Mandatory development: The political economy of the French mandate in Syria and Lebanon, 1915--1939

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War One, France ruled Lebanon and Syria on behalf of the League of Nations as an 'A' mandate until 1946. The French administration was supposed to facilitate the creation of constitutions, parliaments, social infrastructure and legal systems for the mandate territories. But Lebanon and Syria also became part of a French colonial empire then at its apogee, informed by assumptions of French superiority, but enfeebled by the Great War, and reliant on military coercion, legal and social differentiation and economic exploitation.;This dissertation explores the political economy of French rule in the mandate. Based on extensive archival research, the study examines the tensions between French imperial and mandatory agendas, notably their aim to improve and profit from the economic resources of the mandate zones, and the goals and aspirations of Syro-Lebanese constituencies. Initially, I explore the ideas and plans for the post-World War One empire publicized by French colonialists, and examine how they assessed the economic potential of Syria and Lebanon, drawing as they did so on cultural typologies. I also ask how Syro-Lebanese groups tried to appropriate such ideas in the fluid period at the end of the war. Next, I examine the politics of utility concessions in Lebanon and Syria during the 1920s and 1930s, explaining how Syro-Lebanese protested the French approach to economic development through boycott movements. Although nationalist and class politics featured in such movements, the boycotts remained protean, and accomodated Syro-Lebanese reformists with limited ameliorative agendas. A further chapter on trade fairs examines the dynamics of another arena of protest large enough to accomodate numerous positions on the politics of the economy. Finally, I ask how the Syro-Lebanese diaspora around the world worked, through the League of Nations in particular, to influence and protest economic policy in the mandate. Through this transnational mode of analysis, and more broadly by concentrating on political-economic questions, rooted in the details of infrastructure concessions, this study departs from the standard concentration in the existing historiography, which has focussed on politics and sectarianism to a restrictive degree.