First Syrian Republic

The First Syrian Republic was formed in 1930 as the civilian face of the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, replacing the State of Syria that France had cobbled together from Ottoman provinces. Its capital was Damascus, and a constitution and parliament gave the country its first modern republican institutions, though real power stayed with the French high commissioner. A treaty of independence was negotiated in 1936, but the French parliament refused to ratify it and the republic was left in limbo. After the fall of France in 1940 the administration came under Vichy control; British and Free French forces invaded in 1941 and promised independence. That promise was slow to keep: independence was proclaimed in 1944, the United Nations recognised the republic in October 1945, and the last French troops left on 17 April 1946. The new state then had to absorb the other mandate statelets and build a national army and bureaucracy. A new constitution adopted on 5 September 1950 replaced it with the Second Syrian Republic. The period is remembered for the founding of a Syrian parliament, press and party politics, and for the unresolved tension between nationalist politicians and the army.