Moving on from Syria to the other of the French mandated territories, brings us to the story of Lebanon and Lebanon's history of instability and indeed, occasional civil war. The 1926 constitution on the basis of which the Lebanese Republic was formed was based on the confessional system. Whereby power was divided between the religious communities according to their relative size. It rapidly transpired that the creation of Greater Lebanon was a fateful error on the Christian's part. Higher national increase and lower rates of immigration consistently shifted the demographic balance in the Muslim's favor. And in the Muslim's favor in the Lebanese case particularly meant the Shiite Muslim minority in Lebanon. By the census of 1932, only 51 percent were Christians. No more official counts were taken in Lebanon. Clearly, the Christians did not want the obvious truth to be known, that they had lost the majority in the meantime. There was as a result an internal Maronite debate on how to handle the problem of safeguarding the status of the Maronites in a county in which their numbers were steadily decreasing. There were two schools of thought in the Maronite community. One led by Emile Edde. And the other, Bishara al-Khury. Edde believed in a smaller Lebanon. In which those parts that were added onto Mount Lebanon to crate Greater Lebanon, which included large non-Christian populations. Ought to be seated and to have this smaller Lebanon protected by France. Bishara al-Khury on the other hand, believed that the Lebanese Maronites would only be secure if they established an agreement with the Sunni Muslims of Lebanon. And the Sunni Muslims of the surrounding Arab states. The Maronite's would not be able to secure their future in the long term through a foreign power but through the Sunni Muslim neighbors of the Maronites of Lebanon. In the eyes of Bisharo Khury. The preservation of Christian Lebanon was only possible by agreement with the Arab world. Rather than French protection. But in the conditions that were created by World War II the Emile Edde school, that which was rested on French protection, was completely defeated. After all, if France fell to the Nazis how could the Maronites rely on French protection? If the French could not protect France how could they ever protect the Christians of Lebanon? Lebanon now came under British occupation, as we have already seen in the Syrian case. And under British occupation, Lebanon was more inclined towards the Arab world and the British association with the Arabs. Which was much closer than that of the French. Thus, came into being, the national pact of 1943. This unwritten agreement between the Maronites, of Lebanon, and the Sunni Muslims, the two leading communities. Led on the Maronites side by Bishara al-Khury, and on the Sunni side, by Riyad al-Sulh. An the National Pact of 1943 gave the Maronites political supremacy. They had the powerful presidency. The Sunnis got the second spot, which was the premiership. And the Shi'is, the weakest of the three large communities, got the crumbs. The speakership of parliament and no more. In parliament itself, a six to five ratio in favor of the Christians was set for the parliamentary representation of the people of Lebanon. Lebanon, according to the national pact, would not be a bridgehead of foreign influence either. That is no more the connection to France by some kind of political umbilical cord. The problem with the, the National Pact, was how to accommodate change, without collapsing the whole system. If the National Pact was based on the reality of 1943, how would the Lebanese system introduce change? And after Lebanon's final independence in 1946. The first serious challenge came in 1958, which quickly degenerated into civil war. In 1958 the challenge of pan-Arabism and it's attraction to the Sunni Muslim population that upset the political balance in Lebanon domestically speaking. Pan Arabism under the charismatic leadership of Abdul Nasser was much more attractive to the Sunni Muslim population than it was to the Marimites, who never really regarded themselves as part and parcel of the Arab world. And had a much more western and European orientation, at least in their own eyes. There were also serious complaints about the demographic shifts that were not given due political representation. After all, the Maronites were becoming an ever smaller percentage of the population. And nevertheless, preserve their position in this superior spot of the presidency of Lebanon. The union that came into effect between Egypt and Syria in February 1958 fanned the flames. And soon led to an outbreak of civil war between Muslims and Christians where the Muslims, the Sunnis in particular, were more enthusiastic about joining the United Arab Republic than the Christians were. Needless to say. The Maronite President Camille Chamoun appealed to the United States for assistance and the landing of US Marines in Beirut in July 1958 restored calm and the political status quo was maintained. The US military intervention came on the heels of the establishment of the United Arab Republic and the overthrow of the pro-western Hashemite regime in Iraq in 1958. The US was there for taking a stand for pro-western regimes in the region at the height of the cold war. But the stability in Lebanon depended in the main on the continued acceptance of the power sharing agreement between the various religious communities. This agreement however was steadily undermined until the outbreak of the second Civil War which tore the country apart from 1975 to 1989.
