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Maronites

Maronites are a group of Christians originally from Lebanon. With a worldwide population of 3,198,600, with 1,062,000 living in Lebanon and 750,000 living in Argentina, 550,000 in Brazil, 215,000 in the United States, and hundreds of thousands more in the Lebanese diaspora. Their religion is the Maronite Church of Catholicism, and all but two Presidents of Lebanon have been Maronites due to a part of the constitution that ensures that the President will be a Christian and the Prime Minister will be a Muslim. 33% to 50% of the population was killed during the Ottoman Empire's blockade of Lebanon during World War I, leading to emigration from Lebanon, and the Lebanese Civil War of the 1970s-1980s led to Maronites fleeing to the diaspora or fighting a sectarian war with Muslim Arabs in which Maronite warlords fought Hezbollah for control of South Lebanon. Today, they make up a large percentage of the Christian population in Lebanon, which has a 40% Christian minority.

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