Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, by Israel to the south, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance away from the country's coastline. Lebanon is located at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterlands. Lebanon has a population of more than five million people and covers an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi). Beirut is the country's capital and largest city.
The history of Lebanon covers the history of the modern Republic of Lebanon and the earlier emergence of Greater Lebanon under the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, as well as the previous history of the region, covered by the modern state.
This is a demography of the population of Lebanon including population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning Syria and Lebanon. The mandate system was supposed to differ from colonialism, with the governing country intended to act as a trustee until the inhabitants were considered eligible for self-government. At that point, the mandate would terminate and a sovereign state would be born.
The State of Greater Lebanon, informally known as French Lebanon, was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic in May 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon.
The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP), is the oldest continuously-operating Armenian political party, founded in 1887 by a group of students in Geneva, Switzerland. It was the first socialist party to operate in the Ottoman Empire and in Iran, then known as Persia. Among its founders were Avetis Nazarbekian, Mariam Vardanian, Gevorg Gharadjian, Ruben Khan-Azat, Christopher Ohanian, Gabriel Kafian, and Manuel Manuelian. Its original goal was attaining Armenia's independence from the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian national liberation movement.
The King–Crane Commission, officially called the 1919 Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey, consisting primarily of an American delegation was a commission of inquiry concerning the disposition of areas within the former Ottoman Empire.
Raymond Eddé was a Lebanese Maronite statesman who served his country for many years as a legislator and cabinet minister. He led the Lebanese National Bloc, an influential political party. The son of former President Émile Eddé, Raymond Eddé was himself a candidate for the presidency in 1958, and was proposed for the post on numerous subsequent occasions. He is remembered for having held consistent views, which he refused to compromise for the sake of political gain. His supporters called him "Lebanon's Conscience." He was a strong nationalist, who opposed the French Mandate, and later, Syrian, Israeli, and Palestinian military interventions in Lebanon.
Armenians have lived in Lebanon for centuries. According to Minority Rights Group International, there are 156,000 Armenians in Lebanon, around 4% of the population. Prior to the Lebanese Civil War, the number was higher, but the community lost a portion of its population to emigration.
Lebanese Independence Day is the national day of Lebanon, celebrated on 22 November in commemoration of the end of the French Control over Lebanon in 1943, after 23 years of Mandate rule.
The Sursock family is a Greek Orthodox Christian family from Lebanon, and used to be one of the most important families of Beirut. Having originated in Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire, the family has lived in Beirut since 1712, when their forefather Jabbour Aoun left the village of Berbara. After the turn of the 19th century, they began to establish significant positions of power within the Ottoman Empire. The family, through lucrative business ventures, savvy political maneuvering, and strategic marriages, embarked on what Leila Fawaz called "the most spectacular social climb of the nineteenth century," and, at their peak, had built a close network of relations to the families of Egyptian, French, Irish, Russian, Italian and German aristocracies, alongside a manufacturing and distribution empire spanning the Mediterranean.
Lebanon–Syria relations were officially established in October 2008 when Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued a decree to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon for the first time since both countries gained independence from France in 1943 (Lebanon) and 1946 (Syria). Lebanon had traditionally been seen by Syria as part of Greater Syria. Following World War I, the League of Nations Mandate partitioned Ottoman Syria under French control, eventually leading to the creation of nation-states Lebanon and Syria.
France–Lebanon relations are the international relations between France and Lebanon. France, the previous administrative power, enjoys friendly relations with Lebanon and has often provided support to the Lebanese. The French language is widely spoken fluently throughout Lebanon and is taught as well as used as a medium of education in many Lebanese schools. Both nations are members of the Francophonie.
Ottoman Syria was a group of divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of Syria, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and south of the Taurus Mountains.
The Ottoman Empire nominally ruled Mount Lebanon from its conquest in 1516 until the end of World War I in 1918.
Lebanese Shia Muslims, communally and historically known as matāwila, are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role alongside Lebanon's main Sunni, Maronite and Druze sects. The vast majority of Shia Muslims in Lebanon adhere to Twelver Shi'ism, making them the only major Twelver Shia community extant in the Levant.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, also known simply as Tashnag, is an Armenian political party active in Lebanon since the 1920s as an official political party in the country after having started with small student cells in the late 1890s and early 20th century.
The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the Tanzimat reform. After 1861, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian Mutasarrif (governor), which had been created as a homeland for the Maronites under European diplomatic pressure following the 1860 Druze–Maronite conflict. The Maronite Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon.
The Tenth constituency for French residents overseas is one of eleven constituencies each electing one representative of French citizens overseas to the French National Assembly.
The Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918) was a period of mass starvation on Mount Lebanon during World War I that resulted in the deaths of 200,000 people, most of whom were Maronite Christians.
