The history of the Syria is marked by its exceptional situation. It is a territory of transition to the crossroads from several worlds: the the Mediterranean, the Mésopotamie, the Persian , the India, the minor Asia, grounds of the the Caucasus, and the Egypt. Syria was crossed by the most important shopping streets, between Europe, China (Silk route) and India.

The man of the Syrian ground perhaps discovered, for the first time of the history of humanity, with Abu Huraira, art to cultivate, associate the water and the grain of corn, to multiply ears. Thanks to this discovery the first man started to fix himself, to leave the caves, to build houses, to become aware of his being, to call upon the sky with the first mythological and religious incantations, to test itself with the drawing, the sculpture and decoration.

It is also in Syria, that the man discovered how to use the copper, how to work it and carry out an alloy of it: bronze. As of the OJ the Syrians built palates, created frescos, and made cultural and commercial great strides remarkable. And it is in this country that was born also the alphabet (site of Ugarit, close to Lattakié).

Syria had a big part in the history of Christianity and its debates. Through its roads the pilgrims passed towards the great religious centers, the cross and the caravans of silk and spices.

The inhabitants of the many small kingdoms which developed in Syria, went down from Arab tribes come, since the first times, of the south of the Arabic Peninsula, and which are known under the name of Amorrites, of Cananéens, of Phéniciens (coastal area), of Araméens (highlands) of Ghassanides and Nabatéens (in the south).

Dominations in Syria

Syria of antiquity extended on a territory much vaster than the current Syrian territory and was thus a battle field between the large close people. Syria undergoes several dominations thus:

  • Egyptian with,
  • the Hittites with,
  • Hebrew of with,
  • Assyrian of eighth century BC at the seventh century BC,
  • Persian starting from 539 av. J. - C.,
  • the Greek after the conquest of Alexandre Large the in 334 av. J. - C.,
  • Roman after the conquest of Pumped in 64 av. J. - C. which made of it a province of their empire,
  • Byzantine ,
  • Arab after 639, which, favorably accommodated, made Damas the heart of the empire of the Omeyyades,
  • the Abbassides starting from 750, which forsook Damas for Baghdad, and Syria amorça a long decline,
  • the Croisés, as from the 11th Mongolian century
  • the which ruined the country,
  • the Othoman at the beginning of the 16th century, which attached to it their empire,
  • the French which established a protectorate between 1920 and 1946,

Chronology of civilizations and political regimes

  • Kébariens : -17000 to -12000 before J. - C.

  • Natoufien S: -10000 to -8000 before J. - C.
  • Neolithic précéramique: -8000 to -7000 before J. - C.
  • Neolithic ceramics: -7000 to -6000 before J. - C.
  • Culture of Halaf: -6000 to -4500 before J. - C.
  • Culture of Obeïd: -4500 to -3500 before J. - C.
  • Period of Uruk: -3700 to -2900 before J. - C.
  • Husband, period sumérienne: -2900 to -2600 before J. - C.
  • local Husband, kings: -2600 to -2350 before J. - C.
  • Eblaïtes: -2400 to -1850 before J. - C.
  • Akkadiens: -2300 to -2050 before J. - C.
  • Babylonian: -2000 with -539 before J. - C.
  • Cananéens of the interior: -1900 with -538 before J. - C.
  • Cananéens of the sea: -1900 with -64 before J. - C.
  • Assyrian: -1700 with -1276 before J. - C.
  • Hittites: -1600 with -1190 before J. - C.
    • In 1287 av. J. - C., Battle of Qadesh between Hittites and Egyptians for the control of Syria.
  • People of the sea: -1200 with -732 before J. - C. devastate the littoral.
  • Araméens : -1200 with -732 before J. - C. which establish small principalities of the valley of Oronte to that of Euphrate.
    • About the year 1000 av. J. - C., the kingdom of Damas is founded and will remain a long time independent, and to have a great radiation.
    • the armies Assyrie of Teglath-Phalasar III (744 - 727 av. J. - C.), after having taken Damas in 732 av. J. - C., occupy all the area, put the hand on the small principalities, and drive out Araméens which had been established on the throne of Babylon.
  • Chaldéens : -612 with -561 before J. - C.
    • Nabuchodonosor II (605 - 562 av. J. - C.), of Xe dynasty of Babylon, is established on the remainders of the Assyrian power, and extends her capacity to Jerusalem. It makes its language, the araméen, the idiom of all the people under his domination.
  • Palmyréens : -600 before J. - C. with 272 after J. - C.
  • Persian: -538 with -333 before J. - C.
    • In 539 av. J. - C., Cyrus Large the is accommodated as a liberator by the Syrian people under the Babylonian yoke, it devastates the empire chaldéen, and Syria passes administration of the satraps of the Large Kings during two centuries.
  • hellenistic Period: -333 with 64 before J. - C.
    • Alexandre Large the appendix Syria with its empire in (333 - 332 av. J. - C.). After the death of the large conqueror, the capacity falls to Séleucos Ier Nikator, one of its generals who founds the dynasty of the Séleucides and Greek civilization will be diffused in the country. this king will create new cities like Antioche, of which it makes his capital, Laodicée (Lattaquié) and Doura Europos.
    • Under the Greek domination, Syria knows a great period of economic prosperity and cultural.
    • In 312 before J. - C., the territory takes the name of kingdom of Syria.
  • Nabatéens : -169 before J. - C. with 106 after J. - C.
  • Roman Period: -64 before J. - C. with 330 after J. - C.
    • Pumped come in the East to overcome the Parthes makes the conquest of Syria, which becomes a Roman province in 64 av. J. - C.
    • Under the domination Roman, Syria coninue to know a great period of economic prosperity and cultural.
    • of 266 with 272, Zénobie, queen of Palmyre, tries to release its country of the Roman yoke, it that point reaches, but is finally overcome by Aurélien, in 272, and is taken along to Rome to decorate the triumph of its winner.
  • Ghassanides : 100 with 635
  • Byzantine: 330 with 635
    • After the divison of the Roman empire, Syria is attached to the Byzantine empire in 395. It continues to know economic prosperity, but it is crossed by the theological debates which proceed in the Church of Antioche, and becomes the compost of Hérésie S like the Nestorianisme and the Monophysisme.
  • Sassanides : 540 with 635
  • Omeyyades: 661 with 750 Abbasid
  • : 750 with 1258
  • Fatimides: 968 with 1075
  • Seldjoukides: 1075 with 1174
  • Cross: 1096 with 1187
  • Ayyoubides: 1174 with 1259
  • Mamelukes: 1255 with 1259
  • Othoman: 1516 with 1918
  • Great Arab revolution: 1918 with 1920
  • French Mandate in Syria: 1920 with 1943
  • Syrian Arab Republic: since the April 17th 1946.

History of modern Syria

Othoman Syria

Othoman since 1516, the beginning of the rebirth of modern Syria can be the years 1832 with 1840, at the time which Mehemet Ali tried to shake the yoke of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1840, takes place the Affaire of Damas against the Jewish populations following the disappearance of a monk capuchin.

In 1860, the events of the Lebanon Mount and Damas involve the sending of a task force by the European powers. In 1861, this military intervention have for consequence the autonomy of Lebanon with respect to Damas.

As of 1860, the opening towards the Occident involved a cultural revival and the awakening of an identity and the development of a Arab Nationalisme.

Seeking supports during the First World War, the Britannique S promised the independence of the country in the event of victory over the Ottoman Empire. However, on May 16th 1916, the the United Kingdom and the France concluded from the secret agreements, the Sykes-Barb agreements, by which they divided the Arab grounds under Othoman domination. This agreement results from a long exchange of letters between Paul Cambon, Ambassadeur of France with London, and Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State to the Foreign Office. Thereafter, a top secret agreement was concluded with Downing Street between Sir Mark Sykes for the the United Kingdom and François Georges-Barb for the France bearing on the division from the space ranging between the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Caspian Sea (Accord Sykes-Barb).

British and Arabs took part in the catch of Damas in 1918. The following year, the British forces withdrew zone, yielding its control to the French troops. In 1920, the Company of the Nations (SDN) entrusted to France a mandate on Syria and Lebanon, which was quickly to succeed, at least in theory, with the independence of the two territories. However, the Syrian nationalists, organized since the end of the 19th century, hoped for the creation of independent Syria, including Palestine and Lebanon. In March 1920, the Syrian National congress (elected in 1919) refused the French mandate and proclaimed the independence of the country unilaterally. This one became a constitutional monarchy directed by the son of Hussein, the prince Fayçal.

Nevertheless, in April 1920, the conference of San Remo confirmed the Accords Sykes-Barb, which legitimated the French military intervention: the troops of the general Gouraud entered to Damas in July. Fayçal, constrained with the exile, found then refuge in Iraq, where it will be crowned in 1921. It was then the collapse of the “Arab great project” which was to gather around Damas the Arab grounds formerly placed under Othoman control.

The French Mandate

Whereas it had been hostile towards the Turks, the Syrian population developed a feeling quickly antifrançais.

The French mandate on Syria was organized in a “Grand Lebanon” composed of four provinces: the Sandjak S of Damas and Alep, the State Alaouite (1920), and the State of the djebel Druze (1921), to which was added, in March 1923, the Sandjak d' Alexandrette (in north) detached of Alep and partly populated Turkish minority. The same year, the Gouraud general created the Syrian Federation, which gathered Damas, Alep and the State alaouite, without Djebel Druze, nor Alexandrette. In 1924, the State alaouite was also separate. Of 1925 with 1927, Djebel Druze entered in state of insurrection, directed by the sultan Pasha-El-Atrache. The general Sarrail was charged there to restore the order.

Supported by France, the Maronite S profited in 1926, of the creation of the Lebanese République instead of the “Grand Lebanon”.

Knowing the end of the close mandate, the Turkey indicated as of 1936 that it would not accept that the Turkish minority of the Sandjak d' Alexandrette passes under Syrian authority. To spare the Turkey in the event of war with the Germany and to protect its interests in the area, France yielded the Sandjak d' Alexandrette which became the province of Hatay.

Always attached to France, Syria passed under control of the Vichy government in June 1940. In 1941, the Free French Army and the Britannique S drove out the general Dentz, High-Commissioner of Raising. The general Catroux, in the name of free France, recognized officially the independence of Syria, but the Franco-British troops remained on the Syrian ground. In May 1945, to repress the movement independandist, de Gaulle sends troops and gives the order to French aviation to bombard Damas on May 29th. But the British oppose these operations. The French withdrew completely Lebanon and of Syria only in 1946. This same year, Syria became member of the United Nations.

The independent Republic

Become independent, the country took share with the first war against the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The undergone defeat generated political instability and long series of military coups d'etat, supplied with the opposition between a faction pro-Iraqi of the army and another faction pro-Egyptian woman, which imposed the union with Egypt of Nasser between 1958 and 1961 (R.A.U.: Unified Arab republic).

This attempt at community of the Arab States failed and the conservatives took again the capacity until the coup d'etat of 1963, from which the Parti Baath Syrien made sure the government of the country, while adapting to the political evolutions.

Thus a first moderate government “ ” was reversed in 1966 by a faction of the Parti Baath pro Soviet and extremist, who involved the country in a disastrous war against Israel in 1967, the Guerre the Six Day old. The defeat left the free field to the general Hafez el-Assad who seized the power in November 1970 and drove out the extremists. It reached the presidency of the Republic in March 1971.

The progressive liberalization of the economy was committed, while the new mode, devoted by the Constitution of 1973, tried to break the diplomatic insulation of the country. But in 1973, a new war against Israel - the War of Kippour - and the conquest and the control of the solid mass of the Golan by the Israelis plunged Syria in new political and financial difficulties, worsened by the intervention in the Lebanese civil war starting from 1975.

In 1974, tensions appeared between Syria and the Iraq following the construction of the Barrage of Tabqa on the Euphrate and with the reproaches made in Syria on its military strategy in the Guerre of Kippour. Very quickly, the conflict degenerated and of the troops were massed close to the borders. A Soviet mediation and Saoudi prevented the war in 1975. The relations between Syria and the Iraq remained however execrable.

In the Years 1980, the Syrian government signed a treaty of friendship with the the USSR, supported the Iran at the time of its conflict against the Iraq and underwent a strong opposition of the integrist movements of Moslems. Because of positioning pro-Soviet of the president Hafez el-Assad and its health issues, the E. - U. and the France believed, at that time, in a possible alternative with the younger brother of Hafez, Rifaat el-Assad, itself vice-president of the Republic and owner of the “Brigades of Defense”, judged pro-Westerner. He since fell in disgrace and often lives in France.

In 1985, Syria obtained the Israeli withdrawal of most of the Lebanon. In February 1987, it dispatched 7000 men in reinforcement in the Moslem sector of Beirut to restore the order, and operated the reunification of the Lebanese capital. The Agreements of Taef, in 1989, devoted the exerted supervision in fact by Syria to the Lebanon. In May 1991, the Syrian government and the Lebanese government signed a treaty of friendship and co-operation specifying that their two countries belonged to the “same nation”. The Syrian military presence continued with the Lebanon.

On the internal plan, Syria has to face the consequences of its regional policy and international. In 1980 - 1982, the country was the place of multiple confrontations between the Muslim brothers which wanted to found an Islamic political regime and the forces of the mode of Hafez el-Assad. In 1982, this last had been able to crush the insurrection of the Muslim brothers in the town of Hama. One regretted then of the thousands of the victims, in particular civil. Thereafter the mode became stable, but with the detriment of economic development and social. Indeed, the Assad general manages the country with members of his family and close relations of the army and Parti Baath and corruption is currency.

The declared alliance of the Syrian mode with the Western camp against Saddam Hussein was worth an exit " to him; honorable" insulation on the international scene. Thanks to this alliance, Hafez el-Assad could guarantee the seizure on the Lebanon (neuralisation of the revolt of Michel Aoun in 1991), the consolidation of its mode, and even the insurance of its own succession by his/her oldest son Bassel el-Assad. Irony of fate, this one found death in 1994 at the time of an car accident on the road of the airport of Damas. One then needed whereas the old general prepares his second wire Bachar, ophthalmologist in formation for London, for the accession with the capacity.

In July 2000, after the death of his/her father, Bachar el-Assad reaches the presidency as envisaged. The observers noticed whereas a political wind of freedom started to blow on the country. Vain hope. The hurdy-gurdy keeps, represented in particular by the sedentary apparatus of the clan Alaouite (of obedience Chiite) and some politicians, like the vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam and the Foreign Minister Farouk el-Shr' E, exerted considerable pressures on the young president to put an end to this freedom. The spring of Damas, says one, lasted only 8 months. The peaceful opponents were put in prison. And the hope of the people to find his freedom was destroyed.

After the Attacks of September 11th, 2001, the American policy changed orientation, while starting with the war against the mode of the Talibans in Afghanistan. But the American occupation of the Iraq constituted the most serious threat for the Syria. This one has to face the American charges concerning its assistance with the Iraqi insurrectionists. But nothing changed the vision of the White House. Syria is now in the collimator of the the United States. With the beginning of the war in Iraq the country must face a vague d immigration come d´Irak.

The February 14th 2005, Lebanese the Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated at the time of an attack. Syria is designated as the instigator of this assassination. Once more, the mode of Bachar el-Assad was to face the international pressures: stop of the relations with the the United States, refroidissemnt important with the France, deceleration of the relationship with the Saudi Arabia and the remainder of the Arab countries. The Syrian forces have to leave Lebanon one month after this attack. A board of inquiry of UNO was formed under the presidency of German judge Mehlis. The report/ratio of this last could not, according to the observers, to present indisputable peuves showing the implication of Syrie : two witnesses introduced by Lebanese justice proved noncredible. The year 2005 was the most difficult year for the Syrian mode which must from now on return account to the international community of its Lebanese policy. Lastly, in December 2005, the vice Syrian president Abdel Halim Khaddam stated with the press his convictions of the implication of the mode of Damas in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a mode whose Khaddam was one of the pillars during 40 years.

Famous Syrians

Old cities and colonies

See too

Internal bonds

External bond

  • the forgotten villages of Syria of North by Georges Touches, Professor at the university of Versailles-Saint-Quentin in Yvelines.

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