History of Lebanon

detailed Articles: - chronological History of Lebanon - War of Lebanon The Lebanon is a country located of Raising rich moreover 5000 years of history. This page relates to the history of Lebanon since Antiquity. For information on contemporary Lebanon, consult the following articles: Lebanon - Political of Lebanon - War of Lebanon.

Antiquity

Period: -3000 at the 1st century The area is inhabited since the Antiquité, it is described in Holy the Bible like “ the ground of milk and honey ”. Culture of the mountain and culture of the cities combined to work the Lebanese identity: sociability and tolerance, company spirit and individualism, Hedonism…

Ground of milk and honey of biblical times, Lebanon always attracted the conquerors because of its abundant natural resources, the sheltered ports which mark out the coast and of the defensive possibilities which the high summits offer. All elements which contributed to make history of the country an incredible odyssey.

At the 3rd millenium, with the favor of assiduous contacts with the Mésopotamie, the Syria of North and the Egypt, the coast urbanizes in its turn. Byblos, where this evolution is well attested, is then the oldest known stone city of humanity.

Later with approximately of 1200 av. JC, the Phéniciens, found one of the more big firsts civilizations of the Mediterranean basin which dominates part of the Mediterranean thanks to the company spirit and to the intellectual development emanating from a series of city-States independent. They reign on the sea because of the superiority of their vessels and their talents of navigators, appear exceptional craftsmen and invent the first true alphabet - a remarkable projection which will open the way with large literary works of old Greece.

Phéniciens , Semitic people resulting from the people Cananéen or cannanite hold their name of the Greeks who gave them this name (of the Greek phoinix ), probably indicating them compared to the dyeing of crimson, whose craftsmen phenicians had only the secrecy. A long time in competition with the Greeks then their Punic descendants in competition with the Romans, information which came from to us, is partly skewed by the competitors and compartmental, conveying mystery and sulfurous image. It is important to know that between praises and criticisms, it is necessary to distinguish the jealousies, covetousnesses and competitions of the time.

For the Greeks, who used the first the name of Phénicie, the territory extended on the coastal area ranging between the mount Casius in north and Haïfa in the south. Inside this zone, the cities of Ougarit (Short-nap cloth-Shamra), of Arwad, Byblos (Jbeil), of Béryte (Beirut), of Sidon (Saïda), of Tyr (Sour) and of Akka, constituted the famous cities states. The Phénicie occupied this coastal strip then, between the Lebanese mountain and the sea the Mediterranean. A space varied between harbor sites, small plains as well as a back-country of mountain, where fir trees and cedars push.

Throughout their advance, Phéniciens also settled on the islands, great places strategic on their way of evolution: the first true stopover was based with Cyprus (the island of copper). The excavations evoke a phenician presence at least as of the 9th century. The principal center was Kition but there were other counters with Paphos, Tamassos like in other cities.

After Cyprus, the sailors phenicians ventured in the archipelago of the sea Égée. Homère mentions commercial counters, fulcrums rested by merchants. The Crete, the Eubée and the islands of the Dodécanèse seem to have preserved certain of the traces of this presence at the dawn of the first millenium. During these first Greek exchanges the learned how to use the Alphabet phenician which they adapted thereafter to their own language.

With Malta (Heap Silg), in Sicily (Motyé), in Sardinia (Cagliari, Tharros, Nora), Tunisia (Carthage, Thapsus, Hadrumète) to arrive in Spain (Cadiz, Ibiza) country of metals and richnesses (gold and money). The ships phenicians crossed also the Pillars of Hercules and went until in Brittany and Cornwall to the research of the mines of tin.

Appearance of Christianity

Period: at the 7th century

Appearance of Islam

Period: 7th century until the 19th century

The Islam arrives at the 8th century coming from the Arabic Péninsule: it is conveyed by the Bedouin which undertake multiple successions of religious missions and becomes the prevalent religion of all the peninsula to the Arabian desert. On the basis of there, the Christians of the area gathers in the Libanaises mountain with the former Maronites inhabitants of the area of Phoenicie and Bysance. Indeed, it appears at one time when an incredible cultural lack is felt, it is the period of Arabic ignorance (: Al jahiliyya ) C rather the period which precedes the appearance of Islam, and it was rich poetically and literairement, let us note the 10 poems gild which were exhibes on wall Al Kaaba. and it thus gains Lebanon (at the time jabbal loubnan) at the 8th century especially the Shiites after several religious wars at that time, whereas the sunnites arrived with the invasion of the Othoman empire settling in certain cities of the Libanaise coast bringing back with them the Othomanes practices like Shisha, softnesses and the coffee Turkish. It should be noted that there never had been change within the Christian religion in Lebanon keeping their capacity until our days. Islam was adopted by the various people and local tribes in search of existential philosophies by pushing back the predominance of the Romain empire of the area of Arabia. Whereas in Iraque and Syria, cerains Christian villages kept the language araméenne and their practices until now. Let us specify that on this period, Islam was not imposed but rather respecting the other religious beliefs, as well as the right to each one to lay out as he hears it his freedom of religion.

Appearance of French

It is the Italian language which is established initially in the ports Lebanese, the commercial influence of the republics of Venice and of Genoa being determining between 13th and 17th centuries. However, the capitulations signed between François I {{er}} then its successors and the Sublime Door make of king de France the official guard of the Christians of the East and make it possible the religious missions to develop. The congregations (Jésuites, Capucins, Lazaristes, the Holy Family, the Frères of the Christian Schools, the Maristes, the Filles of Charity) found schools which will allow the establishment of French Lebanon, for the Othoman period.

The French presence will allow, with the creation of Large Lebanon by the Société of the Nations after the First World War (see further), to extend the teaching of French as well in the private one as in the public. French and Arabic are recognized like official languages (1926).

So with independence Arabic is only recognized like official language, French keeps privileged place a as well in reality as in the texts since, for example, the students can study sciences and mathematics in French or Arabic, with the choice. French completely was thus not established out of the colonial framework.

The beginning of the Western influence

Period: 1830 to 1918

1861-1915: The province ( mutasarrifiya ) autonomous of Mount-Lebanon

Following the continuation of the massacres between Druzes and Maronites of 1840 with 1860, which accepted a certain publicity in Europe, the great powers of the time (the France, the Great Britain, the Austria-Hungary, the Russia, the Prussia) sent a task force and obliged the Ottoman Empire to create a province ( mutasarrifiya ) autonomous of the Mount-Lebanon in 1861. It was to be directed by a governor, prone Othoman Christian, under the monitoring of the European consuls. A central advisory counsel, mainly composed of Christians, was also set up on a Community basis proportional. It is for this period of autonomy that the first municipal councils elected in Lebanon were created, in 1879 with Jounieh for example. Between 1880 and 1914 the population growth and the crisis of the Sériciculture caused a very important movement of emigration towards Americas which touched at least the quarter of the population.

work on line over this period: Machine Deniz Akarli, The Long Peace - Lebanon Othoman, 1861-1920, University off California Near, Berkeley - Los Angeles - Oxford, 1993

list Christian Othoman governors of Mount-Lebanon

1861-1868 : Garabet Artin known as " Daoud Pacha" (+-1816-1873) - Armenian catholic of Istanbul - Ambassador in Vienna (1856-1857)/Governor of Lebanon (1861)/Directing of the postal and telecommunications authorities and Public works (1868) *1868-1873: Nasri Free Coussa known as " Free Pacha" (1814-1873) - Syrian Greek-catholic (" Levantine ") of Alep
1873-1883: Rüstem Mariani, known as " Rüstem Pacha" (1810-1885) - Italian catholic (exiled aristocrat)
1883-1892: Pashko Vasa Shkodrani known as " Vasa Pacha" (1824-1892) - Albanian catholic of Shkodër (author of poems - published in posthumous title - preaching the Albanian national unit beyond the religious differences)
1892-1902: Naum Coussa, known as " Naum Pasha" (1846-1911) - son-in-law of Nasri Free Coussa
1902-1907: Ladislas Czaykowski, known as " Muzaffar Pasha" (1837/1840-1907) - of Polish origin
1907-1912: Youssef Coussa, known as " Yusuf Pacha" (1856-?) - wire of Nasri Free Coussa
1912-1915: Ohannès Kouyoumdjian known as " Ohannes Pacha" (1852-?) - Catholic Armenian (author of: Lebanon. And at the beginning the day before the war. Memory of a Governor, 1913-1915, published in 2003)

The constitution of the modern State

Period: 1918-1943

Shortly after the First World War in 1920, the France obtains Société of the Nations a mandate on the Syrian areas of the Raising. The kingdom of Syria is proclaimed, while reserving for the Mount-Lebanon the statute of autonomous region. But gradually, an Arab nationalist movement mobilizes intellectuals of Beirut and Mount-Lebanon who aspire to independence Syria, under the direction of an Arab sovereign, while others, among which the Maronites are majority, think in an independent Lebanese State, protected by his bonds privileged with France.

In 1920, under the pressure of the latter, the French governor, Henri Gouraud demolishes the Syrian nationalists, proclaims the State of Large Lebanon and fixes its borders.

Cleavages made improbable the birth of an entity political Lebanese unified, the more so as each community kept in memory its quite particular version of the history, seldom in agreement with that of the others.

The beginning of independence

The free France grants independence to Lebanon in 1943.

Development and democracy

In 1952, Camille Chamoun reaches the presidency. Its mandate is marked by the lack of respect of the president for national convention. Chamoun reinforces the presidential prerogatives, and in spite of the regional context and national pro-Arabic, it modifies the foreign policy of Lebanon in a direction pro-Westerner, completely neglecting the feelings of Lebanese poor classes. He adheres even to the doctrines Eisenhower of coordination of the anti-Soviet forces to the the Middle East curtly rejected by all the others Arab Pays.

the crisis of 1958 in Lebanon

The regional context of the nations Arab S which are raised and the refusal of the president pro-Westerner Camille Chamoun to break the diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom and France whereas those attack Egypt during the Crise of Suez, pushes the Muslim community to claim with the government a fusion with the United Arab Republic what the Christian community refuses categorically. the pressure goes up. The refugees Palestinians then already prepared to carry out the war and to take Lebanon in the place of Palestine supported by Abdel-Nasser and the Syrian mode; Abdel-Nasser had to arrange the decision of the " Caire" to make arm the Palestinians only with the Lebanese territory. It is about a decision more international than local with as first partner the old Russian mode (the USSR) which had at the time of good relationship with the State of Israel. Bombs and assassinations precede by vast street demonstrations. As from May 1958 bursts a Guérilla in the mountain between loyal supporters and insurgent. In front of this agitation, Chamoun obtains the unloading of 15.000 marine American which ensure the triumph of the counter-revolution carried out by the Christian Kataëb in majority. The mandate of Chamoun saw a cultural and economic rebirth that Lebanon always keeps its trace malgrés the 17 year old war. It was also a rebirth of freedom of expression and the freedom of the press which no Arab country at that time had it against the following chairs Chehab which imposed its dictatorship, buckled freedom of expression and supported the armament of the Palestinians in Lebanon.

As of the end of the mandate of Chamoun in September, the following chair unanimously respected by the Arab dictators nottament the president of Egypt Abdel-Nasser, the general Fouad Chehab is elected, and the opposition imposes the nomination of the leader of the insurrection, Rachid Karamé, at the post of Prime Minister. It was one period of moves back of freedom, one period of mandate known as-soldier.

Chehabism

The new president inaugurates better relations with Nasser, and Lebanon plays full its role of mediator between Arabs, alleviating blow the internal claims of the Moslems and Druzes.

Chehab opens one period of stability during which Lebanese prosperity seemed returned. The economy is in full boom but unfortunately, the growth is marked by an important regional and Community inequality.

The coup d'etat of 1961

In the night of the 30 to the December 31st 1961, the Left social Syrian nationalist directed by Abdallah Saadé and Assaad el Achkar tries a putsch. A score of tanks of the garrison of Tyr join the putschists and try without success an attack on the ministry for defense. The chief of the staff (Youssef Chemayet), the director of the General security (Tawfic Jalbout), the commander of the gendarmerie and the military commander of Beirut are made prisoners. Defendant Fouad Chehab sends the troop and captures the putschists. The hostages will be delivered in the same day.

Rise of the dangers (1966-1975), the Palestinian problem

Starting from the end of the year 1960, the Lebanese political life is sullied with businesses of Corruption generalized of the civils servant, constrained to resign per tens, and the dissensions on the topics of foreign policy and treatment of Palestinian resistance. The leading class undergoes internal conflicts, the stake of this agitation being the division of the positions of being able. The movements are radicalized, and the tension climbs.

The libanists preserving Christians fear for national cohesion, whereas the islamo-palestino-progressists are interdependent of resistance. The militia start to be armed massively, the clan pro-Arabic being supported by the Palestinians, whereas the libanists turn to the Occident. Waves of confrontations start, they oppose the Phalange to the Palestinians, and the phalange with the national movement.

The Palestinian problem

The refugee camps are used indeed of databases and military training, and several hundreds of Fedayin S launch operations Commando against the northern border of Israel, or even of the terrorist activities abroad. In front of the resistance which is organized, Israel awaits Lebanon which it ensures its safety by controlling the activity of the Palestinians on his territory, but the Lebanon is too weak to solve the problem.

After the War the Six Day old and the occupation of the the West Bank and Gaza by Israel in 1967, then especially terrible Jordanian repression against the Palestinian Fedayin S in September 1970 - known under the name of black September -, the Palestinian cause enlise.

The Lebanese army tries in 1969 to take again the control of the camps, but it is too weak. A compromise is found with the signature with the Cairo under the aegis of Nasser, in 1969, of an agreement between Yasser Arafat - ordering PLO - and the commander-in-chief of the army. The Extraterritorialité of the camps of the Fedayin S is recognized. This agreement is held secret, because it is contrary with the full exercise of Lebanese sovereignty.

With the difference in the close Arab States, with the strong capacity, which do not hesitate to deal with the Palestinian problem in a radical way, the presence of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and especially the fight of PLO against Israel become the principal point of dissension between the two large blocks.

To defend oneself against the Fedayin S, the Israeli army launches many operations of reprisals in the South and until Beirut. The Lebanese population undergoes full whip this violence.

The war of Lebanon

Period: 1975-1990

Note: for reasons of legibility, this article offers only one summary of the war of Lebanon. For a more exhaustive description, the reader is encouraged to consult the article on the Guerre of Lebanon

“The two year old war” (1975-1976)

The morning of the April 13rd 1975, of the shootings make a death during the inauguration of a church by Pierre Gemayel. The afternoon, of the machine gunners phalangists attack a bus passing in the same street, and massacre part of its passengers Palestinians. The spiral towards anarchy develops, it is the beginning of the civil war.

1976: The Christian militia besiege and destroy the Palestinian camps of Quarantina and Such el Zaatar. The Palestinian militia besiege and kill the inhabitants of the town of Damour.

The Syrian intervention

In 1976, leaders Maronites claim help and endorse the Syrian intervention.

Thanks to the military intervention and diplomatic of the Arab regional powers, the Lebanese president and the chief of the PLO are convened with Riyadh this same year. They are invited by the Saudi Arabia and the Egypt to recognize the legitimacy of the presence of the Syrian troops in Lebanon, and officialize it by the installation of the Arab Force of dissuasion (FAD).

“Neither war nor peace” (1977-1981)

This military presence blows on embers and locks up the Lebanese one in internal struggles. In 1978, in the South, the Israeli leaders of the Likoud apply the new “preventive strategy” against the Palestinian attacks and multiply the armed incursions. They cause the exodus of 200 000 Lebanese. By withdrawing in July, the Israeli army makes obstacle with the deployment of the temporary Force of the United Nations in Lebanon (FINUL). She entrusts the control of a “safety belt” of ten kilometers of depth to the “armed with free Lebanon”, a fraction of the isolated regular army, to prevent the projection of the Palestinian forces in the extreme South.

Operation “Peace as a Galileo” (June 1982)

June 1982: after an exchange of small attacks with the Palestinians, the Israeli army launches a terrestrial offensive, besieges Beirut - Western and faces the Syrian forces in the Bekaa.

August: election of Béchir Gemayel with the presidency of the republic. The September 14th, it is killed by a bomb placed by a member of the Syrian national socialist party.

16 and September 17th: partisans of Béchir perpetrate a massacre in the camps of Sabra and Chatila.

September 21st: election of Amine Gemayel, brother of Béchir, with the presidency.

The mandate of Amine 1982-1988

It succeeds his brother with the report heading into full Israeli invasion and recalls the multinational force to Beirut.

The the United States offer a financial support for the rebuilding of the administration, the infrastructures and the Armée. An agreement is signed stipulating the end of the state of war and an Israeli withdrawal conditioned by a simultaneous withdrawal of the Palestinian and Syrian forces. Amine Gemayel dissolves the command of the Arab Force of Dissuasion which was used as cover with the Syrian troops, the March 31st 1982.

The government of the president Gemayel opens peace negotiations with Israel which will lead to the Accord of May 17th which will never enter into force. The chief of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, returns to Lebanon with an small group of combatants, and engages in confrontations against the Lebanese one supported by Syria, but it must leave Lebanon in December 1983.

The “war of the mountain” (1983-1984)

Inhabited by Christian Druzes and , the area of the Shouf relatively saved by the war knows a renewal of tension after the Israeli withdrawal. It is the subject of a conflict between PSP Druze and the Lebanese Forces at the end of the summer 1983. Walid Joumblatt gains the victory and forces the inhabitants Chrétiens with the exodus.

Rise to power Shiite

The international forces arrive at Beirut in 1982 in full Israeli invasion and face a hostile climate. In April 1983, an attack against the American embassy kills 63 people and leaves 100 wounded. The October 23rd 1983, of the suicide bombings cause the death of 241 marine and 58 French soldiers. These attacks are asserted by a mysterious organization Shiite, the Islamic Jihad.

The Hezbollah, appeared in 1982 under the instigation of the Iran khomeinist, is shown by the the United States to be responsible for the attacks (what Hezbollah disputes). The organization goes up in power and fights mainly against the Israeli army. Removals of Westerners multiply with Beirut.

January 1986: Elie Hobeika is relieved by Samir Geagea of the head of the Lebanese Forces to have signed a tripartite Agreement considered as favorable to Syria.

1985 - 1988: the party Amal of Nabih Berry, with the support of Damas, tries without success to seize Beirut-West and faces the other parties of the Moslem camp (PSP, the Hezbollah and the Palestinians).

June 1987: the Prime Minister Rachid Karamé, favorable to the Syria, is assassinated.

The removal of American colonel Higgins

February 17th, 1988, American colonel Higgins, commander-in-chief of ONUST ( United Nations for the monitoring of the truce in Palestine ), is removed with the Lebanon by the Hezbollah.

July 28th, 1989, an Israeli commando removes with the South-Lebanon the Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, spiritual leader and soldier of the Hezbollah. He knows holding them and the outcomes of the operations of catches of Western hostages since 1982, which about fifteen are still between the hands of the organization.

July 31st, 1989, the Hezbollah diffuses a film-video of the hanging of American colonel Higgins, but according to sources American the colonel would have been tortured then carried out as of the month of December 1988.

The president George Bush sends emissary to Damas and Beirut near the Shiite dignitaries, and gives the order to two forces Naval Aviation, including/understanding 46 warships, to take out of vice the axis Beirut-Damas-Teheran while positioning in the Eastern Mediterranean and at the entry of the Persian Gulf.

The War of liberation against Syria (1988-1989)

In September 1988, the mandate of Amine Gemayel comes to a end and the Parliament does not manage to meet and elect a new president. Gemayel names its Head of State major, Michel Aoun with the head of a temporary military government. Aoun launches out in a war of liberation against the Syria. The Syria supports the government in place named since 1986 by president Gemayel, more favorable to its policy, directed by Salim El-Hoss.

The Syria forwards by road convoys to its allies to the Lebanon of very many stocks of ammunition of Soviet origin. The Christian militia and the Lebanese Armée under control with the general Aoun also receive government Iraq IEN some sendings of ammunition which manage to bore the blockade.

In July 1989 and August 1989, the troops Shiite and the Syrian occupying army make rain hundreds of thousands of shell and explosives on the Christian zones which shelter more than one million people, but protected well in its shelters, the population undergoes only few losses. From the cellars of the Presidential palace of Baabda, the general Aoun calls the Help! the international community, and on August 15th, 1989, the pope Jean-Paul II denounces the genocide perpetrated in Lebanon and announces his intention to go to Beirut. On its side, the Arab Ligue condemns the Syria firmly but does not plan to intervene directly.

August 19th, 1989, the general Aoun claims with the France an military intervention and Paris dispatches the Porte-avions Foch, two frigates missile launcher, a transport of barges of unloading. The president François Mitterrand speaks about humane force and safeguard . Finally the resistance of the Lebanese Armée is strongest and the general offensive of the Syrians and their Shiite allies is stopped.

The agreement of Taëf (1989)

See the detailed article Agreement of Taëf

The Accord of Taëf was presented like an attempt to restore peace, due to the political efforts of a committee made up of the king Hussein of Jordan, of the king Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and of president Chadli of Algérie. 62 deputies - Christians and Moslems - former joined together Lebanese National Assembly with Taëf, adopt a document devoting in fact the seizure of Syria on Lebanon to which this agreement gives a legal base.

The general Michel Aoun tries to extend his control to the Christian areas controlled by the Lebanese Forces, but the invasion of the Kuwait by the Iraq precipitates its end: the the United States give green light to the Syria in exchange of its support for the Guerre of the Gulf.

The rebuilding

Lebanon under Syrian supervision

Period: 1990 to 2005

The political scene

In 1992, take place the first elections legislative since 1972, in an atmosphere of handling, frustration and boycott of the Christian voters. Rafic Hariri is elected Prime Minister and starts to study the rebuilding of the country. It also tries to restore the balance broken by the Boycott of the elections by the Christians by including more Christians in the government. Syria then dissuades it to be combined with the Christian opposition.

Starting of the rebuilding

The government of Rafic Hariri draws up an economic recovery package and manages to stabilize the Lebanese Livre. Its project envisages to restore the social and economic infrastructure and to erase the after-effects of the war.

The angular stone of this immense operation, for which the needs are evaluated to 10 billion dollars, is the rebuilding of the downtown area of Beirut. The capital is a particularly mobilizing symbol of the restoration of the State and of its sovereignty and Hariri wants to restore its position of turntable of the Arab business.

The plan of rebuilding of the 160 hectares of the downtown area is entrusted to a privately held company called SOLIDERE (Lebanese Company of rebuilding). The plan of the government was to make finance the rebuilding by private investors, Lebanese and Arabic.

The project raises a strong dispute. Rafic Hariri is shown to use its privileged position to obtain an important part of the contracts of BTP and the owners of the buildings of the downtown area are expelled and paid in actions SOLIDERE of a value much lower than their good.

Social consequences of the war

The war led to the collapse of the middle-class and a strong impoverishment of the population. The infrastructures (transport, water distribution networks, of electricity, telephony) were strongly damaged. The engagements have constrained with the exile part of the middle-class, depriving the country of human and financial resources important. Between 100 and 300.000 people died in a country of 3 million and half of inhabitants and approximately 900.000 people were moved.

Lebanon lost its position of economic metropolis of the the Middle East of before 1975, mainly with the profit of Dubai and the countries of the Gulf.

Lebanon since 1990

Modern history

1990 : Following the Agreement of Taef, violences of the war end. With the fall of the general Michel Aoun after a syro-Lebanese offensive the October 13rd 1990, the war takes officially fine. It will have made 150 000 died and of the hundreds of thousands of casualties, of exiled and of moved. The Syrian mode, with the tacit agreement of the international community, installs a mode with its service by appointing presidents, ministers, deputies and civils servant according to its interests. The debt of the country grows hollow mainly because of the plundering organized by the occupant. Any opposition is repressed and freedoms are removed. A police and authoritative mode develops under the mandate of the current president Emile Lahoud.

2000 : The Israeli Occupying army withdraws south of Lebanon that Israel occupies since 1978. The Hezbollah is posed then like the liberator of this area. Hezbollah thus seems the first political clout in Lebanon.

2004 : The Résolution 1559 of the Safety advice of UNO requires, inter alia, of the Syria to withdraw its forces of Lebanon. She also asks that be put an end to the military activities of the militia of Hezbollah and claims the deployment of the Lebanese Armée on the unit with the international border with Israel.

2005 : The former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is killed in an attack with the truck trapped the February 14th. The deputy and former minister Bassel Fleyhane, very seriously wounded in the attack, die the April 18th. Part of Lebanese and the majority of the foreign diplomats denounce the implication of the Syria in this attack, but neither the France, nor the the United States explicitly blame Syria. In the streets of the capital Beirut, the Lebanese one express against the Syrian presence. The movement is variously followed in the country but the demonstrators, primarily sunnites, Christian Druzes and , supported by the Western countries, know that Syria cannot employ the strong manner without exposing itself to military or economic measurements of the European Union or of the United States.

the February 28th, the Prime Minister pro-Syrian Omar Karamé gives her resignation to the National Assembly.
the March 8th, the parties Shiite pro-Syrians of the Amal and Hezbollah organize a counter-demonstration which gathers hundreds of thousands of people. Omar Karamé is again designated Prime Minister and the crisis continues. The Syrian forces are withdrawn slowly from Lebanon.
the March 13rd, more than 200.000 (300 000 according to the organizers) people gather in the town of Nabatiyé (to 75 km in the south of Beirut) to denounce the Western foreign interferences and to protest against the resolution 1559.
the March 14th, the Lebanese opposition, refusing the Syrian occupation and the mode pro-Syrian in place in Beirut, gathers a million demonstrators. Crowd claims, on the place of the Martyrs, the truth on the assassination of Rafic Hariri, the departure of the Syrian presence and that of the Karamé government. The general Michel Aoun, who had declared in 1989 a war of liberation against the Syrian invader, announces his return after 15 years of an exile forced in France.
the March 15th, Syria after having declared with UNO its intention to withdraw the whole of its forces and personnel of information of Lebanon, before the Lebanese legislative elections in front of being held in May, starts to proceed to noticed folds.
the March 18th, an car bomb attack touches the northern suburbs of Beirut without making victim.
the March 21st, a new attack takes place in full heart of the Christian area of the Kesrouan making 2 died and 3 wounded.
the March 24th, the mission of UNO carried out by Sean Fitzgerald shows the security services libano-Syrians to have made up the scene of the crime and created a favorable climate with the murder of Hariri. However, the mission does not show the governments Lebanese and Syrian to be responsible for the attack.
the April 13rd, the Prime Minister Omar Karamé resigns again, leaving with the passage the camp pro-Syrian.
the April 14th, Najib Mikati is indicated Prime Minister of a transition government charged to organize new elections. Member of the faction pro-Syrian woman, it is however accepted by the opposition and seems to be a valid compromise between the two factions.
the April 26th, the Syrian armed forces seem to be withdrawn of Lebanon according to a first inspection of UNO. It reserves its position concerning the Syrian intelligence services for which a more thorough inspection is necessary. The United States and UNO do not believe in the evacuation of the Syrian intelligence services and announce additional missions of inspections. They in addition denounce the existence of a black list drawn up by Syria against opponents Lebanese.
the May 7th, the general Aoun returns from France.
Of the May 29th to the June 19th takes place the legislative elections. The coalition anti-Syrian woman carried out by Saad Hariri, the son of assassinated the Prime Minister, gains 72 of the 128 seats.
the June 2nd, an car bomb attack kills the journalist Samir Kassir, leader-writer of the newspaper An Nahar, in Beirut (Achrafieh). Cofounder of the Left the democratic left, it gives an opinion with many recoveries against the activities of Syria in Lebanon and publicly denounces the direct threats on behalf of Syrian agents. The United States requires of UNO to carry out an international survey. Agents of FBI and secret services French are dispatched on the spot.
the June 21st, the former general secretary of the Lebanese Communist party (PCL) Georges Hawi is in his turn killed in an car bomb attack in the center of Beirut (Wata Moussaytbeh). As of the death of Haoui known, the general secretary of the PCL, Khaled Hadada, point immediately of the finger agents related to Syria within the intelligence services Lebanese.
the July 12th, the Minister for defense Élias Murr is wounded in an car bomb attack in the North-East of Beirut.
the August 30th, the German public prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, elected by UNO to inquire into the murder of Hariri, makes stop 4 generals pro-Syrians suspectés to have prepared and have facilitated the crime. Occupying of the key positions of the security services under the Syrian occupation, they had methodically put at the step any opposition to the mode of Damas. They had resigned following the pressures of the street.
the September 25th, May Chidiac, journalist of television LBC and partisane of the Lebanese Forces, is seriously wounded in an car bomb attack with Jounieh. It is amputated by the hand and the left leg.
the October 20th, Detlev Mehlis submits his report to the General secretary of UNO Kofi Annan. He concludes with a nearly certain implication from the intelligence services Syrian and Lebanese. Syria and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, blamed in the report/ratio, vigorously contradict any implication in the assassination.
the December 12th, the Christian deputy Gébrane Tuéni, director of the newspaper An Nahar, is killed in the explosion of a car bomb in Beirut (Mkallès). The attack does 3 others dead. His/her father Ghassan replaces it like deputy the January 21st 2006.

the February 5th 2006, of the demonstrators against the publication of the caricatures of Mahomet in a Danish newspaper, attack violently with the cars, the stores and the houses in the Christian quarters of Achrafiyeh, where the consulate of Denmark is, which, however, will remain unscathed.

the February 6th, after several months of negotiations, the general Michel Aoun and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, respectively representing the Free patriotic current and Hezbollah sign a national document of agreement of 10 points relating to the future of Lebanon directly. A summary of this document is available to the address. The principal points of this document of agreement are currently included in all the agreements of the Lebanese national dialog always in progress.
the July 7th, the former president of the Republic Elias Hrawi, pro-Syrian, is deceased continuations of a cancer of the kidneys. It is buried in its birthplace with Zahlé.
the July 12th, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah at the border with Israel, violent one engagements burst between the two parts. The Prime Minister for the Hebrew State, Ehud Olmert makes the government Lebanese responsible for the degradation of the situation. For him, it is a Casus belli . Israel does not declare however officially the war in the Lebanese State… because the peace signed forever since the first Israeli-Arab war of 1948. Lebanon and Israel signed a cease-fire
the July 13rd, the airport of Beirut and various strategic points (bridges, roads, ports, airports, military bases…) are bombarded by the Israeli army, causing heavy damage with a Lebanese economy already surendettée by the expenses of rebuilding engaged since the end of civil war.
the July 30th, an Israeli bombardment on a building of 3 floors with Cana which, according to the Israeli army, was a launching base of Katioucha missiles causes the death from 28 to 57 people. One counts 16 to 33 children among the victims (according to the first-aid workers Lebanese and ONG).
the November 21st, the Minister of Industry, Pierre Gemayel, is assassinated on board its vehicle in the surroundings of Jdeideh, in the suburbs of Beirut. The minister was the son of Amine Gemayel, former President of the Lebanese Republic.
on February 1st, the Lebanese opposition, mainly made up of the Hezbollah party, the Amal movement and the Free patriotic current organizes a sit-in with the downtown area of Beirut, vis-a-vis the " Large Sérail" , seat of the government of Fouad Siniora (resulting from the " forces of March 14th "), they ask for the constitution of a government of national union.

on June 13rd, 2007, the deputy Walid Eido, member of the majority, and his/her son, is assassinated in an car bomb attack.
on September 2nd, 2007 after three months of bloody combat in the camp of Nahr-El-Bared in the north of the country the Lebanese Armée crushes the Fatah Al Islam (a terrorist group) and takes the camp in the jubilation of the Lebanese people. The Lebanese army kills 222 terrorists thus and captures 202 of them. What makes of it the 1st army of the world has to fight and beat the warlike Islamisme. This battle brings closer the entire Lebanese people and the army arises stronger politically in spite of the 163 soldiers martyrs lost during this battle.
on September 19th, 2007 Antoine Ghanem, deputy and member of the majority, dies, like several other people, during the explosion of a car bomb with Sin el-Wire, in the suburbs is of Beirut. The majority thus does not have in theory more but of 68 deputies among the 128 seats of the National Assembly. It would thus be enough in theory that 4 ways miss with the call so that there is no more absolute majority with the presidential elections.

See too

Political Lebanon
of Lebanon
History
National histories

External bond

the United States and Lebanon (1957 - 1961): Reflection on an American diplomacy in the Arab world

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