Page:France and the Levant peace conference 1920.djvu/31

]. Menschikov quitted Constantinople, and a conflict became inevitable. The Crimean War, while nominally arising from a quarrel of Creek and Latin monks, was in reality a duel between France and Russia for the mastery of the Levant; and France had the best of the contest.

Shortly after the Crimean War events provided France with another opportunity which she was quick to seize. Syria had suffered grievously in the long duel between Mahmud and Mehemet Ali; and, though the Ottoman Empire was enabled by Palmerston to maintain its possession of the province, its prestige had suffered and the administration was weak and inefficient. Liberated from the firm hand of Ibrahim, the races and creeds of Syria resumed their quarrels. During the Egyptian occupation Christians were told by their priests that Mehemet Ali was the friend of France; but the consideration shown to non-Moslems was bitterly resented by their neighbours. Till 1840 the Maronites (Christians) and Druses (Mohammedans) of the Lebanon were governed by Sheikhs and Emirs, the central power being exercised by the (Moslem) Shehab family, which received its investiture from the Sultan. Before the Egyptian occupation an annual tribute was paid to the Porte; and in certain circumstances a contingent of soldiers had to be provided for service in the Ottoman army. In 1841, after the expulsion of the Egyptians and the Shehab Emir Beshir, Druses and Maronites flew at each other's throats. When, by 1843, Turkish efforts to restore direct government had failed, the five Great Powers intervened and compelled the Sultan to cancel the appointment of a single Turkish Governor and to divide the region into a Maronite mountain and a Druse mountain, with a Christian chief for the Maronites. A renewal of war took place in 1845, when the Maronites determined to expel the Druses and demanded the reinstatement of the Shehab family. The Porte refused and sent a strong force into the Lebanon,