Several groups had called for a boycott of the 1921 census to oppose the French colonial enterprise in the Levant. This was the case of inhabitants of the southern and northern regions of Lebanon, which were predominantly Muslim, who were unable to prove their residence on 30 August 1924, and were therefore recorded as "foreigners" in the 1932 census. Similarly, many Bedouins who had fought the French troops in Marjayoun and Rayak in 1920 refused to recognize the legitimacy of the French mandate over Lebanon. It was in opposition to this colonial presence that a majority refused the census and naturalization undertakings, and were therefore excluded from Lebanese nationality, creating a large wave of stateless people.