The Ottoman (modern-day Turkish) Empire rose between 1512 to 1520. They defeated the Mamluks in 1516-17 and added Lebanon to their empire. The Ottomans didn't interfere much withLebanon, content to let the local Maan family rule the country. The Manns were Druze, a branch off Muslim with secret beliefs.Under Fakhr al-Din, who began his reign in 1593, the Maans unified Lebanon's religious groups and Encouraged stronger ties with Europe. Al-Din kickstarted an independence movement. But the Ottomans found out about it and executed him in 1635.

The Ottomans then turned over the governing of Lebanon to the Shihabs, another family. But
Bashir Shihab II allied himself with Egyptian leader Muhammad Ali Pasha, who kicked the
Ottomans out of Lebanon in 1831. However, the Shihabs upped taxes and forced men to serve in
the military. The Maronites and Druze revolted. In 1840, the Ottomans and British exiled Bashir
Shihab II. As a way to squelch independence movements, the Ottomans encouraged the Christians
and Druze to distrust and hate one another. In 1860 the Druze massacred the Maronites. When the
Ottomans did nothing, the French intervened on behalf of the Maronites.

Then the Ottomans, with European help, installed a Christian governor appointed by the Ottoman
sultan in 1861. This lasted until World War I, when the Ottomans took direct control of Lebanonfor the first time since they conquered it.

In World War I, the Ottoman Empire joined forces with Germany and Austria-Hungary in battling
the Allied Forces of England, France and later, the United States. When the war ended, the
Ottoman Empire was no more. The Allies put Lebanon under French control. The first Lebanese
constitution went into effect in 1926.