Demographics |Government | Hizballah | Prisoner Exchange
Demographic Shift in the Twentieth Century
Lebanon has a tumultuous history of relational power shifting. Beirut’s geographical location as a favourable maritime trading port has for centuries been used as a link between the West and Near East and demographic shifts have been the source of integral change in Lebanon starting with waves of immigrants across what was once ruled by the Ottomans for 400 years 1516-1916.
“Following the capture of Syria from the Ottoman Empire by Anglo-French forces in 1918, France received a mandate over this territory and separated out the region of Lebanon in 1920. France granted this area independence in 1943.”
Inadequate census data has been a challenge of gathering a reliable scope of percentages and this has become a defining feature of political and religious contestation . The most recent and still active struggle in Lebanon stems from the consolidation of the Israeli State for the Jewish people following World War II. In 1948 Lebanon, as part of the Arab League, fought in the Arab-Israeli War, the result of which was massive dislocation of Palestinian refugees . Israel declared its decision to bar refugee return in June 1949 leaving mass amounts of people displaced and conflicts involving the Arab population of Palestinians saw to a steady increase of their numbers throughout the 1950s. Beirut at the start of the 1950s had an already fragile religious balance in the distribution of its population and the waves of immigrants and refugees further compounded the issue of religious domination between Christian and Muslim. Nevertheless in the following years Beirut had become a feature of the Middle-East exerting its long standing position as a trading port. Characterized by a strong economy and mediating development between East and West, Beirut had become the region’s strongest center . This however was not to last. With Christian dominance in decline, a population struggle became the essential trigger of civil unrest by refusing a census propelled by correspondences between Muslim leftwing groups, one of which would evolve into the Lebanese National Movement, in support of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The inability to resolve disputes led to the rising of militant factions which quickly surpassed the power of the Lebanese Army. Religious imbalance loomed and at the core of political and religious sects and it was the desire for dominance which erupted in a fifteen year civil war in 1975.
Dona J. Stewart, “Economic Recovery and Reconstruction in Postwar Beirut”, Geographical Review, American Geographical Society Vol. 86, No. 4 (Oct., 1996), 487
CIA, “The World Factbook- Lebanon”, Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/le.html (11/10/2008).
Muhammad Faour, “The Demography of Lebanon: A Reappraisal”, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1991), 631.
Dona J. Stewart, “Economic Recovery and Reconstruction in Postwar Beirut”, Geographical Review, American Geographical Society Vol. 86, No. 4 (Oct., 1996), 488-489.