French Mandate
| French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon (1923−1946) |
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|---|---|
Front cover of the Mandate document, 1922
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| Created | 1920–1922 |
| Ratified | 1923 |
| Signatories | League of Nations |
| Purpose |
Creation of |
Creation of
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (French: Mandat français pour la Syrie et le Liban; Arabic: الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire concerning Syria and the Lebanon. The mandate system was supposed to differ from colonialism, with the governing country acting as a trustee until the inhabitants would be able to stand on their own. At that point, the mandate would terminate and an independent state would be born.
During the two years that followed the end of the war in 1918 – and in accordance with the Sykes-Picot Agreement signed by Britain and France during the war – the British held control of most of Ottoman Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and the southern part of Ottoman Syria (Palestine and Transjordan), while the French controlled the rest of Ottoman Syria, Lebanon, Alexandretta (Hatay) and other portions of southeastern Turkey. In the early 1920s, British and French control of these territories became formalized by the League of Nations' mandate system, and on 29 September 1923 France was assigned the League of Nations mandate of Syria, which included the territory of present-day Lebanon and Alexandretta in addition to Syria proper.
The administration of the region under the French was carried out through a number of different governments and territories, including the Syrian Federation (1922–24), the State of Syria (1924–30) and the Syrian Republic (1930–1958), as well as smaller states: the State of Greater Lebanon, the Alawite State and Jabal Druze State. Hatay was annexed by Turkey in 1939. The French mandate lasted until 1943, when two independent countries emerged, Syria and Lebanon. French troops completely left Syria and Lebanon in 1946.
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