Civil Disturbances

Abstract

The mid-nineteenth century was a time of trouble not only for Lebanon but for the whole Ottoman Empire. Turkey was declining at an accelerated pace. Its internal weaknesses were exacting their toll and its covetous neighbours were increasing their pressure. Czarist Russia played its active role as protector of the Greek Orthodox subjects of the sultan. If France could pose as protector of the Catholics in Turkey, why could not Russia assume the same role toward her coreligionists there ? England sought a comparable point of contact and found it in the Druze community. Concurrently a new imperialist power was emerging, Austro-Hungary, with territorial ambitions to expand eastward at the expense of neighbouring Turkey. All these powers approached what they called the Eastern Question, each from its own economic and maritime interests in an area of supreme geopolitical importance. Bashir’s Lebanon, thrust into the Eastern Question, acquired a new dimension, the international one, with which it never parted. It has since played a role in regional as well as international affairs disproportionate to its geographical area and numerical strength.