History of Syria

Map of Syria
wikipedia
Syria is a country that is steeped in history and is located in o­ne of the most politically and religiously volatile areas of the Earth. Syria began as a part of the Elban Civilization which was situated in the Middle East. The Hittite Kingdom, which had spanned most of the Middle East in the early years of civilization, conquered the area that is modern day Syria in the early second millennium BC.

The Persians were the next of many conquers in the area to claim Syria. After a number of years, Christianity began to spread throughout the empire, and the Romans started their conquest of the known world. Pompey captured Syria and named it a Roman Province in 64AD, adding to the already large expanse of land that the Romans controlled.

When the Roman Empire split into two separate entities due to civil unrest, the eastern portion of the empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, took control of the Syrian Province. When the well known Paul of Tarsus started to spread the word of Christianity, he built his first church in Antioch, a small city in Syria.

The Islamic Empire that was forming deep within the confines of the Old Persian Empire began to expand and grow with the coming of the Umayyad Dynasty to the throne. This family was o­ne of conquerors, and they did just that. Syria became part of the Islamic Empire.

The Islamic Empire held this land for centuries until the Ottoman Turks took it for themselves. However, after the Ottomans joined the Germans in the defeat of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was officially dissolved. Syria o­nce again became somebody’s land after the French and British mandated that the old Ottoman Empire be split between them.

It was not until the year 1967, when instability in the Middle East was great, that Syria won its independence as a nation free from any empire’s grasp.