For many centuries contemporary Lebanon was a province of great Syria. Administered as such for hundreds of years by the Ottoman Empire, Lebanon achieved a small measure of autonomy in the late nineteenth century. After it was awarded a League of Nations Mandate everyplace Syria, France in 1920 carved out an autonomous province, 'le Gran Liban,' (Greater Lebanon) which included for the start-off time capital of Lebanon and other port cities and which had a Maronite Christian majority. According to Cobban, however, "it had long been a basic tenet of Syrian nationalists that Lebanon was an integral part of Syria" (80).
Syria and Lebanon achieved their independence in 1946. Under the 1943 case Pact, Lebanese Christian and Muslim leaders agreed to treat political power. The President of the Republic would be a Christian, the eyeshade Minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the Parliament (National Assembly) a Shi'a Muslim. The Christians would restraint Parliament by a 6-5 margin. Despite common tensions which occasionally erupted into violence, such as in 1958, the Lebanese confessionally-based and antiauthoritarian political system functi adeptd fairly well. The National Pact, however, was based on a 1932 census. By 1970 or so, Muslims were in the majority and began demanding a greater share of power. Meanwhile, Syria, which experienced 13 coups d'etat in its origin 21 years of independence, a politi
Lebanese See Syria." Economist, April 21, 2001, 2.
The period 1977-1982 witnessed a series of events which jeopardized Syria's new influence in Lebanon. Syria supported but could not control the PLO which enmeshed the Syrian armed forces in a series of escalating battles with Israel all of which Syria lost. Meanwhile, the more confrontational Likud government headed by Menachem pay back developed an alliance with Christian Maronite forces in Southern Lebanon.
Syria's kind with the Christians and also with the Druze deteriorated. Syrian agents are believed to have had Kamal Jumblatt assassinated in early 1977 after he challenged Syrian dominance. Syrian efforts to keep the peace between the PLO and Christian Phalange militias in West Beirut and elsewhere failed. The Maronite Christians under new leadership, Bashir Gemayel and his Lebanese Front (LF), desire to expand the territory under its control. The Phalange in 1980-1981 became involved in inconclusive outbreaks of fighting with the Syrian 'peacekeeping' force. Finally, on June 6, 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon, destroyed one third of the Syrian air force in battles over the Bekka Valley and captured Beirut.
The Syrian presence in Lebanon has been further legitimized by a series of bilateral agreements between the two countries, including the may 1991 Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination Agreement and the August 1991 Defense and Security Treaty. Hajjar said "Syrian officials in Lebanon have become the gatekeepers of Lebanese politics as well as much of the country's economy" (7).
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