History of Lebanon (from 50,000 BC - 2003AD in a glance) Pre-Historic Recorded History
Pre-Historic (50,000 BC – 10,000 BC) Paleolithic Period The evidence of tools found in caves
along the coast of Lebanon shows that it was inhabited all through
the classic stages of human development: Paleolithic, Neolithic, the
bronze, and the iron working periods. (10 000 BC- 4000 BC) Neolithic Period Village life followed the domestication of plants and animals with the Neolithic Revolution starting around 10,000 BC. The traces of the coastal settlements in Lebanon date back to around 9000 BC in Byblos, favoring it’s founding among the earliest ‘communities’ during this period. 4000 BC - 600 AD
The recorded history shows a group of coastal cities and heavily forested mountains inhabited by a Semitic people, the Canaanites, around 4000 BC. These early inhabitants referred to themselves according to their city of origin, and called their nation Canaan. They lived in the narrow East-Mediterranean cost and the parallel strip mountains of Lebanon. Around 2800 BC Canaanites traded cedar timber, olive oil and wine from Byblos for metals and ivory from Egypt. The Coastal cities fell to Amorites around 2000 BC, and to Egyptians from round 1800 until 1200 BC when they recovered independence. The Canaanites who inhabited that area were called Phoenicians by the Greeks (from the Greek word phoinos, meaning ‘red’) in a reference to the unique purple dye the Phoenicians produced from murex seashells. The Phoenicians mastered the art of navigation and dominated the Mediterranean Sea trade for over 500 years. They excelled in producing textiles, carving ivory and working with metal and glass. The Phoenicians built several local cities East of the Mediterranean among which are: Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Berytus (Beirut), Tripoli, Arvad Island-City, Baalbek and Caesarea. They established trade routes to Europe
and Western Asia. Phoenician ships circumnavigated Africa a thousand
years before those of the Portuguese. They founded colonies wherever
they ventured on the North and South of the Mediterranean in Cyprus,
Rhodes, Crete, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Marseilles, Cadiz, and Carthage
around the first Millennium B.C.
(above) Phoenician colonies around the Mediterranean Sea (first Millennium B.C.) Inventing the Alphabet Around 1600 B.C. the Phoenicians invented the alphabet, and passed them onto the world. The Greeks adopted the 22-letter alphabet from the Phoenicians which has led to the Latin letters of present day. Constructing Kings David and Solomon Palaces and Temple The Phoenician king Hiram of Tyre (989-936 BC) built a palace for David and two palaces and a temple for Solomon. The Bible provides a vast amount of information about them. The Phoenicians built David’s Palace and Solomon’s Temple. They also built King Solomon two palaces, of which one was called 'Forest of Lebanon'. Craftsmen of Phoenicia used Lebanon’s cedar and metal to accomplish the work around the mid of the tenth century BC. (Details) The Phoenicians adjusted to successive conquerors later and managed to keep their trade business ongoing, and kept a sort of political independence. (875-608 BC) The power-raising Assyrians invaded Phoenicia in 875 BC and deprived the Phoenicians of their independence. Byblos, Tyre and Sidon rebelled several times and the Assyrians brought total destruction to the cities in response. (585-538 BC) The Babylonians became the new power and occupied Phoenicia. Phoenician cities rebelled and Tyre was destroyed, again (538 BC-333 AD) The Persians occupied the region including Phoenicia. The Phoenician navy supported Persia during the Greco-Persian war (490-449 BC). Phoenicians revolted when overburdened with heavy tributes imposed by the Persians in the forth century BC. (333 - 64 BC) The Greeks defeated the Persian troops when Alexander the Great attacked Asia Minor in 333 BC. The Phoenician cities made no attempt to resist and acknowledged Alexander’s suzerainty. However, when he tried to offer a sacrifice to Melkurt, Tyre’s god, the city resisted and he besieged it. The city fell after 6 months of resistance. Alexander’s conquest left a Greek imprint on the area. The Phoenicians, being a cosmopolitan civilization amenable to outside influences, adopted aspects of Greek civilization and continued with their trade business. (64 BC-600 AD) Romans and Christianity
After the Roman Empire divided, the economic and intellectual activities continued to flourish in Beirut, Tyre and Sidon for more than a century. The fifth century witnessed the birth
of Maronite Christianity. Saint Maroun (also Maron)
found a refuge in the northern mountains of Lebanon. A great portion
of the Phoenicians became Christians, and their faith was named for
him. Maronite Catholics later made great contributions to the Lebanese
history, independence and culture. 600 AD - 1516 AD (636-750) Arab Rule The Lebanese adopted many aspects from
the Arabic culture, and excelled in science and Arabic literature.
It was the people who lived in the mountains of Lebanon, especially
the Maronites and the Aramaic who translated the Greek books into
Arabic and later on built with the Arabs the advanced Arabic science
based on these books. (750-1110) The Abbasids One of the groups that came to seek refuge in Lebanon was a small Christian sect called Melchites, they became known as Greek Catholics. Also, the Druze who was persecuted as hypocritical Islamic-Shia group found a refuge in Mount Lebanon around 1020. Under Abbasids philosophy, literature
and science received great attention. Lebanon made a notable contribution
to this intellectual renaissance. Lebanese physician Rashid AdDine,
jurist Al Awzai and philosopher Qusta ibn Luqa were leaders in their
fields. (1095-1291) The Crusades (1282-1516) The Mamluks 1516 AD - 1943 AD (1516 - 1916) The Ottomans (Turks) and
Lebanon Independent Lebanon, Fakhr EdDine Reign Lebanese Immigration of the nineteenth
Century 1860 Events and 1861 Lebanese
Administration (1916-1920) World War I __________________________ 1943 National Pact The Lebanese political Christian and Muslim leaders forged an unwritten National Pact post independence in 1943. The pact was designed to promote cooperation among the rival religious groups starting a unique concept of a confessional democracy. The pact states that Lebanon is an independent country with Arabic and European cultures. The pact was partly grounded in the 1932 census implementing a distribution of seats in the parliament on a ratio of 6 to 5: Christians to Muslims. The Major administrative positions were also distributed among major sects with: the President is to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the parliament a Shiite Muslim. Switzerland of the East 1948 and 1959 Events The first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 sent about 150,000 Palestinians to refugee camps in Lebanon. Palestinians come to play an important part in Lebanese politics benefiting from the political freedom atmosphere that does not exist in other Arab countries. 1958, the rising star of Egypt’s
Gamal Abdel-Nasser threatened to absorb Lebanon into a short-lived
union of Syria and Egypt. Internal tensions were high, and a short
rebellion erupted. Lebanese President Camille Chamoun invoked the
protection of Lebanon under the Eisenhower doctrine and the three-month
rebellion was ended with US intervention. Christians and Muslims leaders
tried to keep Lebanon neutral to maintain the economical and cultural
boom that continued exceptionally till the end of the sixties. (1967-1969) Lebanon maintained a neutral role in the Six-Day War of 1967 between Arab countries and Israel. The war sent another wave of Palestinian refugees to Lebanon. Saheka, the Syrian-Palestinian guerrilla and PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) militia were increasing in numbers and threatening the stability of Lebanon by controlling the civilian Palestinian refugee camps and other Lebanese territories. They gained sympathy and support from some groups of Muslims and from Arab-nationalists in Lebanon. The Arab countries prevented any Palestinian martial activities in their lands. However, they pressured allowing Palestinians using the Lebanese land to mount raids on Israel in the Arab Cairo agreement of 1969. Lebanon started moving toward its darkest phase in modern history. 1970 AD - 1982 AD War in Lebanon In 1970, Jordan expelled the PLO from
its territories sending many civilian refugees and armed guerillas
into Lebanon. Meanwhile, the communist countries were having economic
problems. Syria was a typical communist country allied with the Soviet
Union adapting its economical and political systems. The flourished
free-market in its neighboring small country of Lebanon was the capture
for Syria. The dictator of Syria, Hafez Asad, clearly declared his
intentions of annexing Lebanon on August 8, 1973 by announcing that
‘Lebanon and Syria are one country and one people but have two
governments’. Arms and funding were flowing to Lebanon and many
political parties were turned into armed forces while the Lebanese
army was getting weaker and unable to take control. In April 13, 1975,
Palestinian gunmen killed four Christian Lebanese in front of a church
east of Beirut, while Christian militiamen ambushed a busload of Palestinians
later of the same day. A brutal fight broke up the war in Lebanon
then. In 1976, the Syrian army invaded the Lebanese northern region
of Akkar, and advanced into the Bekaa valley east of Lebanon. A month
later, the Syrian dictator delivered his famous speech in the Syrian
capital stating that he sent the Syrian army to Lebanon without a
permission from any authorities. The League of Arab Countries tried
to sent peace-keeping troops to Lebanon, but they were forced to leave
the country for the Syrian army later. The Syrian troops in Lebanon
meanwhile worked on silencing the Lebanese voices that were criticizing
its martial interference by assassinating several Lebanese national
and religious figures. Palestinian militiamen kept launching attacks
from the areas they controlled in South Lebanon against Northern Israel.
The Israeli response was more severe and often impacted Lebanese civilians.
The attacks developed into an Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon
in March 1978. 1982 AD - 1990 AD In June 1982, the Israeli forces invaded
Lebanon reaching into Beirut. A Multinational force made up of US
and West European troops were deployed in Beirut after an international
mediation. The agreement called for PLO, Syrian and Israeli forces
to pull of Beirut. Thousands of PLO militiamen were deported from
Lebanon while the Syrian and Israeli army were withdrawing from Beirut.
(1988-1990) In 1998, Syrian troops and their allies worked on preventing the election of a new Lebanese president in order to completely paralyze the Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese president then, used his constitutional prerogative and appointed the Lebanese Army Commander as a Prime Minister of interim government before ending his term. The Syrians opposed the Lebanese Government and shelled the Lebanese civilian areas with heavy bombs. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Primer managed to gain popularity by; enforcing the role of the Lebanese army over the militia, activating the governmental departments and working for political and economical reforms. The Lebanese Government launched a war of liberation against the Syrian army demanding the scheduling of a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. The Syrian occupation troops pressured Lebanese politician in the areas it occupies to oppose the Lebanese government; they have even assassinated the highest Sunni Muslim clerk, mufti of Lebanon because of his rejection of the Syrian fight against Lebanese. (1990)Complete Occupation In August of 1990 Iraq invaded its neighboring country of Kuwait, and drew the international community’s attention to the Iraqi occupation of the small oil-country and the threats to the world-largest oil reserve of Saudi Arabia. The Syrian regime gained the opportunity and promised not to side with Iraq in return of controlling Lebanon. On October 1990, the Syrian troops launched aerial and ground attacks and occupied the Lebanese presidential palace and the ministry of defense defeating the reminder of the Lebanese army. The Syrian regime appointed a proxy government and president in occupied Lebanon and started a large scale persecution operation against Lebanese people: arresting, abducting, torturing and killing whoever opposes its occupation. 1990 AD - 2003 AD Proxy Regime The Syrian-appointed government in occupied Lebanon exiled the Lebanese Primer to France and 'legitimized' the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Syria took drastic measures to enforce its martial and political presence in Lebanon. It occupied more than 90% of Lebanon, including the capital, the airport, the harbors and all major cities. Syria disarmed most of Lebanese militia except for those affiliated with it such as Hizballah, Amal and radical Palestinian militias. The Lebanese army was restrained from performing any major activities and was directed to internal security functions. The puppet regime of Lebanon amended the Lebanese constitution, and drew several agreements with the Syrian regime giving Syria advantages of using the Lebanese natural resources and abusing the free-market benefits in Lebanon. The Lebanese community, especially universities youth, engineers, physicians, lawyers, workers started a peaceful revolution to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 520 that calls for Syrian pullout of Lebanon. Syrian Persecution 90% of the Lebanese eligible to vote
boycotted a Syrian-arranged parliamentary elections that resulted
in the puppet parliament of 1992. This Lebanese popular refusal to
legitimize the Syrian occupation of Lebanon was answered by Syrian
measures aiming to changing the ethnic and religious demography of
Lebanon. Syrians forced their proxy government to naturalize around
half a million Syrians and Palestinians, that is equal to 20% of the
Lebanon population, in Lebanon. This act was rejected by the highest
Lebanese judiciary council in 2003, yet around half a million of non
Lebanese still roaming around the world falsely holding Lebanese citizenship.
Meanwhile, Syrian troops in Lebanon kept protecting 1.5 million Syrian
illegal workers (that is about half the population of Lebanon) which
forced more than 35% of the Lebanese to leave their country Israeli Pullout and Hizballah In the 1990's, with Syria occupying 90% of Lebanon and Israel around 10% of it, Hizballah guerrilla gained popularity as a means of resistance against one of the two occupiers by fighting against Israeli occupation of Lebanon (for Details). In 2000, Israel pulled out of South Lebanon
per the UN resolution 425 in respect to the Lebanese international
borders. Hizbollah refused to disarm and enroll in the civilian social
and political life after the Israeli withdrawal, which deprived it
from most of its Lebanese popularity. It occupied the Southern territories
that were evacuated by the Israelis, while the Syrian regime prevented
the Lebanese army from deploying in these territories. Until this very moment, the Syrian army and intelligence members continue to occupy Lebanon, while the Lebanese continue with their peaceful revolution. Hundreds of Lebanese are being arrested, abducted, tortured, imprisoned and killed; while hundreds of them have been subjected to chemical and biological experiments in Syrian prisons. (for Details) __________________________ |
|
