At the end of World War I, the Allied forces put Lebanon under French military occupation.
In 1923, the League of Nations (forerunner to the United Nations) formally gave Lebanon and Syria to France. The Maronite Christians, pro-French by tradition, welcomed this development. During the next 20 years, while France ruled, the Maronites were favo red.

However, the redefinition of Lebanon changed the demographic makeup of the country. Muslims and Christians were about equally divided, and many residents didn't want to be ruled by France or to be independent. They wanted to be part of a larger Syrian or Arab country. To ease tensions, the constitution provided that the president would normally be a Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the chamber a Shi`ite Muslim. Under French rule, education, public utilities and communication improved. Beirut prospered as a trade center. As the middle class of Beirut grew, so did a frail sense of common national interest and a desire for more independence.

But France was having troubles at home. Its neighbor Germany had slipped into the rule of the
Nazis. When France fell to Germany in 1940 during World War II, British and Free French tropps occupied Lebanon. These troops proclaimed Lebanon and Syria indepe ndent, but because their own status was so precarious, the Free French continued to occupy Lebanon.

In 1943, they allowed elections to take place. Under the new president, the legislature adopted
changes in the constitution that did away with French influence. The French objected. On Nov. 11, 1943, the French arrested almost the entire Lebanese governme nt, leading to war. The British intervened, and the French restored the government and transferred power to it.

In 1945, after more insurrection and as World War II reached its climax, the British and French
began withdrawing from Lebanon. By 1946, the withdrawal was complete, and Lebanon became officially independent.

WORLD WAR I AND THE FRENCH MANDATE, 1914-41
The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 brought Lebanon further problems, as Turkey allied itself with Germany and AustriaHungary . The Turkish government abolished Lebanon's semiautonomous status and appointed Jamal Pasha, then minister of the navy, as the commander in chief of the Turkish forces in Syria, with discretionary powers. Known for his harshness, he militarily occupied Lebanon and replaced the Armenian mutasarrif, Ohannes Pasha, with a Turk, Munif Pasha.
In February 1915, frustrated by his unsuccessful attack on the British forces protecting the Suez Canal, Jamal Pasha initiated a blockade of the entire eastern Mediterranean coast to prevent supplies from reaching his enemies and indirectly caused thousands of deaths from widespread famine and plagues. Lebanon suffered as much as, or more than, any other Ottoman province. The blockade deprived the country of its tourists and summer visitors, and remittances from relatives and friends were lost or delayed for months. The Turkish Army cut down trees for wood to fuel trains or for military purposes. In 1916 Turkish authorities publicly executed twenty-one Syrians and Lebanese in Damascus and Beirut, respectively, for alleged
anti-Turkish activities. The date, May 6, is commemorated annually in both countries as Martyrs' Day, and the site in Beirut has come to be known as Martyrs' Square.
Relief came, however, in September 1918 when the British general Edmund Allenby and Faysal I, son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, moved into Palestine with British and Arab forces, thus opening the way for the occupation of Syria and Lebanon. At the San Remo Conference held in Italy in April 1920, the Allies gave France a mandate over Greater Syria. France then
appointed General Henri Gouraud to implement the mandate provisions.

The Mandate Period
On September 1, 1920, General Gouraud proclaimed the establishment of Greater Lebanon with its present boundaries and with Beirut as its capital. The first Lebanese constitution was promulgated on May 23, 1926, and subsequently amended several times; it was still in effect as of late 1987. Modeled after that of the French Third Republic, it provided for a unicameral
parliament called the Chamber of Deputies, a president, and a Council of Ministers, or cabinet. The president was to be elected by the Chamber of Deputies for one six-year term and could not be reelected until a six-year period had elapsed; deputies were to be popularly elected along confessional lines. The first and only complete census that had been held in Lebanon as of 1987 took place in 1932 and resulted in the custom of selecting major political officers according to the proportion of the principal sects in the population . Thus, the president was to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies a Shia Muslim. Theoretically, the Chamber of Deputies performed the legislative function, but in fact bills were prepared by the executive and submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, which passed them virtually without exception. Under the Constitution, the French high commissioner still exercised supreme power, an arrangement that initially brought objections from the Lebanese nationalists. Nevertheless, Charles Dabbas, a Greek Orthodox, was elected the first president of Lebanon three days after the adoption of the Constitution.
At the end of Dabbas's first term in 1932, Bishara al Khuri (also cited as Khoury) and Emile Iddi (also cited as Edde) competed for the office of president, thus dividing the Chamber of Deputies. To break the deadlock, some deputies suggested Shaykh Muhammad al Jisr, who was chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Muslim leader of Tripoli, as a compromise candidate. However, French high commissioner Henri Ponsot suspended the constitution on May 9, 1932, and extended the term of Dabbas for one year; in this way he prevented the election of a Muslim as president. Dissatisfied with Ponsot's conduct, the French authorities replaced him with Comte Damien de Martel, who, on January 30, 1934, appointed Habib as
Saad as president for a one-year term (later extended for an additional year).
Emile Iddi was elected president on January 30, 1936. A year later, he partially reestablished the Constitution of 1926 and proceeded to hold elections for the Chamber of Deputies. However, the Constitution was again suspended by the French high commissioner in September 1939, at the outbreak of World War II.