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Over the past few months, various opinion leaders have insisted that Lebanon is on the way to becoming a failed state.
Something that sincerely surprised me, as various indicators place it in acceptable positions.
However, events in recent decades have caused the country to begin an unprecedented plummet.
Are you interested in knowing its history and the reasons for its possible imminent catastrophe?
Then stick around until the end of the video.
The territory of present-day Lebanon has been quite active since ancient times.
The Egyptians had already documented the city of Byblos,
although it is believed to have been inhabited as early as 5,000 BC,
making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
By the second millennium BC, the region would be inhabited by Canaanites,
a Semitic village of nomadic shepherds widely mentioned in the Bible.
Like several villages in the Levant, Canaan would be subdued by the Egyptians, Israelites, and Assyrians.
From this ethnic group, one of the most important civilizations of antiquity would descend, the remembered Phoenicians.
This town would have founded various city-states such as Berytus, Tripoli, Sidon and Tyre,
the latter coming to consolidate itself as the hegemonic city of the region around the 10th century BC.
The Phoenicians are considered as an important link of cultural and commercial exchange between
the great civilizations of antiquity such as Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Likewise, they left an incredible artistic and cultural legacy embodied in their alphabet,
which the Greek derived, and therefore the Latin that we use today.
Although the Phoenician origin is in Lebanon, its most important state was located in present-day Tunis,
the much remembered Carthage, which came to consolidate a great empire
for the Mediterranean that competed directly with Rome.
As for the Phoenicians of Lebanon, they were subdued by Assyrians, Babylonians,
and finally by the Achaemenid Persians, who conquered the territory around 539 BC. (Cyrus the Great)
During the following centuries, the Lebanese territory was occupied by various states.
The Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, Armenians,
Parthians and finally the Romans, who arrived around the 1st century BC.
In the first instance, Lebanon was part of the Roman province of Syria, which lasted until 198 AD,
to later become the province of Phoenicia
This was divided into Phoenice Paralia and Phoenice Libanensis, alluding to Mount Lebanon,
from which the name of the country derives.
The Roman period is characterized by the introduction of Christianity,
becoming one of the main centers of this religion due to its proximity to the Holy Land.
During the early 5th century, the hermit Maron stood out, who founded the Maronite Church,
one of the 24 sui iuris institutions of the Catholic Church and with 3.5 million followers today.
Since the division of Rome in 395, the Levant region became part of the Byzantine Empire.
The Lebanese territory had a short period of occupation by the Sassanid Persians between 619 and 629.
This would be the prelude to the arrival of an ethnic group that would bring a new faith around 637;
the Arab followers of the prophet with the slogan of expanding Islam.
The Arabs would succeed one another in various caliphates,
who for a change also considered Jerusalem as a holy land,
which is why nearby Lebanon was constantly under Muslim rule.
However, many Christians, especially the Maronites,
settled near Mount Lebanon were able to maintain their religion.
And speaking of faith, during the eleventh century a new religion in force to this day
derived from Shi'ite Islam, Druze, from which many of its followers also settled on Mount.
Yes, Lebanon is an amalgam of religions.
A consequence of this, and again due to its proximity to Jerusalem,
Lebanon would be one of the scenes of the crusades, where Christians set out to recover the Holy Land from Islam.
These began shortly after the arrival of a new empire, the Seljuk Turks also converted to Islam.
The first crusade, which you can see in more detail in this video,
resulted in the creation of various crossover states.
In the case of Lebanon, the territory was part of the County of Tripoli,
founded by the French crusader Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse .
One of the most lasting effects of this period was the contact of French Catholics and the Maronites.
Let’s remember that the latter were the only Catholic Christian community in the East,
where Orthodox Christianity had spread.
This resulted in their constant protection and support even after the fall of the crusader states in the region.
The county of Tripoli was reconquered by the Muslims during the ninth and last crusade.
Here occurs the Siege of Tripoli in 1271,
in which the Mamluks of Egypt achieve the surrender of this and other crusader states.
Although Islam was once again the hegemonic religion, Christians once again found refuge on Mount Lebanon.
The Mamluks would dominate Lebanon until 1516,
when they were expelled by a new and important power in the region:
The Ottoman Empire, at that time under the command of Selim I.
This state had begun its expansion from Anatolia,
managing to spread throughout Western Europe, Levante and North Africa.
The Ottomans were characterized by providing religious freedoms,
always with tax benefits for Muslims above other religions.
However, this allowed the other religious communities to stop being persecuted.
Territorially speaking, Levant, mostly inhabited by Arabs,
was generically called Ottoman Syria with an ambiguous provincial delimitation.
In the case of Lebanese territory, the Ottomans delegated control to an important feudal family:
the Ma’n, of Druze confession.
The territory they controlled was known as the Emirate of Mount Lebanon,
which enjoyed a certain autonomy with respect to the central government.
Of this dynasty stands out Fakhr al-Din II, who was emir of Lebanon from the end of the 16th century.
Fakhreddine brought a period of economic and cultural boom for the emirate,
and he fought for the unity of all the peoples of Mount Lebanon to achieve independence from the Ottoman Empire.
For this reason, the title of the first Lebanese is attributed to him.
Being considered a threat, the Ottomans ordered his execution, which meant the decline of the dynasty.
It lost control of Lebanon in 1697 in favor of the Shihab dynasty,
of Sunni confession, but which gradually became Maronites.
This meant a considerable reduction in the Druze population,
which had been the majority in Mount Lebanon.
In this period, the government of Bashir Shihab II stands out, who would be the only Maronite ruler of the emirate.
This emir would have to face great internal religious conflicts that came to involve foreigners,
especially France, who granted the traditional western support to the Maronites.
In this way, Bashir managed to prevail over the Druze dissent.
In fact, Beirut had become the most important port in the Levant, so economic interests were also present.
After the death of Bashir in 1842, the rule of the Shihab dynasty ended.
The Ottomans then take control directly, founding the Mutasarrifato of Lebanon,
as part of the Valiatus of Beirut.
The new government could not repair the religious conflicts,
which led to a new confrontation in 1860, where the Druze were victorious.
Entering the 20th century, Lebanon was able to resume a new period of stability,
and an eventual peace between religious groups.
However, this would be short-lived, since we are on the eve of the First World War that terribly affected the country.
As the Ottoman Empire was an enemy, the allies blocked the Lebanese ports,
which added to a series of failed harvests generated the great famine of Mount Lebanon (1915 - 1918),
which resulted in the death of 200 thousand people, almost half of the population of that time.
The war culminated in the defeat of the Ottomans and the dismemberment of the remnant of their territory.
Thanks to the intervention of the remembered Lawrence of Arabia,
the Arab countries were able to realize their independence from the tottering Ottoman Empire.
In this sense, the victorious powers, France and the United Kingdom,
put the territory of present-day Israel / Palestine, Lebanon,
Jordan and Syria under joint military administration.
Due to the previous influence of France in Lebanon and Syria,
these became after two years a mandate that was divided into five states.
While four of them would later be unified in present-day Syria, the one that concerns us is Greater Lebanon,
which was based on the territory of the former Ottoman Mutasarrifato of Mount Lebanon,
to which the districts of Tripoli and Sidon of the Valiatus of Beirut were added.
This meant that Lebanon's demographics were altered,
as Sunni and Shiite Muslims were added to the Druze and Maronite population,
who were culturally closer to Damascus.
Yes, as if to add more social differences.
Although on the other hand, the idea of ​​the mandate was to assume leadership over the suffering
Lebanese village and guide them during their recovery to give them independence once they can fend for themselves.
And to tell the truth, Lebanon was able to stabilize during this period and even write its own constitution,
despite gradually becoming a society with internal problems due to the great religious diversity.
With the German invasion of France during WWII,
the Lebanese territory came under the control of Vichy France as a puppet of Nazism in 1940.
This led to the British intervention, who launched a campaign in Syria and Lebanon
after which they regained control of the mandate in 1941.
Shortly afterwards, General Charles de Gaulle visited the area, and after receiving political pressure,
decided to recognize the independence of Lebanon, which was consolidated in 1943, and with a Maronite government in command.
Despite the above, the French troops did not withdraw until 1946.
One of their first actions was to join the Arab League,
which led them to have a minor participation in the wars against Israel in 1948 and 1967.
This represented the reception of more than 400 thousand Palestinian refugees,
which, over time, made Muslims a majority in the country.
The first decades of independent Lebanon were one of great prosperity.
Thanks to its strategic position,
Beirut once again consolidated itself as the financial and commercial center of the region,
coming to be dubbed the Paris of the Middle East.
However, this prosperity was overshadowed by the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.
This was based on the fact that with the now Muslim majority of the country with Palestinian refugees,
the Palestine Liberation Organization began insurgent movements in southern Lebanon since 1968.
These intensified in 1975, with the aim of placing a government Muslim rather than the French-supported Christian Maronite.
Various factions that sought to seize power are being added to this war, such as Hezbollah,
founded in 1985 as a pan-Islamist and anti-Semitic paramilitary group that operates to this day.
It also highlights the Israeli participation in the 1982 Lebanon War,
in which they achieved the expulsion of the Syrian-backed PLO from Lebanese territory.
The war lasted until 1990 with a death toll of almost 150,000.
Peace was negotiated in the Taif agreement,
which granted a 50% representation of Muslims in parliament and the disarmament of all factions except Hezbollah,
who were in charge of expelling the Israelis from the country, after the Israeli-Maronite alliance failed.
Although the expulsion of the PLO was achieved,
Syria continued to occupy Lebanon's territory, increasing its influence.
In 2005, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was murdered by a car bomb,
an act with which public opinion incriminated Syria.
This led to the Cedars Revolution, after which the withdrawal of Syrian forces was achieved
and consolidating the autonomy of Lebanon after several decades of foreign intervention.
In the south, a new conflict occurred between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006,
in which the same government supported the action of the paramilitary group to avoid Israeli influence.
This included some Israeli bombardment of Lebanese territory
and ended in a ceasefire and the mobilization of Lebanese troops to the south as a precautionary measure.
Since then, Lebanon has experienced mild times of prosperity
overshadowed by moments of instability and internal conflict,
such as in 2007 against the radical Islamist group Fatah al-Islam.
With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, new external threats kept the Lebanese on their toes.
Hezbollah for its behalf, actively participated in support of its ally, the Syrian government.
Although the war did not extend to Lebanese territory, the country has received 1.5 million refugees to date,
which, as you can imagine, affected the country since it was not prepared for such an influx.
This aggravated the economic crisis, which added to corruption, high taxes and decades of internal and external conflicts,
have generated widespread social discontent that led to the 2019 protests.
These violent demonstrations led to a political crisis that worsened the economic crisis,
reaching a recession of 5.6% in 2019.
This crisis intensified with the covid pandemic and even more with the recent explosion in August 2020,
which had a balance of almost 200 deaths and damages in the port and surroundings.
Material losses are estimated at between 10 and 15 billion dollars.
This has been classified as negligence by the government that once again
brought Lebanese to the streets in new protests amid the pandemic.
Prior to this, 45% of Lebanese were below the poverty line,
so the forecasts of an imminent catastrophe for the suffering Lebanese people
to become a failed state are not far-fetched.
What do you think?
Do you think that Lebanon has a chance to get ahead
despite all the misadventures it has suffered in recent decades?
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Until next time!!
