Khalil Zgaib, Untitled, 1958 © Khalil Zgaib, courtesy: Saleh Barkat Collection / Agial Art Gallery
A Timeline of Historical Events
Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility
1860
Arrival of French Troops in Greater Syria
In 1860, French Troops landed to quell so-called religious massacres between the Christians and the Druze. This led to the founding of the Mount Lebanon district and ultimately to the entrenchment of new sectarian laws.
1914
Outbreak of World War I
The outbreak of World War I resulted in what is known as the “Great Famine of Mount Lebanon” (1915–1918), a period of mass starvation. It led to a high number of deaths and a major wave of emigration with almost 30 % of the population leaving the country, notably to North and South American countries.
1915–1919
An Influx of War Survivors
War survivors from various parts of the collapsing Ottoman Empire arrived in the Mount Lebanon district. Several ghettos and camps were created, developing into concentrated communities of ethnic refugees.
1916
The Sykes-Picot Agreement
France and the United Kingdom signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret treaty to define – and eventually partition – the territories of the Ottoman Empire within their exclusive spheres of influence.
1920
Proclamation of the State of Greater Lebanon
The French General Henri Gouraud proclaimed the establishment of the Lebanese state under the mandate system.
1923
French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon
With the end of World War I in 1918, the League of Nations (the historical antecedent to the United Nations) formalised the mandate system, which entailed the administration of former German colonies and provinces of the Ottoman Empire by member countries of the League on its behalf.
1943
Lebanese Independence
Lebanon declared its independence from the French after 23 years of mandate rule.
1948
The First Arab-Israeli War
The state of Israel was declared amid a war fought in the territory of Palestine under the British mandate. In Israel it is known as the “War of Independence from the British”. To Palestinians, it is the “Nakba” (the disaster), or the event which led to a mass exodus of Palestinians, many of whom settled in refugee camps in the suburbs of Beirut.
1952
The Egyptian Revolution
The Egyptian monarch King Farouk was overthrown in a coup d’état by the Free Officers Movement led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, the latter of whom soon became the socialist president of Egypt. Rich cosmopolitan families sought to smuggle their wealth out of Egypt and relocated to Lebanon.
1954–1962
The Algerian War of Independence / The Algerian Revolution
The Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) fought against France in this decolonisation war and eventually won its independence from the colonial power.
1956
The Second Arab-Israeli War / The Suez Crisis
Israel, the United Kingdom and France invaded Egypt in efforts to remove President Gamal Abdel Nasser who had nationalised the foreign-owned Suez Canal Company that administered the canal.
1958
The Iraqi coup d’état / 14 July Revolution
A group of pan-Arab nationalists known as the “Free Officers” toppled the Hashemite monarchical dynasty in Iraq that had been established by King Faisal I of Jordan under the auspices of the British. The coup led to the founding of the Republic of Iraq.
1958
The Lebanon Crisis
In July, US marines took control of the airport and the Port of Beirut. This military campaign, named Operation Blue Bat, was aimed at protecting the pro-Western government of President Camille Chamoun against the rising threats of communism from Iraq and Syria under the Eisenhower Doctrine and the founding of the United Arab Republic by Syria and Egypt. The US troops withdrew in October after Chamoun was replaced by President Fouad Chehab..
1963
The Syrian coup d’état
The military committee of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, which included Hafez al-Assad, seized power in Syria. The coup was informed by ideologies of pan-Arab nationalism, pan-Islamism and Greater Syrianism.
1967
The Third Arab-Israeli War / The Six-Day War
From 5 to 10 June 1967, Arab military and paramilitary groups were defeated by the state of Israel, which resulted in the annexation of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser resigned following the defeat.
1973
The Fourth Arab-Israeli War / Yom Kippur War / Ramadan War
Egypt and Syria led a coalition of Arab states in an armed conflict against Israel in an attempt to regain control over the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula.
1975
The Lebanese Civil War
After decades of political tensions among sectarian groups, the war erupted with armed clashes between the Christian nationalist Phalangists and Palestinian Liberation Organization guerrillas, leading to the so-called “Beirut Bus Massacre”. Many armed conflicts and massacres followed in the multifaceted 15-year-long civil war, which also saw the Syrian intervention in 1976 into the war and the Israeli occupation of the South of Lebanon in 1982.
1979
The Islamic Revolution in Iran
The reign of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, long-backed by American foreign interests, was toppled by a coup of the religious mullahs leading to a new alignment of political powers and sectarian alliances in the region.
1989
The Ta’if Agreement
The agreement, which was negotiated in Ta’if, Saudi Arabia, in 1989, covered political reform and a programme for the complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. It marked the declared end of the Lebanese Civil War.