History of Lebanon

Over history, religious diversity has been a feature of Lebanon. Jews, several Christian sects and Muslims lived there. Although the coastal cities converted to Islam at the advent of this religion, they remained home to Greek Orthodox and Armenians. Ali’s followers –the Shia– settled in the south of Lebanon and in the mountains.

One of the Shia branches that spread in Lebanon and Syria were the Ismailis who migrated from Egypt to Lebanon during the Fatimid dynasty era in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. The Druze -who comprise a main part of the Lebanon social fabric- form a dissident branch from the Ismaili sect, whose roots go back to Egypt as well.

The coastal region of present-day Lebanon largely corresponds to ancient Canaan, which extended from Ugarit (now Ras Shamra) in northern Syria, along the coast and the valley of the river Orontes, down Acre, in Palestine. The cities along that coast, such as Tripoli, Byblos, Beirut, Sidon, and Tyre, now part of Lebanon, were famous Phoenician cities and each independent.

The Mamluks conquered Mount Lebanon and present-day Syria in the 13th century CE. As Sunnis, they were wary of the Christians -especially the Maronites- and the Shia who inhabited those areas. However, the Mamluks enjoyed a good relationship with the Catholic Christians of Venice and allowed the Christian sects to live peacefully in Lebanon.

The Mamluks were defeated by the Ottoman Empire in 1516, paving the way for three centuries of relative harmony between different religious sects.

Tranquility and prosperity prevailed in Mount Lebanon until the 19th century. This mountainous area was a haven for different religious and ethnic minorities that fled persecution and had to coexist one way or another.

After the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was divided between the victorious allied powers, Britain and France. In the Arab provinces of the Empire, Britain took control of present-day Palestine and Israel, Jordan and Iraq. France administered the territory now comprising Syria and Lebanon.

These territories were granted to them as mandates to prepare them for a future independence, but they were divided up along religious and ethnic lines. The former Ottoman province of Mount Lebanon – largely Maronite Christian – was expanded to include Sunni, Shia and Greek Orthodox areas. The French ruled the Republic of Lebanon as a mandate, defined it in communal terms and gave it a constitution whose basic terms still apply.

During the Second World War, Lebanon was at first controlled by the French Vichy regime after the German occupation of France in 1940. Under British pressure, the Free French movement of General de Gaulle was forced to accept full Lebanese independence in 1943.

Independence coincided with a National Pact that balanced communal interests against alliance with the western powers while acknowledging Lebanon’s Arab identity. This proved to be a very hard balance to maintain during the 1950s when the Cold War and Arab nationalism disrupted the political structures of the Middle East. Large numbers of Palestinian refugees sought asylum in Lebanon. It led to a brief civil war in 1958.

The short civil war of 1958 was ended both by US military intervention and the authority of the Lebanese army commander Fuad Shihab. Shihab became president and began a radical campaign to modernise Lebanon and enforce order through strict political discipline. This alienated many of the traditional communal leaders, who gradually undermined Shihab’s campaign, also known as the ‘Nahj’.

That changed when in 1970, Sulayman Franjieh became president and instituted a highly corrupt and incompetent regime. Franjieh was unable to prevent the nationalist leftist alliance, dominated by Sunni Muslims, from resisting the old ruling elite which included Maronite chiefs. At the same time, a radical Shia movement emerged in southern Lebanon. This led to armed clashes that developed into full-blown civil war in 1975.

At the beginning of 1976, there were clashes between Christian and Lebanese nationalist militias, with the latter allied to the growing Palestinian presence in Lebanon. The Lebanese army split, and Beirut was divided. Syrian forces occupied much of the country.

In the south there were clashes between Palestinian guerrillas and the Israeli army. This led to repeated Israeli invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 and several massacres. The Shia movement in the south split and a new organisation, Hezbollah, emerged. During the civil war, people were kidnapped and held hostage. A new tactic of suicide bombing developed.

By the mid-1980s, Lebanon was disintegrating. The constitutional structures, the central bank and the parliament continued to exist on paper. In 1989, the Arab League called a conference in Taif in Saudi Arabia to draw up a settlement plan.

The Taif Agreement drew up a reconciliation plan in which a Lebanese construction mogul with Saudi connections was a principal figure: Rafik Hariri. In 1992, Hariri became prime minister with Saudi and western support. Hariri had influence among the Sunnis and some of the Christian communities.

Hezbollah continued to extend its influence in the south and east of the country. Hariri undertook a major reconstruction campaign in Beirut, but he could not restrain the enmity of right-wing Christian militias and the Palestinian movement. In 1996, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon again. Hariri resigned, and the new government was too weak to deal with Israel.

In 2000, Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon and Hariri returned as prime minister. However, Hariri found it impossible to maintain a balance between the Syrian occupying forces, Maronite militias and Shia fighters. In October 2004 he resigned.

Hariri was assassinated in early 2005 and his son Saad took over the Future Movement, the political organisation his father had created. Demonstrations across Lebanon, known as the Cedar Revolution, forced the Syrian army to withdraw. The political structure split between a Sunni and Maronite modernist wing with a rebuilt army and a Shia and Maronite extremist wing that would not stand down their militias.

In July, after elections, Fuad Siniora became prime minister of a government dominated by the Sunni Future Movement. Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s attacks on Israeli positions on the border led the Israeli army to invade Lebanon again in 2006. There were also clashes between the Lebanese army and islamist Palestinian organisations.

As the government tried to control Hezbollah, there were more violent demonstrations. In 2009, Saad Hariri took the prime ministership just before the Arab rebellions known as the Arab Spring would begin across the Middle East and particularly in Syria.

The Arab Spring rebellions did not directly affect Lebanon, but indirectly they had a deep impact. As the Syrian Assad regime was threatened in its existence by the Sunni insurgents, its Lebanese client, Hezbollah, sent assistance to help fight them in Damascus, Homs and elsewhere.

Syrian refugees, mainly Sunni, fled the fighting and went to Lebanon. This distracted Hezbollah from attacking Israel, turning into an organisation able to exert the power of the Shia community directly while drawing it into the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Lebanese government was unable to cope with the economic collapse of the country and there was a popular rebellion after a huge explosion in Beirut port. Covid undermined the economy.