposition of Syrians to the mandate in their country as well as to the Balfour declaration, and their demand of a unified Greater Syria encompassing Palestine. The conclusions of the commission were rejected by France and ignored by Britain.

In May 1919, elections were held for the Syrian National Congress. 80% of seats went to conservatives. However, the minority included dynamic Arab nationalist figures such as Jamil Mardam-Bey, Shukri al-Kuwatli, Ahmad al-Qadri, Ibrahim Hanano, and Riyad as-Solh.

Unrest erupted in Syria when Faisal accepted a compromise with the French Prime Minister Clemenceau and with the Zionist leader Weizmann over the issue of Jewish immigration to Palestine. Anti-Hashemite manifestations broke out, and Muslim inhabitants in and around Mount Lebanon revolted with fear of being incorporated into a new, mainly Christian, state of Greater Lebanon.

In March 1920, the Syrian national congress in Damascus, headed by Hashim al-Atassi, adopted a resolution rejecting the Faisal-Clemenceau accords. The congress declared the independence of Syria in her natural borders (including Southern Syria or Palestine), and proclaimed Faisal the king of all Arabs. The congress also proclaimed political and economic union with neighboring Iraq and demanded its independence as well. A new government headed by Ali Rida ar-Rikabi was formed on 9 May 1920.

On 25 April, and in the course of the Treaty of Sèvres, the supreme inter-allied council granted France the mandate of Syria (including Lebanon), and granted the UK the mandate of Palestine (including Jordan) and Iraq. Syrians reacted with violent demonstrations, and with the formation of a new government under Hashim al-Atassi on 7 May 1920. The new government decided to organize general conscription and began financing an army.

These decisions provoked adverse reactions by the French as well as by the Maronite patriarchate of Mount Lebanon, which denounced the decisions as a "coup d'état." In Beirut, the Christian press expressed its hostility to the decisions of Faisal's government. Lebanese nationalists used the crisis to convene a council of Christian figures in Baabda on 22 March 1920, that proclaimed the independence of Lebanon.

On 14 July 1920, General Gouraud issued an ultimatum to Faisal giving him the choice between submission or abdication. Realizing that the power balance was not in his favor, Faisal chose to cooperate. However, the young minister of war, Youssef al-Azmeh, refused to comply and, during the Franco-Syrian War faced the French at the Battle of Maysaloun. This battle was won by the French under General Mariano Goybet in less than a day and Azmeh died on the battlefield along with most of those who were with him. General Goybet entered Damascus on 24 July 1920.