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87-1770: [REDACTED] Lebanese National Movement [REDACTED] PLO (1975–83) [REDACTED] ASALA [REDACTED] Hezbollah (1985–1990) [REDACTED]   Iran (from 1980, mainly IRGC and Army paramilitary units) [REDACTED] Syria [REDACTED] Lebanese Armed Forces [REDACTED] UNIFIL (from 1978) Multinational Force in Lebanon (1982–1984) [REDACTED] Arab Deterrent Force (1976–1982) [REDACTED] Bachir Gemayel   † [REDACTED] Amine Gemayel [REDACTED] William Hawi   † [REDACTED] Elie Hobeika [REDACTED] Samir Geagea Etienne Saqr [REDACTED] Georges Adwan [REDACTED] Saad Haddad # [REDACTED] Antoine Lahad [REDACTED] Menachem Begin [REDACTED] Ariel Sharon [REDACTED] Rafael Eitan [REDACTED] Avigdor Ben-Gal [REDACTED] Kamal Jumblatt   † [REDACTED] Walid Jumblatt [REDACTED] Inaam Raad [REDACTED] Abdallah Saadeh [REDACTED] Assem Qanso [REDACTED] George Hawi [REDACTED] Elias Atallah [REDACTED] Muhsin Ibrahim [REDACTED] Ibrahim Kulaylat [REDACTED] Ali Eid [REDACTED] Yasser Arafat [REDACTED] George Habash [REDACTED] Hagop Hagopian [REDACTED] Monte Melkonian [REDACTED] Subhi al-Tufayli [REDACTED] Abbas al-Musawi [REDACTED] Michel Aoun Second phase: 1977–1982 Third phase: 1982–1984 Fourth phase: 1984–1990 Cantons and puppet states The Lebanese Civil War ( Arabic : الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah )

174-624: A compromise between supporters of Chalcedon, such as the Maronites, and opponents, such as the Jacobites . To win back the Monophysites, Monoenergism was first advocated by Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople . Pope Honorius I (625–638) of Rome naively called for an end to dispute and interpreted Sergius' view as true since Christ exhibited only one will insofar as His sinless human will never disagreed with His divine will. Instead,

261-592: A disintegrative effect on the country, closely linked to the political polarization that preceded the 1958 Lebanese crisis . Christians mostly sided with the Western world while Muslims, pan-Arabists, and leftists mostly sided with Soviet -aligned Arab countries . Fighting between Lebanese Christian militias and Palestinian insurgents , mainly from the Palestine Liberation Organization , began in 1975 and generated an alliance between

348-488: A few technicals armed with heavy machine-guns and recoilless rifles but others, for the most part, fought on foot as light infantry , with small arms pilfered from the government forces, acquired on the black market or obtained via the Palestinian factions. Those groups either unable or unwilling to raise their own militias played a political role only by engaging in propaganda activities, keeping themselves out of

435-437: A misguided effort to widen its base of local support among the unemployed Lebanese urban youth. In most cases, their small, poorly disciplined, ill-equipped militia establishments were ad hoc formations made of lightly armed and largely untrained Christian or Muslim youths that rarely surpassed the 100-300 fighters' mark – about the size of an understrength company or battalion . Some groupings were lucky enough to possess

522-529: A position in the four-man cabinet that was subsequently formed. Estimates of the Phalange's membership by Yezid Sayigh and other academic sources put them at a few thousand. Non-academic sources tend to inflate the Phalanges membership. What should be kept in mind was that this insurrection was met with widespread disapproval by many Lebanese who wanted no part in the regional politics and many young men aided

609-406: A sniper reportedly killed a popular figure in the city, the former Mayor of Sidon , Maarouf Saad . Many non-academic sources claim a government sniper killed Saad; however, there is no evidence to support such a claim, and it appears that whoever had killed him had intended that what began as a small and quiet demonstration to evolve into something more. The sniper targeted Saad right at the end of

696-570: A social revolution that would transform Lebanese society, therefore sharing the same objectives as the leading LNM secular parties – the recognition of Lebanon as an Arab country and unwavering support for the PLO. However, apart this minority of committed idealists, the vast majority of the remainder 'movements' were actually façades or 'shops' ( Arabic : dakakin ) – slightly politicised neighbourhood militias operating under grandiose pseudo-revolutionary labels – set up by PLO factions (mainly Fatah ) in

783-536: A war could be fomented toward Israel. They participated in the fighting by directing armed forces against the government security in the city of Tripoli according to Yezid Sayigh 's work. In 1958, President Chamoun was unable to convince the Maronite army commander, Fuad Chehab , to use the armed forces against Muslim demonstrators, fearing that getting involved in internal politics would split his small and weak multi-confessional force. The Phalange militia came to

870-702: A war with Chamoun, referred to as the War of the Pashas . In 1956, tensions with Egypt escalated when the non-aligned President, Camille Chamoun, did not break off diplomatic relations with the Western powers that attacked Egypt during the Suez Crisis , angering Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser . This was during the Cold War and Chamoun has often been called pro-Western, though he had signed several trade deals with

957-531: Is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries significantly more Phoenician than another." The Maronite population in Lebanon has a rich history. Its foundation can be traced back to early followers of Maron , who migrated from the region of Antioch to Mount Lebanon. Historically, Lebanese Maronites resided in remote mountain villages and were led by influential noble families. The followers of Jesus Christ first became known as "Christians" in

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1044-505: Is why in later years the PLO guerrilla factions had found it easy to enter Lebanon and set up bases, as well as take over army barracks on the border with Israel as early as 1968. Early skirmishes saw the army lose control over its barracks to the PLO and lose many soldiers. Even prior to this, president Chamoun was aware of the country's vulnerability to outside forces. His Lebanese pan-Arabist Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Rashid Karami supported Nasser in 1956 and 1958. Lebanese Muslims pushed

1131-673: The Beqaa Valley in the east; and Druze and Christians populated the country's mountainous areas. At the time, the Lebanese government was under the influence of elites within the Maronite Christian community . The link between politics and religion was reinforced under the French Mandate from 1920 to 1943, and the country's parliamentary structure favoured a leading position for Lebanese Christians, who constituted

1218-560: The Cold War . Chamoun asked for assistance proclaiming that Communists were going to overthrow his government. Chamoun was responding not only to the revolt of former political bosses, but also to the fact that both Egypt and Syria had taken the opportunity to deploy proxies into the Lebanese conflict. Thus the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), led by George Habash and later to become the Popular Front for

1305-752: The Franjieh family in Zgharta , which became allied with Syria after breaking with the Lebanese Front in 1978. Lebanese National Movement The LNM was one of two main coalitions during the first rounds of fighting in the Lebanese Civil War, the other being the militias of the mainly Christian Lebanese Front , which comprised the nationalist Phalange , the National Liberal Party and others; as well as parts of

1392-948: The Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) led by Lieutenant Ahmad al-Khatib who went over to the LNM-PLO side in January 1976. In the end, the LNM-PLO-LAA combined military forces reached an impressive total of 45,200 troops by March that year, aligned against the 12,000-16,000 right-wing troops their Lebanese Front adversaries were able to muster. The LNM-JF received financial aid and arms from many countries such as Syria , Libya , Iraq and South Yemen , in addition to Palestinian support; besides lending their political backing and contributing with their organizational skills, experienced Palestinian cadres from RF and PLO groups provided weapons, equipment, and in many cases, military leadership to

1479-634: The Maronite -dominated central government. The Lebanese National Movement had its genesis in a previous organization, the Front of National and Progressive Parties and Forces – FNPPF ( Arabic : Jabhat al-Ahzab wa al-Quwa al-Taqaddumiyya wa al-Wataniyya ) or Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces ( FPPNF ), also known as the Revisionist Front , an alliance of anti-status quo political parties originally formed in 1969, which later ran in

1566-631: The Maronite Church in Lebanon , the largest Christian denomination in the country. The Lebanese Maronite population is concentrated mainly in Mount Lebanon and East Beirut . They are believed to constitute about 30% of the total population of Lebanon. The Maronites and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century through the ruling and social system known as

1653-771: The Multinational Force in Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon , were stationed in Lebanon during this time. In 1989, the Taif Agreement marked the beginning of the end for the fighting as a committee appointed by the Arab League began to formulate solutions to the conflict. In March 1991, the Parliament of Lebanon passed an amnesty law that pardoned all political crimes that had been perpetrated prior to

1740-606: The Rejectionist Front . Its membership was overwhelmingly left-wing and professed to be secular, although the fairly obvious sectarian appeal of Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and some of the Sunni Arab nationalist organizations in some cases made this claim debatable. However, to say that the LNM was an all- Muslim organization would be a gross oversimplification . Its main ideological positions were:

1827-487: The Soviet Union (see Gendzier). Nasser had attacked Chamoun because of his suspected support for the U.S. led Baghdad Pact . Nasser felt that the pro-western Baghdad Pact posed a threat to Arab nationalism . President Chamoun looked to regional pacts to ensure protection from foreign armies: Lebanon historically had a small cosmetic army that was never effective in defending Lebanon's territorial integrity, and this

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1914-801: The Vichy French forces, left Lebanon in 1946. The Maronites assumed power over Lebanon and economy. A parliament was created in which both Muslims and Christians each had a set quota of seats. Accordingly, the President was to be a Maronite, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of Parliament a Shia Muslim. In 1947, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine led to civil war in Palestine ,

2001-477: The pro-Syrian Ba'ath branch, Union of Working People's Forces and an important SSNP faction left the movement, and formed alongside Amal Movement the Front of Patriotic and National Parties . In June 1976, the Syrian Army, fearing that a Palestinian victory would weaken its own strategic position, received a request from the Lebanese Front to intervene on their behalf. After strong initial resistance,

2088-553: The " Maronite–Druze dualism ". The 1860 Druze–Maronite conflict led to the establishment of Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate , an autonomous entity within the Ottoman Empire dominated by Maronites and protected by European powers. In the aftermath of the First World War , the Maronites successfully campaigned for Greater Lebanon carved out from Mount Lebanon and neighboring areas. Under the French Mandate , and until

2175-577: The 1960s, the center for armed Palestinian activities had been in Jordan. They were forced to relocate after being evicted by King Hussein during the 1970 Black September in Jordan . Fatah and other Palestinian groups attempted to mount a coup in Jordan by incentivizing a split in the Jordanian army , something that the ANM had attempted to do a decade earlier by Nasser's bidding. Jordan responded, and expelled

2262-730: The 1970s, and led by Kamal Jumblatt as the main force on the anti-government side in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War . Among the members were the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and several Nasserist and Marxist groups. It was also joined by Palestinian factions based in Lebanon's refugee camps , mainly from

2349-488: The 1972 general elections on a reformist secular platform. Overwhelmingly left-wing and Pan-Arabist in both its composition and orientation, the LNM claimed to be a " democratic , progressive and non-sectarian " broad organization that gathered parties and organizations opposing the Maronite -dominated sectarian order in Lebanon . It was reorganized as the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) in

2436-488: The 1975-76 savage street battles and sectarian killings, with some of their militants preferring instead to join the medical relief agencies organized by the LNM. The decline of the LNM in the late 1970s, culminating in its collapse in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of June 1982 , sounded the death toll for many of the minor Lebanese leftist organizations. As the war progressed, many of these small factions – at least

2523-635: The Cedars , Lebanese Youth Movement , Tyous Team of Commandos ) and formed an umbrella militia known as the Lebanese Forces (LF) which acted in unity, and were politically known as the Lebanese Front coalition. Before 1975, Maronite militias were reportedly supplied by weapons from Bulgaria , and by the onset of the war were receiving support from Iraq , Jordan , Pahlavi Iran , West Germany , Israel, and Saudi Arabia , who temporarily cut off their funding after Black Saturday . This funding enabled

2610-783: The Church is that it had never accepted either the Monophysitic views held by their Syriac neighbours, which were condemned in the Council of Chalcedon , or the failed compromise doctrine of Monothelitism (the latter claim being found in contemporary sources). The Maronite Patriarch is traditionally seated in Bkerke , north of Beirut. Lebanese Maronite Christians are concentrated in the north Beirut, northern part of Mount Lebanon Governorate , southern part of North Governorate , parts of Beqaa Governorate and South Governorate . Note that

2697-672: The Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early Eighteenth Century, through a governing and social system known as the " Maronite-Druze dualism " in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate . The Maronites belong to the Maronite Syriac Church of Antioch in Hatay Province , Turkey) is an Eastern Catholic Syriac Church that had affirmed its communion with Rome since 1180, although the official view of

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2784-697: The Israeli invasion of 1982 and was replaced by the Lebanese National Resistance Front , known as Jammoul in Arabic. Throughout the war most or all militias operated with little regard for human rights, and the sectarian character of some battles, made non-combatant civilians a frequent target. As the war dragged on, the militias deteriorated ever further into mafia -style organizations, with many commanders turning to crime as their main occupation rather than fighting. Finances for

2871-604: The LNM, notably many from the Rejectionist Front . Both the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) were active participants. The Shia Amal Movement , although supporting some of the LNM's positions, did not join it formally. Above and beyond this, an 'alphabet soup' of other lesser-known smaller Parties were associated with

2958-453: The LNM. Most of them were marginal political organizations of revolutionary or populist trend ( Arab nationalist , libertarian / anarchist , liberal / idealist , radical socialist , Marxist–Leninist , Hoxhaist , Trotskyist , or Maoist ) that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and despite their rather limited base of support, they were quite active. Anti-status quo, Pan-Arabist , and pro-Palestinian in policy, they strived for

3045-752: The LNM/PLO forces began losing ground, and once the Arab states eventually approved the Syrian intervention after the Cairo and Riyadh conferences, the common forces accepted a cease-fire. The Syrian Army then took the role of peace-keepers, as part of Arab League 's Arab Deterrent Force (ADF), between the belligerents. In 1977, Walid Jumblatt became the head of the LNM after the murder of his resigning father, Kamal, in an ambush widely accredited to either pro-Syrian Palestinian militants or Lebanese SSNP agents working for

3132-410: The Lebanese National Movement wished to bring about a more secular and democratic order, but as this group increasingly included Islamist groups, encouraged to join by the PLO, the more progressive demands of the initial agenda was dropped by January 1976. Islamists did not support a secular order in Lebanon and wished to bring about rule by Muslim clerics. These events, especially the role of Fatah and

3219-448: The Lebanese leftist militias. In addition, they also provided training, which was conducted at the refugee camps in the major cities or at PLO bases in southern Lebanon, mainly in the Beqaa Valley (a.k.a. "Fatahland"). As fighting escalated, the LNM allied itself with the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and by early 1976 the LNM controlled 80% of Lebanon's territory. But as its relations with Damascus deteriorated,

3306-519: The Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a faction of the PLO, were deployed to Lebanon by Nasser. The ANM were a clandestine militia implicated in attempted coups against both the Jordanian monarchy and the Iraqi president throughout the 1950s at Nasser's bidding. The founding members of Fatah , including Yasser Arafat and Khalil Wazir , also flew to Lebanon to use the insurrection as a means by which

3393-480: The Maronites to elect their first Patriarch, John Maroun , that year. This, however, was seen as a usurpation by the then undivided Orthodox Catholic church. Thus, at a time when Islam was rising on the borders of the Byzantine Empire and a united front was necessary to keep out Islamic infiltration, the Maronites were focused on a struggle to retain their independence against imperial power. This situation

3480-472: The Maronites without a leader, a situation which continued because of the final and most devastating Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628 . In the aftermath of the war, the Emperor Heraclius propagated a new Christological doctrine in an attempt to unify the various Christian churches of the east, who were divided over accepting the Council of Chalcedon . This doctrine, monothelitism , was meant as

3567-807: The Movement was virtually dissolved after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon , and replaced by the Lebanese National Resistance Front – LNRF ( Arabic : جبهة المقاومة الوطنية اللبنانية , Jabhat al-Muqawama al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya ), which commenced resistance operations against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in September of that same year. Lebanese Maronite Christians Lebanese diaspora : Europe Overseas Middle East Lebanese Maronite Christians ( Arabic : المسيحية المارونية في لبنان ; Classical Syriac : ܡܫܝܚܝ̈ܐ ܡܪ̈ܘܢܝܐ ܕܠܒܢܢ ) refers to Lebanese people who are members of

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3654-575: The Ottoman Empire (1908–1922) the French invaders took control of the area under what they called the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon under the League of Nations . The French created the state of Greater Lebanon as a safe haven for the Maronites, but included a large Muslim population within the borders. In 1926, Lebanon was declared a republic, and a constitution was adopted. However,

3741-555: The PLO / Fatah to transform the Western Part of Beirut into its stronghold. Fatah constituted 80% of the membership of the PLO and Fatah guerrillas now controlled most of its institutions. The PLO had taken over the heart of Sidon and Tyre in the early 1970s. It controlled great swathes of south Lebanon, in which the indigenous Shiite population had to suffer the humiliation of passing through PLO checkpoints and now they had worked their way by force into Beirut. The PLO did this with

3828-771: The PSP militia (the People's Liberation Army ) and the LCP militia (the Popular Guard ) each had 5,000 men; the SSNP militia had 4,000 men; the pro-Syria Ba'athists and pro-Iraqi Ba'athists had 2,000 and 1,500 men respectively. The others militias shared the remainder. This number was to increase in the following months with the inclusion of 21,900 Palestinian guerrilla fighters from both the Rejectionist Front (RF) and mainstream PLO factions, later joined by 4,400 Lebanese regular soldiers from

3915-446: The Palestinian forces into Lebanon. When they arrived, they created "a State within the State". This action was not welcomed by the Lebanese government, and this shook Lebanon's fragile sectarian balance. Solidarity with the Palestinians was expressed by the Lebanese Sunni Muslims, with the aim to change the political system from one of consensus amongst different sects, towards one where their power share would increase. Certain groups in

4002-527: The Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims, pan-Arabists, and leftists. The conflict deepened as foreign powers, namely Syria , Israel , and Iran , became involved and supported or fought alongside different factions. Over the course of the conflict, these alliances shifted rapidly and unpredictably. While much of the fighting took place between opposing religious and ideological factions, there was significant conflict within some faith communities, especially amongst both Christians and Shias. Peacekeeping forces, such as

4089-432: The Patriarch of Constantinople's doctrine and subsequent Monothelitism caused greater controversy and was declared a heresy at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680-681. Contemporary Greek, Latin and Arab sources indicate that the Maronites accepted monothelitism, rejected the sixth council, and continued to maintain a belief in the largely discredited monothelite doctrine for centuries, only moving away from monothelitism in

4176-459: The Phalange in their suppression of the insurrection, especially as many of the demonstrators were little more than proxy forces hired by groups such as the ANM and Fatah founders as well as being hired by the defeated parliamentary bosses. In the 1960s Lebanon was relatively calm, but this soon changed. Fatah and other Palestinian Liberation Organization factions had long been active among the 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanese camps. Throughout

4263-408: The Syrian intelligence services. Despite this, Walid aligned himself with Syria, and maintained a good working relationship with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad (who had shared with his father a mutual distrust). In 1978 the Israeli Operation Litani in southern Lebanon was partly directed against LNM militias, then fighting alongside the PLO after relations improved with Syria. In June 1982,

4350-486: The Tripoli Islamist movement known as Tawhid, in changing the agenda being pursued by many groups, including Communists. This ragtag coalition has often been referred to as left-wing, but many participants were actually very conservative and had religious elements that did not share any broader ideological agenda. Rather, they were brought together by the short-term goal of overthrowing the established political order, each motivated by their own grievances. These forces enabled

4437-409: The abrogation of sectarianism, political and social reforms, the clear proclamation of the Arab identity of Lebanon , and increased support for the Palestinians . In order to coordinate the military and political actions of the LNM an executive structure, the Central Political Council – CPC ( Arabic : Majliss Tajammu al-kinda ) or Bureau Politique Central (BPC) in French , was set up shortly after

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4524-554: The ancient Greek city of Antioch (Acts 11:26), and the city became a center for Christianity – especially after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. According to Catholic tradition, the first Bishop was Saint Peter before his travels to Rome. The third Bishop was the Apostolic Father Ignatius of Antioch . Antioch became one of the five original Patriarchates (the Pentarchy ) after Constantine recognized Christianity. The Maronite Christianity derived its name and religious identity from Saint Maron whose followers migrated to

4611-439: The area of Mount Lebanon (present day Republic of Lebanon ) from their previous location of residence around the area of Antioch (an ancient Greek city within present day Hatay Province , Turkey), establishing the nucleus of the Maronite Church . More specifically, Maron, a fourth-century monk and the contemporary and friend of St. John Chrysostom , left Antioch for the Orontes River to lead an ascetic life, following

4698-499: The assistance of so-called volunteers from Libya and Algeria shipped in through the ports it controlled, as well as a number of Sunni Lebanese groups who had been trained and armed by PLO/ Fatah and encouraged to declare themselves as separate militias. However, as Rex Brynen makes clear in his publication on the PLO, these militias were nothing more than "shop-fronts" or in Arabic "Dakakin" for Fatah, armed gangs with no ideological foundation and no organic reason for their existence, except

4785-401: The canton, in Maronite towns and villages no garbage littered the streets, gas was one-fifth the price charged in West Beirut and the price of bread was controlled to levels comparable to pre-war pricing. Maronite Christian militias acquired arms from Romania and Bulgaria as well as from West Germany, Belgium and Israel, and drew supporters from the larger Maronite population in the north of

4872-416: The constitution was suspended in 1932. Various factions sought unity with Syria, or independence from the French. In 1936, the Maronite Phalange party was founded by Pierre Gemayel . World War II and the 1940s brought great change to Lebanon and the Middle East. Lebanon was promised independence, which was achieved on 22 November 1943. Free French troops, who had invaded Lebanon in 1941 to rid Beirut of

4959-402: The country, they were generally right-wing in their political outlook, and all the major Christian militias were Maronite -dominated, and other Christian sects played a secondary role. Initially, the most powerful of the Maronite militias was the National Liberal Party, locally known as "Ahrar", who were politically led by the former president Camille Chamoun . The NLP had its own militia which

5046-410: The course of thousands of years. In a 2013 interview the lead investigator of the National Geographic Society 's Genographic Project , Pierre Zalloua , pointed out that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions: "Lebanon already had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, and religions came as layers of paint on top. There

5133-407: The demonstration as it was dissipating. Farid Khazen, sourcing the local histories of Sidon academics and eyewitnesses, gives a run-down of the puzzling events of the day that based on their research. Khazen reveals, based on the Sidon academic's work, that Saad was not in dispute with the fishing consortium made up of Yugoslav nationals. The Yugoslavian representatives in Lebanon had negotiated with

5220-444: The differences between the fishermen and the consortium, and his acceptance of a place on the board made him a target of attack by the conspirator, who sought a full conflagration around the small protest. The events in Sidon were not contained for long. The government began to lose control of the situation in 1975. In the run-up to the war and its early stages, militias tried to be politically orientated non-sectarian forces, but due to

5307-442: The end of Mandatory Palestine , and the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948. The ongoing civil war was transformed into a state conflict between Israel and the Arab states in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . This led to Palestinian refugees crossing the border into Lebanon. In July 1958, Lebanon was threatened by a civil war between Maronite Christians and Muslims. President Camille Chamoun had attempted to break

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5394-429: The end of the Second World War , the Maronites gained substantial influence. Post-independence, they dominated Lebanese politics until the 1975–1990 civil war , which ended their supremacy. While the Taif Accords weakened Maronite influence, it endures alongside other dominant Lebanese communities, such as the Shiites and Sunnis . Lebanon's constitution was intended to guarantee political representation for each of

5481-440: The fact their individual members were put on the PLO/ Fatah payroll. In February 1975, the strike by fishermen at Sidon could be considered the first important episode that set off the outbreak of hostilities. That event involved a specific issue: the attempt of former President Camille Chamoun, also the head of the Maronite-oriented National Liberal Party, to monopolize fishing along the coast of Lebanon. The injustices perceived by

5568-404: The fisherman's union to make the fishermen shareholders in the company. The company offered to modernize the fishermen's equipment, buy their catch, and give their union an annual subsidy. Saad, as a union representative, and not the mayor of Sidon at the time as many erroneous sources claim, was offered a place on the company's board. There has been some speculation that Saad's attempts to narrow

5655-406: The fishermen evoked sympathy from many Lebanese, and reinforced the resentment and antipathy that were widely felt against the state and the economic monopolies. The demonstrations against the fishing company were quickly transformed into a political action supported by the political left and their allies in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The state tried to suppress the demonstrators, and

5742-601: The following percentages are estimates only. However, in a country that had last census in 1932, it is difficult to have correct population estimates. The last Census in Lebanon in 1932 put the numbers of Maronites at 60%. A study done by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1985 put the numbers of Maronites at 46% of the population. In 2012, Maronites constituted 31% of Lebanon 's population, according to estimates. The Maronite Church's website claims 1,062,000 members were in Lebanon in 1994 which would have made them around 31% of Lebanon's population. Maronite Catholics are

5829-412: The formal end of the hostilities in 1990. In 1860, a civil war between Druze and Maronites erupted in the Ottoman Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon . The war resulted in the massacre of about 10,000 Christians and at least 6,000 Druzes. World War I was hard for the Lebanese. Most of the Arabs fought in the Ottoman army against the British and French invaders. With the defeat and dissolution of

5916-411: The government to join the newly created United Arab Republic , a country formed out of the unification of Syria and Egypt, while the majority of Lebanese and especially the Maronites wanted to keep Lebanon as an independent nation with its own independent parliament. President Camille Chamoun feared the toppling of his government and asked for U.S. intervention. At the time the United States was engaged in

6003-488: The law's time of enactment. In May 1991, all of the armed factions that had been operating in Lebanon were dissolved, excluding Hezbollah , an Iran-backed Shia Islamist militia . Though the Lebanese Armed Forces slowly began to rebuild as Lebanon's only major non-sectarian armed institution after the conflict, the federal government remained unable to challenge Hezbollah's armed strength . Religious tensions, especially between Shias and Sunnis , persisted across Lebanon since

6090-408: The majority of the population. However, Lebanon's Muslims comprised a large minority and the influx of thousands of Palestinians —first in 1948 and again in 1967 —contributed to Lebanon's demographic shift towards an eventual Muslim majority. Lebanon's Christian-dominated government had been facing increasing opposition from Muslims, pan-Arabists , and left-wing groups . The Cold War also exerted

6177-431: The more politically oriented ones – were destroyed in the violent power struggles of the 1980s. For the most part forced to go underground, some evolved to Islamic fundamentalist groups, whilst the less politicized simply degenerated into criminal street-gangs that engaged in assassinations, theft, smuggling, and extortion. As a result, only a small fraction of the truly ideologically committed groupings managed to survive

6264-488: The mountains of Lebanon. Correspondence concerning the event brought the Maronites papal and orthodox recognition, which was solidified by Pope Hormisdas (514–523) on February 10, 518. A monastery was built around the shrine of St. Maro (Marun) after the Council of Chalcedon . The martyrdom of the Patriarch of Antioch in the first decade of the seventh century, either at the hands of Persian soldiers or local Jews, left

6351-469: The nation's religious groups. Under the terms of an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, the president of the country must be a Maronite. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Lebanese people is a blend of both indigenous Phoenician elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over

6438-546: The newly formed Lebanese Forces militia to establish itself in Maronite-dominated strongholds, and rapidly transformed from an unorganized and poorly equipped militia into a fearsome armed group that now had its own armor, artillery, commando units (SADM), a small Navy, and a highly advanced Intelligence branch. Meanwhile, in the north, the Zgharta Liberation Army served as the private militia of

6525-581: The outbreak of the hostilities at the town of Aley , a mountain tourist resort in the Chouf District , which became the military headquarters of the Front. The Council was presided over from its inception by Kamal Jumblatt of the PSP, with Mohsen Ibrahim of the OCAL appointed as Executive Secretary; after Kamal's death in 1977, he was replaced by his son Walid Jumblatt , who led the LNM until 1982. Among

6612-499: The participants in the LNM were the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (CAOL or OCAL), the PSP, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Lebanon (SSNP), both a Syrian-led Ba'ath Party branch and an Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party branch , al-Mourabitoun (a Nasserist group) and several other minor Nasserist and Marxist groupings. Several Palestinian organizations joined

6699-567: The president's aid instead to bring a final end to the road blockades which were crippling the major cities. Encouraged by its efforts during this conflict, later that year, principally through violence and the success of general strikes in Beirut, the Phalange achieved what journalists dubbed the "counterrevolution". By their actions the Phalangists brought down the government of Prime Minister Karami and secured for their leader, Pierre Gemayel ,

6786-512: The sectarian nature of Lebanese society, they inevitably gained their support from the same community as their leaders came from. In the long run almost all militias openly identified with a given community. The two main alliances were the Lebanese Front, consisting of nationalist Maronites who were against Palestinian militancy in Lebanon, and the Lebanese National Movement, which consisted of pro-Palestinian Leftists. The LNM dissolved after

6873-411: The stranglehold on Lebanese politics exercised by traditional political families in Lebanon. These families maintained their electoral appeal by cultivating strong client–patron relations with their local communities. Although he succeeded in sponsoring alternative political candidates to enter the elections in 1957, causing the traditional families to lose their positions, these families then embarked upon

6960-542: The time of the crusades in order to avoid being branded heretics by the crusaders. The modern Maronite Church, however, rejects the assertion that the Maronites were ever monothelites separated from the rest of the universal Church. The question remains a cause of significant offence to this day. In 687, the Emperor Justinian II agreed to evacuate many thousand Maronites from Lebanon and settle them elsewhere. The chaos and utter depression which followed led

7047-644: The traditions of Anthony the Great of the Desert and Pachomius . Many of his followers also lived a monastic lifestyle. Following the death of Maron in 410, his disciples built a monastery in his memory and formed the nucleus of the Maronite Church. The Maronites held fast to the beliefs of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. When the Monophysites of Antioch slew 350 monks, the Maronites sought refuge in

7134-540: The war effort were obtained in one or all of three ways: As central government authority disintegrated and rival governments claimed national authority, the various parties/militias started to create comprehensive state administrations in their territory. These were known as cantons , Swiss-like autonomous provinces. The best known was " Marounistan ", which was the Phalangist/Lebanese Forces territory. The Progressive Socialist Party's territory

7221-425: The war to re-emerge in the 1990s as politically active organizations. At the beginning of the war in 1975, the different LNM militias were grouped into a military wing, designated the "Common Forces" ( Arabic : القوات المشتركة, Al-Quwwat al-Mushtaraka ), but best known as "Joint Forces" (LNM-JF) , which numbered some 18,900 militiamen (not including allied Palestinian factions). Manpower was distributed as follows:

7308-536: Was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon . The religious diversity of the Lebanese population played a notable role in the lead-up to and during the conflict: Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Sunni Muslims comprised the majority in the coastal cities; Lebanese Shia Muslims were primarily based throughout southern Lebanon and in

7395-664: Was founded in 1968 and led by Camille's son Dany Chamoun , the Tigers Militia . Another party was the Kataeb Party , or Phalangists, which was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936. Kataeb similarly had its own militia which was officially formed in 1961, the Kataeb Regulatory Forces led by William Hawi until 1976 when Bachir Gemayel succeeded him. Kataeb Regulatory Forces merged with Tigers Militia and several minor groups ( Al-Tanzim , Guardians of

7482-598: Was mirrored in other Christian communities in the Byzantine Empire and helped facilitate the Muslim conquest of most of Eastern Christendom by the end of the century. The relationship between the Druze and Christians has been characterized by harmony and peaceful coexistence , with amicable relations between the two groups prevailing throughout history, with the exception of some periods, including 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war . The Maronite Catholics and

7569-642: Was the " Civil Administration of the Mountain ", commonly known as the Jebel-el-Druze , a name which had formerly been used for a Druze state in Syria. The Marada area around Zghorta was known as the "Northern Canton". Wilton Wynn, a TIME correspondent, visited the East Beirut Christian canton in 1976, the same year as its foundation. He reported that compared to the villages outside of

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