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The Franco-Syrian War occurred in 1920 when France conquered the newly-established Arab Kingdom of Syria in the aftermath of the Arab Revolt. The war resulted in the deposition of the Hashemite Arab monarchy and its replacement by a pro-French puppet government.

Background[]

Following the Entente victory in World War I and the success of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, the Arab leader Prince Faisal established an independent Hashemite kingdom in Syria. However, the implementation of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement led to the French army in the Levant occupying Syria, and Arab nationalist societies began to mobilize support for a fully independent Arab state. On 2 July 1919, the Syrian Congress declared independence from France and sought support from the United States, but the United Kingdom aided France by agreeing to withdraw its forces from Syria. In January 1920, French president Georges Clemenceau offered Faisal a compromise: he would uphold the existence of the Syrian state and would not station troops in Syria as long as the French government remained the only government supplying advisors, counselors, and technical experts. King Faisal's staunchly nationalist backers successfully pressured him to reverse his commitment to France, and, on 8 March 1920, the Arab Kingdom of Syria was established with Faisal as its king.

War[]

The British and French immediately repudiated the Syrian declaration of independence, and the British were dragged into the war as Arab clan-based border peasants launched attacks into Mandatory Palestine. On 1 March 1920, several hundred Shia Arabs from South Lebanon invaded northern Palestine to search the village of Tel Hai fro French soldiers, and the Yishuv Jewish defensive paramilitary force resisted their attack, resulting in the deaths of 8 Jews, including Yishuv commander Joseph Trumpeldor. The anti-Semitism of the Arab rebels helped to turn international opinion against them, and the League of Nations explicitly supported a French mandate in Syria. On 14 July 1920, King Faisal agreed to surrender to the French, but his defense minister Yusuf al-Azma ignored his King's orders and led an army to Maysalun to confront the French, aiming to deny the French occupation any legitimacy by showing that the Arabs would go down fighting. The ensuing Battle of Maysalun resulted in a crushing defeat for the poorly-armed Arabs, and al-Azma was killed in the battle. On 24 July 1920, the French entered Damascus without any resistance, and French rule was officially reinstalled. The French divided Syria into six administrative units, with two of them - the Sanjak of Alexandretta and Greater Lebanon - later becoming a region of Turkey and the independent nation of Lebanon, respectively.

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