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The Origin of the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon: The Railroad Question, 1901–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Extract

France's acquisition of Syria and Lebanon as mandated territory after the First World War has often been described as the result of war-time arrangements such as the Sykes–Picot Agreement and the MacMahon–Hussein Correspondence. In fact, however, the French claim to these parts of the old Ottoman Empire was recognized internationally even before the war erupted. The nineteenth century had witnessed the tremendous penetration of French religious influence into Syria and Lebanon through the establishment of clerical schools, hospitals, asylums and orphanages.

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Articles
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

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page 133 note 2 Primary source material on this matter can be found unpublished in the Quai d'Orsay. France. Ministère des Affaires étrangères: Turquie. Politique intérieure. Dossier général, Syrie-Liban (1897–1914), N.S. 104-N.S. 124. Useful published material includes: Négib, Azoury, Le Réveil de la nation arabe dans l'Asie turque (Paris, 1906); Eugène, Jung, Les puissances devant la révolte arabe (Paris, 1906);Google Scholar Turquie, . IVeme Armée, , La Verité sur la question syrienne (Stamboul, 1916);Google Scholar George, Antonjus, The Arab Awakening, The Story of the Arab National Movement (New York, 1946);Google Scholar Elie, Kedourie, England and the Middle East (London, 1956);Google Scholar Zeine, N. Zeine, Arab-Turkish Relations and the Emergence of Arab Nationalism (Beirut, 1958).Google Scholar

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page 135 note 2 Edward, M. Earle, Turkey, the Great Powers and the Bagdad Railway (New York, 1923), pp. 62–3.Google Scholar

page 136 note 1 For example see: Bulletin de Comité de l'Asie française, I (April, 1901), pp. 23–8;Google Scholar Le Petit Parisien, 19 August 1901. (The latter was a rather sensational newspaper but politically moderate, with the largest daily circulation in Paris at the time.)Google Scholar

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page 137 note 3 Ibid. no. 302.

page 138 note 1 Ibid. no. 347. The agreements mentioned by Delcassé indeed did exist. They had been signed by the Deutsche Bank and the Imperial Ottoman Bank on 13 and 21 May 1901 and accorded to the German group the exploitation of all junctions and branch lines between the Baghdad Railway and the main French Syrian network of the Damascus-Hama line. These arrangements, however, were not revealed officially until 1903. (See M.A.E., , Turquie, N.S. 337, pp. 7482.)Google Scholar

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page 139 note 1 F.O. 800/174, ME/06/6 (unpublished papers of Sir Francis Bertie, Public Record Office, London).

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page 141 note 4 D.D.F., series 2, vol. vi, no. 180. One reason the D.H.P. was losing so much money on the Damascus–Muzeirib connexion, according to the British consul general in Beirut, was that it was ‘making prohibitive charges for the conveyance of goods’. Hence, shippers were turning to the Hijaz line, whose charges were more reasonable. (F.O. 195/2165, 28 January 1904.)Google Scholar

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page 148 note 3 D.D.F., series 3, vol. III, no. 23.

page 149 note 1 D.D.F., series 3, vol. iv, no. 38. See also no. 359.

page 149 note 2 D.D.F., series 3, vol. VI, no. 518.

page 149 note 3 D.D.F., series 3, vol. VII, no. 5.

page 149 note 4 D.D.F., series 3, vol. VI, no. 646.

page 150 note 1 D.D.F., series 3, vol. VIII, no. 488.

page 150 note 2 M.A.E., , Turquie, N.S. 186, pp. 26–8. D.D.F., series, vol. VI, no. 144.Google Scholar

page 150 note 3 Djemal, Pasha, Memories of a Turkish Statesman, 1913–1919 (London, n.d.), pp. 73–6.Google Scholar

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page 151 note 1 F.O. 424/240, flO. 287.

page 151 note 2 Raymond, Poincaré, Au service de la France, vol. iv (Paris, 1928), p. 14.Google Scholar

page 151 note 3 The text of the accord of 15 February 1914 can be found in D.D.F., series 3, vol. ix, no. 313. Accounts of the negotiations leading up to the accord can be found in a number of sources, among them: Earle, , op. cit., and Wolf, , op. cit.Google Scholar

page 152 note 1 Poincaré, , op. cit. p. 18.Google Scholar

page 152 note 2 Le Petit Parisien, Le Temps, Le Gaulois, all for 17 February 1914.Google Scholar

page 152 note 3 D.D.F., series, vol. X, no. 90.

page 153 note 1 F.O. 800/80, 23 March 1914.Google Scholar

page 153 note 2 Great Britain, House of Commons Debates, 1914, vol. LIX, cols. 2169–70.Google Scholar