Army of the Levant

The Army of the Levant (Armée du Levant) identifies the armed forces of France and then Vichy France which occupied, and were in part recruited from, a portion of the "Levant" during the interwar period and early World War II.

In September 1919, Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau entered an agreement to replace the British troops occupying Cilicia by a French force.

First elements of this new army came from the former 156ème division d’infanterie of the Allied Army of the Orient, under general Julien Dufieux command. This division de Cilicie included a metropolitan regiment, the 412ème régiment d'infanterie, a colonial régiment, the 17ème régiment de tirailleurs sénégalais, a French Armenian Legion regiment and the 18ème régiment de tirailleurs algériens. In 1920 this division became the first of four divisions du Levant.

In 1920, the French were given a mandate over Syria and Lebanon by the League of Nations. During this period Syria was known as the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon was known as the French Mandate of Lebanon.

From 19 April to 26 April 1920 the San Remo Conference was held in Sanremo, Italy. After this conference was concluded, the short-lived monarchy of King Faisal's was defeated at the Battle of Maysalun by French troops under the command of General Mariano Goybet, during the Franco-Syrian War. The French army under General Henri Gouraud then occupied the Mandate of Syria and the Mandate of Lebanon.

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