From time to time I see or hear statements like ‘They don’t like us’ or ‘They aren’t like us’ in reference to the people and countries in Western Asia and Northern Africa.
And I sometimes hear comments or responses like ‘It’s because they’re Arabs’ or ‘It’s because they’re Muslims’.
But maybe there are other reasons. Maybe it has something to do with what happened in those countries before, during, and after World War II when the West was ostensibly trying to end colonialism and to make the world a better place following the destruction of World War I.
Since Syria is in the news a lot these days and probably will continue to be, I thought I’d give a little information about two aspects - borders and finance/banking - of Syria’s history as an example of what happened in these regions during this period.
A useful map of Syria can be found here.
The process by which the borders of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Republic of Lebanon were established is a story of imperialistic ineptitude and callousness, as is how their money, banking systems and public finances were handled.
The External Borders of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon
- When the French Republic was selected to be the Mandatory for Syria by the Principal Allied Powers on April 25, 1920 during the San Remo Conference the borders of Mandatory Syria were left undefined, but it was agreed that Mandatory Syria would be the generally defined areas assigned to France (minus Mosul) in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 16, 1916.
At the conference the Principal Allied Powers also gave themselves the power to determine the borders of the mandates for Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine.
- The first attempt to determine the northern border of Mandatory Syria was in the Treaty of Sevres, which was signed by the Allies and the Ottoman Empire on August 10, 1920.
In the treaty the Ottoman Empire gave up all its rights to its Arab territories, agreed to the creation of the mandates for Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine, and agreed that the Principal Allied Powers would select their Mandatories and determine their borders.
According to the terms of the treaty the northern border of Mandatory Syria was placed about 30 to 50 kilometers north of what is now the border between Turkey and Syria and extend westward to about 20 km west of the west coast of the Gulf of Alexandretta.
However, the treaty was never ratified by the Ottoman Parliament and never came into effect. It was superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923.
- The southern border of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon (with Mandatory Palestine) and the eastern border of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon (with Mandatory Mesopotamia) were first defined in the Franco-British Convention on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia, which was signed by the British and French Governments on December 23, 1920.
The borders were very generally defined in the convention so the terms of the convention called for the establishment of a commission which would determine the borders in detail, demarcate them on the ground, and prepare a final detailed report on the border for the approval of the British and French Governments.
The convention also stated that if there were any disputes between the two governments about the report, the matter would be referred to the Council of the League of Nations for a final decision.
- As Turkish Liberation forces pushed French occupation forces southward, the Treaty of Ankara (Franco-Turkish Agreement of Ankara) was signed by the French Government and the Government of the Grand National Assembly of Ankara on October 20, 1921.
The treaty ended the hostilities between the two signatories, stated that a special administrative regime was to be established in the district of Alexandretta, and defined the border between Turkey and Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon.
The district of Alexandretta was a point of contention for Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) because the district had not been occupied by Allied forces when the Armistice of Moudros came into effect on October 31, 1918 and he believed that it belonged to Turkey according to the terms of the armistice.
The border established in the treaty is essentially the border which exists today except for the district of Alexandretta which remained under French control.
- The Demarcation Agreement containing the final report of the commission established in the Franco-British Convention on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia of 1920 was signed by the British and French Governments on February 3, 1922 and ratified by them on March 7, 1923.
The report included in the agreement defined in detail only the section of the border between Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon and Mandatory Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to El-Hamme, which was southeast of Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee).
- The Treaty of Lausanne was signed by the Allies and the Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on July 24, 1923 and came into force on August 6, 1924.
In the treaty the border between Turkey and Syria which had been established in the Treaty of Ankara of 1921 was confirmed, and Turkey renounced all rights and title to all territories situated outside the borders established in the treaty.
In order to maintain the validity of Article 7 of the Treaty of Ankara of 1921, which established autonomy and other special conditions for the district of Alexandretta, the Treaty of Lausanne stated that any special arrangements which had been or may be concluded with neighboring countries would still be valid.
- The League of Nations Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon and the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine entered into force on September 23, 1923.
Following this, France and Britain no longer had the power to independently determine borders which they had been granted under the terms of the decisions made at the San Remo Conference in 1920.
Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon - ARTICLE 4
The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no part of the territory of Syria and the Lebanon is ceded or leased or in any way placed under the control of a foreign Power.
Mandate for Palestine - ARTICLE 5
The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of, the Government of any foreign Power.
However, the Mandates also stated that modifications to the mandates could be made with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations.
Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon - ARTICLE 18
The consent of the Council of the League of Nations is required for any modification of the terms of this mandate.
Mandate for Palestine - ARTICLE 27
The consent of the Council of the League of Nations is required for any modification of the terms of this mandate.
- The border between Turkey and Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon which had been established in the Treaty of Ankara of 1921 was defined in detail in the Delimitation of the Frontier Protocol of February 18, 1926, which was annexed to the Convention of Friendship and Good Neighbourly Relations between France and Turkey of May 30, 1926, and the Protocol of Delimitation of June 22, 1929, which were all signed by the Turkish and French Governments.
The details of the delimitation of the border were submitted in a report to the League of Nations on May 3, 1930.
The Convention of Friendship and Good Neighbourly Relations between France and Turkey of 1926 also contains this paragraph:
Whatever administrative measures may be taken and whatever organic statute may be established in Syria, the special régime established for the district of Alexandretta under Article VII of the Angora Agreement shall always be taken into account.
- In order to finalize the border between Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon and the Transjordan territory of Mandatory Palestine, as had been called for in the Franco-British Convention on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia of 1920, the British and French Governments signed the Protocol of Agreement on October 31, 1931.
Many changes were made to this border in the protocol so it had to be submitted to the Council of the League of Nations for approval and it was approved by the Council on January 30, 1932.
- As a part of the process to admit Iraq to the League of Nations, the Council of the League of Nations established a commission to study, demarcate, and finalize the border between Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon and Mandatory Iraq in December, 1931.
The commission was established by the Council at the request of the British and French Governments who based their request on the terms of the Franco-British Convention on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia of 1920.
The Report of the Commission entrusted by the Council with the study of the Frontier between Syria and Iraq, which made significant changes to the border - moving it westward to include all of the Sinjar Mountains in Iraq, was accepted by the Council of the League of Nations on September 10, 1932.
- When the district of Alexandretta was included in the Republic of Syria according to the terms of the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of September 9, 1936, Turkey made an objection to Alexandretta’s inclusion in the Republic of Syria to the Council of the League of Nations.
Turkey’s objection was based on the Treaty of Ankara of 1921 in which Alexandretta was declared to be autonomous. The Turkish Government maintained that Alexandretta could not be included in the Republic of Syria and that it should become independent just as the Republic of Syria was to become according to the terms of the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1936.
The French Government and Council of the League of Nations’ position was based on Article Four of the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon which made France, as the Mandatory Power, ‘responsible for seeing that no part of the territory of Syria and the Lebanon is ceded or leased or in any way placed under the control of a foreign Power’.
In order to resolve this dispute the Council of the League of Nations approved the Franco-Turkish Agreement on Alexandretta which was signed by the French and Turkish Governments on January 24, 1937.
The Franco-Turkish Agreement on Alexandretta contained the decision of the Council of the League of Nations. The Council had decided that Alexandretta would be a separate self-governing state, that Alexandretta’s foreign relations would be handled by Syria, that there would be a customs and monetary union between Alexandretta and Syria, that the Council would draft a new constitution for Alexandretta, and that a commission would demarcate the border between Alexandretta and Syria and prepare a report describing the border in detail for the Council.
On September 2, 1938 the newly-elected Parliament of Alexandretta convened and four days later approved the constitution which had been prepared for Alexandretta by the League of Nations, and also adopted the name the State of Hatay (The Republic of Hatay) for the newly established country.
The Protocol which contained the report of the Franco-Turkish Commission which had demarcated the border between Alexandretta and Syria was signed by the French and Turkish Governments on May 19, 1939.
Less than a month later the French Government relinquished all rights to the State of Hatay in the Franco-Turkish Agreement on Hatay, which was signed by the French and Turkish Governments on June 23, 1939. On the same day the Parliament of the now independent State of Hatay met and voted to dissolve the government in preparation for its annexation by the Republic of Turkey, which occurred one month later on July 23, 1939.
Only a week after it relinquished all rights to the State of Hatay, the French Government announced that it no longer supported the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1936 which had caused the Alexandretta dispute and had still not been ratified by the French Government even though almost three years had passed since it had been signed.
The Internal Boundaries in Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon
Three months after France was selected to be the Mandatory for Syria at the San Remo Conference, and before any of Mandatory Syria’s borders were defined, the French Government began splitting up the mandated territory.
On September 1, 1920 the State of Greater Lebanon was created. It included the areas which representatives of the Ottoman District of Mount Lebanon had requested be added to Mount Lebanon in resolutions they had submitted to the Paris Peace Conference.
Most of the Sidon District of the Province of Beirut - which was south of Mount Lebanon, the southern half of the Tripoli District of the Province of Beirut - which was north of Mount Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley and the Anti-Lebanon mountains of the Province of Damascus - which were east and northeast of Mount Lebanon, and the city of Beirut - which was the capital of the Province of Beirut, were annexed to the District of Mount Lebanon to create the State of Greater Lebanon.
On December 1, 1920 the State of Damascus was created in the south central and southeastern areas of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon, the State of Aleppo was created in the northern and eastern areas of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon, and the autonomous Alawite Territory was created in the areas north of the State of Greater Lebanon up to the district of Alexandretta which was part of the State of Aleppo.
On May 1, 1921 the autonomous Druze Territory was created in the southern part of the State of Damascus, and it became the State of Souaida on March 4, 1922.
On July 1, 1922 the Union of Syrian States (the Syrian Federation) was created. It consisted of the State of Damascus, the State of Aleppo, and the autonomous Alawite Territory.
On March 4, 1923 the autonomous Alexandretta District was created.
On January 1, 1925 the Union of Syrian States was dissolved. The State of Damascus and the State of Aleppo were also dissolved and then combined to form the State of Syria, and the autonomous Alawite Territory became the Alawite State.
On May 23, 1926 the State of Greater Lebanon became the Republic of Lebanon.
On June 2, 1927 the State of Souaida was renamed the Jebel Druze State.
On September 22, 1930 the Alawite State was renamed the State of Latakia.
On July 11, 1932 the State of Syria became the Republic of Syria.
According to the terms of the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance which was signed by the French and Syrian Governments on September 9, 1936 the Jebel Druze State, the State of Latakia, and the Alexandretta District were to be included in the Republic of Syria. However, after the Syrian Chamber of Deputies ratified the treaty on December 26, 1936 only the Jebel Druze State and the State of Latakia were integrated into the Republic of Syria.
On June 23, 1939 the French Government relinquished all rights to the newly-independent State of Hatay, which had been the autonomous Alexandretta District until September 2, 1938.
In July, 1939 after the French Government announced that it no longer supported the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1936, the Jebel Druze State and the State of Latakia once again became autonomous.
At the same time a new autonomous region, Jazira, was also established. Jazira was the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers in eastern Mandatory Syria and had been a part of the Republic of Syria. Due to the upheaval of World War II, Jazira was reintegrated into the Republic of Syria in 1940.
After the Free French allowed a local government to be elected in the Republic of Syria in 1943 and began transferring many of its Mandatory powers to the Republic of Syria on January 1, 1944, the Jebel Druze State and the State of Latakia were once again reintegrated into the Republic of Syria.
The internal borders of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon were entirely a French matter, and the French Government did not exert a lot of effort in defining or documenting these borders while it was the Mandatory Power. The border between Lebanon and Syria, like all of the other internal borders of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon, existed entirely at the whim of the French Government, so there are no international treaties, and very little definitive documentation, which define the current border between Lebanon and Syria.
Money, Banking Systems and Public Finance
On March 13, 1920, before France was selected to be the Mandatory for Syria at the San Remo Conference, the French High Commissioner in Beirut issued a decree creating a Syrian national currency in the areas under his administration.
The Bank of Syria, which had recently been established in Beirut and was owned primarily by the French, was granted the concession of issuing the Syrian pound, which became the legal tender of Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon on May 1, 1920.
The Syrian pound was a derivative of the French franc and controlled by the French Treasury, and due to its concession to issue the Syrian pound the Bank of Syria controlled the banking in Mandatory Syria and the Lebanon.
On January 23, 1924 the Bank of Syria’s concession to issue the Syria pound was extended for a 15-year period, beginning April 1, 1924. On that date the name of the bank was changed to the Bank of Syria and Great Lebanon and the name of the currency was changed to the Lebanese-Syrian pound.
On May 29, 1937 the Bank of Syria and Greater Lebanon’s concession to issue the Lebanese-Syria pound was extended for a 25-year period, beginning April 1, 1939. On that date the bank began issuing the Lebanese pound and the Syrian pound separately. Both currencies still had the same value and could be used throughout Mandatory Syria, but the accounting for the two currencies was separated as of April 1, 1939.
After Syrian independence in 1946 the Republic of Syria began efforts to take control of its currency and finances and joined the IMF on April 10, 1947.
In 1948 Syria forced the Lebanese pound and the Syrian pound to be independent of each other.
All Syrian assets had been kept in Paris and London during the mandate, and according to the terms of the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, France was to be reimbursed for any expenses it had incurred in administering the mandate. The Mandate also stated that the Government which resulted following the mandate was to assume the mandate’s debts and financial obligations. In order to resolve these issues, on February 7, 1949 the Convention on Winding-Up Operations, the Convention on Settlement of Debt-Claims, and the Payments Agreement were signed by the Syrian and French Governments. In the agreements the French Government agreed to return to the Syrian Government, over a period of ten years, the Syrian treasury funds and other assets which it had retained possession of following Syrian independence.
In 1950 Syria ended the customs union between Syria and Lebanon which had been established by France during the mandate and began allowing banks to be established in Syria.
In 1953 Syria passed a law calling for the establishment of the Central Bank of Syria. Following two years of negotiations with the Bank of Syria and Lebanon, whose concession was set to continue until March 31, 1964, over compensation to be paid to the bank and one year of preparation, the Central Bank of Syria was established on August 1, 1956 and began issuing the Syrian Pound.