Claim: The Alawite State, a territory populated by a sect of Shia Islam called Alawites, was created out of French control over parts of Syria in the early 1900s.
Evidence: The Alawite State (Arabic: دولة جبل العلويين‎, Dawlat Jabal al-'Alawiyyīn; French: État des Alaouites), officially named the Territory of the Alawites (French: territoire des Alaouites), after the locally-dominant Alawites from its inception until its integration to the Syrian Federation in 1922, was a French mandate territory on the coast of present-day Syria after World War I. Shia Islam (Alawite faith), Christianity As of 1918, France occupied Lebanon and Syria, which was under the leadership of the Amir (Emir) Faisal I.