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 As early as about 1800 BC King Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria is thought to
have established his capital, Shubat Enlil, at present-day Tell Leilan in the extreme
northeast of Syria. The kingdom was later conquered by Hammurabi of Babylonia, and the
region was long afterward influenced principally by Egypt and Babylon. Parts of the region
were conquered successively by the Egyptians and the Hittites, and, in the 8th century BC,
by Assyria. In the 6th century BC the region passed first to the Chaldeans and then to the
Persians (538 BC). Alexander the Great made it a part of his empire in 333 and 332 BC, and
at the close of the 4th century BC it was appropriated by Seleucus I, one of Alexander's
generals, who founded Antioch as the capital. During the 3rd century BC the Ptolemies of
Egypt and the Seleucids contended for the possession of lower Syria and Palestine. Both
areas, and much of western Asia, passed to the Seleucids, whose realm became known as the
kingdom of Syria. In 64 BC Syria was made a Roman province.
After the far-flung Roman dominions were divided into two
parts in AD 395, the Western Roman Empire with its capital at Rome and the Eastern, or
Byzantine, Empire with its capital at Constantinople, Syria remained a Byzantine province
for approximately 240 years. It was conquered in 636 by the Arabs and was quickly absorbed
into their rapidly expanding Islamic Empire. In 661 Damascus became the seat of the
powerful Umayyad caliphs. At that time it was one of the most important and splendid
cities of the Muslim world. Later it was supplanted by Baghdad in present-day Iraq. In
1099 the Crusaders incorporated part of the region into the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem
and part into the principality of Antioch. In a subsequent campaign (1174-1187), Saladin,
sultan of Egypt, took Syria and overthrew the kingdom of Jerusalem. The many wars
centering on Syria impoverished the land and its people; its ruin was completed by a
Mongol invasion in 1260. 
Turkish Rule
The Ottoman Turks incorporated the region into their empire
in 1516, and it remained in their possession for the next four centuries. The commercial
importance of the territory as the site of overland routes to eastern Asia was greatly
reduced with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Strong nationalist movements had taken
hold in many parts of the Ottoman Empire during the early years of the 20th century. When
World War I (1914-1918) broke out and Turkey took the side of the Central Powers, the
Allies, in order to enlist support against Turkey, held out to the Arabs the hope of
postwar independence. In January 1916, by the terms of letters between the British
government and Husein ibn Ali, grand sharif of Mecca, the latter promised Arab
participation in the war on the Allied side in return for a British guarantee of
independence for all Arab lands south of a line roughly corresponding to the northern
frontiers of present-day Syria and Iraq. In May of the same year, however, Great Britain
and France secretly concluded a separate accord, known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, by
which most of the Arab lands under Turkish rule were to be divided into British and French
spheres of influence. The areas now comprising Syria and Lebanon were assigned to France;
and those comprising Israel and Jordan were assigned to Great Britain.
The French Mandate
The Arabs, in alliance with the British and French, fought
the Turks for the rest of the war and
participated in the capture of Damascus in 1918. In 1919 British forces withdrew from the
area assigned to France, leaving French troops in control. The following year France, with
the understanding that Syria and Lebanon were to become independent within a reasonably
short time, was granted a mandate over them by the League of Nations.
Anti-Turkish sentiment in Syria soon developed into anti-French sentiment and more
determined nationalism. The French quelled one armed rebellion in 1920 and a second and
better organized uprising from 1925 to 1927. In 1938, soon after French and Syrian leaders
had reached agreement on a treaty providing for substantial Syrian independence, the
French government refused to ratify the treaty, partly because France regarded control of
the area as vital to its military position. The following year France ceded to Turkey the
former Turkish administrative district (sanjak) of Alexandretta, in which the ancient
Syrian capital of Antioch is located.
These events raised Syrian hostility toward France to a high pitch. Many prominent
political figures in Syria declared their loyalty to France and the Allies, nevertheless,
when World War II broke out in 1939. After the surrender of France to Germany in 1940,
Syria came under the control of the Vichy government. British and Free French forces,
however, invaded and subdued Syria in 1941. Later in the same year, the Free French
government formally recognized the independence of Syria
but continued to occupy the country. With the elections in 1943, a new government was
formed under the presidency of the Syrian nationalist Shukri al-Kuwatli, one of the
leaders of the 1925 to 1927 uprising against the French. After the end of World War II in
1945, France persisted in trying to exercise influence over Syria. Resultant anti-French
uprisings subsided only after the British military intervention on the side of the French
and the withdrawal of all French troops and administrative personnel. In 1946 the British
troops left Syria. Syria became a charter member of the United Nations (UN) in 1945.
The Republic
The postwar period was marked by serious political
instability. In 1944 a "Greater Syria" movement had been initiated to found a
Syrian Arab state that would include Lebanon, Syria, and present-day Jordan and Israel.
Many Syrian opponents of the movement feared the absorption of Syria into a larger Arab
state and the consequent loss of Syrian national identity. The movement nevertheless gave
impetus to Syrian adherence to the Arab League, which was formed primarily to prevent the
creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Syrian forces participated in the 1948 war
between Arab forces and the newly established state of Israel. An armistice was concluded
in July of the same year. On March 30, 1949, a military junta led by General Husni
al-Zaim, a member of the Kurdish minority, seized power. Essentially a dictatorship and
highly unpopular, the new regime was overthrown in August by another military junta, and
Zaim was executed. General elections were held in November for a constituent assembly. A
third coup d'état, led by Colonel Adib al-Shishakli, a former chief of police and head of
security, occurred in December. The constituent assembly promulgated a new constitution in
September 1950 and, assuming responsibility as the chamber of deputies, elected the
provisional chief of state Hashim al-Atasi, an elderly and respected politician, to the
presidency. 
Syrian and Israeli frontier forces clashed on numerous occasions in the spring of 1951.
The hostilities, which stemmed from Syrian opposition to an Israeli drainage project in
the demilitarized zone between the two countries, ceased on May 15, after intercession by
the United Nations Security Council. Successive governmental crises during 1951
culminated, on November 29, in another coup d'état engineered by Shishakli. President
Atasi resigned shortly thereafter; and Shishakli and his associates formed a government.
Shishakli promulgated a new constitution in 1953. He severely restricted civil liberties
and ruled the country as a military dictator until March 1954, when he was ousted by
another military group. Shishakli's successors reinstated Atasi as president, reconvened
the 1949 chamber of deputies, and restored the constitution of 1950.
After 1954 Syria appeared increasingly anti-Western and pro-Soviet. The government
protested vigorously in 1955 against the creation of the Baghdad Pact,  a
defensive alliance formed in that year by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Great Britain.
In July 1956 the Syrian chamber of deputies formally established a committee to negotiate
the terms of a possible federation with Egypt. The attacks on Egypt in October and
November 1956 by Israel, Great Britain, and France intensified the growing Syrian
resentment toward the West. Syria denounced the Eisenhower Doctrine, promulgated in
January 1957 to combat potential Communist aggression in the Middle East. In September,
Syria accused Turkey of massing troops on the Syrian-Turkish border with the intent of
executing a U.S.-backed attack on Syria. The USSR supported the Syrian charge, and the
matter was brought before the UN General Assembly in October. The Syrian complaint was
withdrawn, however, by consent of all the parties concerned, before any UN action was
taken. Throughout 1957 Syria accepted increasing aid from the USSR. In October, the USSR
agreed to provide aid to Syria, over a period of 12 years, for the construction of many
large-scale development projects.
Union with Egypt
On February 21, 1958, a plebiscite held in Syria and Egypt
gave nearly unanimous approval to the federation of the two countries as the United Arab
Republic (UAR), with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt as president. The following month Nasser
dissolved all Syrian political parties, including the Communist party, and dismissed
pro-Soviet army officers.
Under a system of land reform introduced in September, individual holdings were limited to
80 hectares (200 acres) of irrigated and 300 hectares (750 acres) of unirrigated land.
Separate ministries for Syria and Egypt were abolished on October 7 in favor of central
ministries in Cairo. The first distributions of confiscated land occurred in Syria on
February 23, 1959. Elections for local councils, held on July 8, resulted in a setback for
socialists in Syria. On March 18, 1960, Nasser appointed several Syrians to his cabinet in
a move to strengthen his hold on the country. The National Union, the single legal party
of the UAR, held its first congress in Cairo during July. A further step toward
unification, taken on August 16, 1961, was the establishment of a single UAR cabinet.
Meanwhile, a vigorous policy of nationalization, including steamship lines and banking and
insurance firms, intensified conservative opposition to the UAR. Army units seized
Damascus on September 28 and the following day proclaimed the renewed independence of
Syria. Nasser decided not to resist the new regime.
"Syria," (c ) 1993-1995 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. ( c
) 1995 FUNK & WAGNALLS Corporation. All rights reserved.
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