Règlement Organique (Mount Lebanon)

The Règlement Organique ("Organic Regulation") was a series of international conventions, between 1860 and 1864, between the Ottoman Empire and the European Powers, which led to the creation of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.

The 1860 Lebanon conflict led France to intervene and stop the massacre after Ottoman troops had been aiding Islamic forces by either direct support or by disarming Christian forces. France, led by Napoleon III, recalled its ancient role as protector of Christians in the Ottoman Empire which was established in a treaty in 1523. Following the massacre and an international outcry, the Ottoman Empire agreed on 3 August 1860 to the dispatch of up to 12,000 European soldiers to reestablish order. The region of Syria was then part of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement was further formalized in a convention on 5 September 1860 with Austria, Great Britain, France, Prussia and Russia. France was to supply half of that number, and other countries were to send supplementary forces as needed. The agreement was signed in Paris on 5 September 1860.

An important consequence of the French expedition was the establishment of the autonomy of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate from Syria, with the nomination by the Sultan of an Armenian Christian Governor from Constantinople named Daud Pasha on 9 June 1861. On the same day, through a further agreement, termed the Beyoglu Protocol, signed between the Ottoman Empire and the European Powers in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, gave that agreement international recognition. The protocol was introduced initially for a period of three years.

In September 1864, a further convention was signed, which confirmed the permanent character of the statute and made minor changes to it. An additional Maronite district was formed and the council under the governor was reorganised (it now had twelve members-four Maronites, three Druzes, three Greek Orthodoxes and Greek Uniates, one Sunnite and one Shi’a). The Règlement Organique of Lebanon remained in that form up till 1914.

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