The French Mandate over Syria and Lebanon was a League of Nations trust territory administered by France from 1920 to 1946. It was established after France defeated the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Faisal I at the Battle of Maysalun in July 1920 and expelled Faisal from Damascus. French administrators divided Syria into separate administrative units along religious and ethnic lines — a State of Damascus, State of Aleppo, Alawite State, Jabal Druze, and the Sanjak of Alexandretta (ceded to Turkey in 1939). Lebanese territory was separated and enlarged as Greater Lebanon. The French pursued a deliberate policy of recruiting Alawites, Druze, and other minorities into the troupes spéciales, creating the military career pathways that would eventually produce Hafez al-Assad and the Ba’ath officer corps. The Mandate’s end in 1946 left Syria with state institutions built for colonial control rather than self-governance.
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