Syria

Syria, or the Republic of Syria is a Southwest Asian state in the traditional Syrian homeland (excluding Northern Syria). It borders Lebanon and Israel to the west, France to the north, Nejd to the southeast and Araqa to the east.

## **Before the Ottoman Partition**

Before the 1890s, tensions were slowly growing within the Ottoman Empire as a whole, but a big issue was that of Arab nationalism, pan Arabism and, specifically to Syrian Arabs the growing sense of Syrian nationalism. Despite the high autonomy Syrian Arabs had within the Empire, overall their demands kept growing. Yet, Ottoman Syria was a vibrant part of the Empire. Damascus, Aleppo and their coastal cities were sprawling and growing and were by far the biggest areas of Arab nationalism along with Syrian Turkmen minorities.

## **Emergence as a modern nation and struggles as a new state**

After the Civil War was finally over Syria had many struggles and obstacles to over-come. The 1927 crash left many unemployed, and religious tensions had been hugely growing. In the first few months of its independence Syria struggled to maintain itself. In order to prevent a new civil war from ravaging the country, Sultan al-Atrash, still the de-facto leader enacted multiple policy changes as well as the creator behind the Syrian Constitution, granting religious, civil and press liberties, and while Syria was technically democratic, elections were not held and things like women's suffrage and many labor laws were not passed which is why many thought of Syria as an authoritarian democracy. Despite his dictator-esque powers he (Sultan) was beloved by many Syrians. He promoted Syrian nationalism, by mass printing Syrian nationalist literature, creating monuments honoring Syrian heroes and denouncing the Hashemite and Ottoman rule respectively.

Syria was also a place of religious securalism, in part due to the fact that, in a majority Muslim country it was ruled by a Druze man. As a result, things like Jewish culture flourished within Syria. Jewish investments increased slowly throughout the years. To counter-act the unemployment caused by the crash major nationwide initatives were made, such as the expansion of a major trade railroad, stretching from Armenia to Israel and Palestine as well. Investments poured into city centers and coastal towns, despite many critics warnings that these investments will exhaserbate class divides. Nevertheless urban regions recieved massive funds. But another problem was that of the growing Republican forces, known as the Syrian Republican Guard. The SRG had often used violence against the Sultan’s loyalists throughout the years. Formed after the Medina Conference, these forces were at odds with Sultan’s authoritative democracy and due to a breakdown of talks between the Sultan and SRG began using violence.

Despite the world's envenopment into the Great Depression Syria was able to rebuild itself, slowly but surely. But since Syria's independence, calls for a true democracy and for a true republic were growing, and Sultan's legacy and popularity had been deteriorating. In 1933, due to immense public pressure to open the country to nationwide elections, Sultan retaliated with crackdowns. Sultan was unwilling to step down if an election proved him to be less popular to another candidate. In Damascus specifically, the crackdown resulted in 3,000 arrested and 1,000 severely injured. Outraged, tens of thousands marched into urban streets the next week calling for an end to Sultan's rule altogether. As the people were getting angier and angier due to Sultan's refusal to compensate the people, he fled Damascus to the loyal town As Sanamyan. But, as he was traveling, staunchly pro-republican Syrians were able to locate him in the town and planned for his assassination. 1 week into his stay the cries for the end of his regime grew and grew, and the republicans who found him found he had a schedule each day and used it to his advantage. 8 days later as Sultan was still out of Damascus, the republicans infiltrated him home and assassinated him in his sleep. He tried to escape the home he was staying in yet he was unable to flee.