🇱🇧 Lebanon

The Natufian culture was the first to become sedentary at around 12000 BC in the area. It marks the earliest transition from mobile foraging to settled life in the Levantine region that includes Lebanon.

Evidence of early settlement was found in Byblos, considered among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Archaeologists discovered prehistoric huts with crushed limestone floors, primitive weapons and burial jars left by Neolithic and Chalcolithic fishing communities. This gives Lebanon one of the world's longest continuous urban records.

From 3200 to 539 BC the territory formed part of Phoenicia, whose prominent cities were Byblos, Sidon and Tyre. The Phoenicians dominated Mediterranean seaborne trade and are credited with the oldest verified alphabet, which inspired the Greek and later Latin scripts.

In the 9th century BC Phoenician colonies flourished across the Mediterranean, including Carthage in present-day Tunisia and Cádiz in present-day Spain. This colonial network extended Levantine commercial reach across the whole basin before foreign empires imposed tribute.

In 539 BC the cities of Phoenicia were absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire, following earlier Neo-Assyrian tribute demands and Neo-Babylonian control in the 6th century BC. Phoenician independence as a city-state system ended.

The Phoenician city-states were incorporated into Alexander's empire following the siege of Tyre in 332 BC. The conquest brought the coast into the Hellenistic world.

In 64 BC the Roman general Pompey had Syria annexed, and the area was later split into the imperial provinces of Coele-Syria and Phoenice, the latter covering present-day Lebanon. Roman and subsequently Byzantine rule shaped the region's administration for centuries.

A hermit named Maron founded a monastic tradition emphasising monotheism and asceticism near Mount Lebanon in the late 4th and early 5th century. His followers, the Maronites, moved into the mountains to escape persecution by Roman authorities, creating the community that would later dominate Lebanese Christian politics.

During the 7th century Muslims took Syria from the Byzantines, incorporating modern-day Lebanon into the caliphate. Coastal populations converted to Islam after Mu'awiya sent forces there during Uthman's caliphate, while the mountains retained Christian and other practices, establishing Lebanon's enduring sectarian geography.

During the long Roman–Persian Wars, the Sasanian Empire held the territory of present-day Lebanon from 619 to 629. The occupation was brief but weakened Byzantine control shortly before the Muslim conquest.

Fatimid control of Mount Lebanon and the coast in the 980s renewed commercial connections with Byzantium and Italy after three centuries of decline. Tripoli and Tyre flourished into the 11th century exporting textiles, sugar and glassware.

The Druze faith appeared in the 11th century and gained followers in southern Mount Lebanon, which Druze feudal families ruled until the early 14th century. The Druze have remained concentrated in southern Mount Lebanon into the modern era, forming one of Lebanon's core confessional communities.

Frankish crusaders created Catholic states along the Levantine coast, including the County of Tripoli, before the region returned to Muslim control under the Mamluks after two centuries. Contact between the Franks and the Rome-aligned Maronites began centuries of French and Italian patronage of the Maronite community.

In 1516 Ottoman rule was established, with the territory organised into provinces: Northern and Southern Mount Lebanon, Tripoli, Baalbek and the Beqaa Valley, and Jabal Amil. Indirect rule through local emirs preserved considerable autonomy for mountain communities for four centuries.

The Druze leader succeeded Korkmaz in southern Mount Lebanon in 1590, became Sanjak-bey overseeing Ottoman sub-provinces and tax collection, and extended his influence as far as a fort at Palmyra. His autonomous emirate is a founding episode of Lebanese self-rule.

Alarmed by the emir's expansion, the Ottoman sultan sent a punitive expedition in 1633; Fakhr al-Din II was captured, imprisoned for two years and executed in April 1635 with one of his sons. His family governed a reduced area under closer Ottoman supervision until the late 17th century.

On the extinction of the Maan line, members of the Shihab clan governed Mount Lebanon until 1830. Their rule continued the tradition of local dynastic administration under Ottoman suzerainty.

Around 10,000 Christians were killed by the Druze in the 1860 civil war, breaking the general pattern of coexistence. The massacres prompted European diplomatic intervention and the reorganisation of Mount Lebanon's government.

The roughly 400-year-old Emirate of Mount Lebanon was replaced by an autonomous Mutasarrifate with a Christian mutasarrıf, established under European diplomatic pressure after the 1860 massacres as part of Tanzimat reform. It lasted from 1861 to 1918 and gave 'Lebanon' its first life as an administrative unit.

Shia feudal families, notably the Al Ali Alsagheer in Jabal Amel, held power intermittently until 1865 when the Ottomans imposed direct administration. This ended a long era of local Shia autonomy in the south and Beqaa.

Founded in 1896, Asfouriyeh is considered the first modern psychiatric hospital in the Middle East. The devastating impact of the civil war forced its closure in 1982.

During the First World War the Ottoman army assumed direct control, disrupting supplies and confiscating animals, causing famine. Approximately 100,000 people in Beirut and Mount Lebanon died of starvation, a demographic catastrophe that deepened hostility to Ottoman rule.

The 1916 pact delineated Lebanon and surrounding areas as open to French influence or control. It set the framework for the postwar French Mandate once the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Representing the Maronite Christians, Hoayek successfully campaigned at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference for a territory larger than Mount Lebanon, including areas with significant Muslim and Druze populations. This lobbying produced the borders of Greater Lebanon and its mixed confessional composition.

Faisal declared independence and asserted control over Lebanon in 1920, but his kingdom was dissolved after defeat by the French at the Battle of Maysalun. The San Remo Conference then assigned Syria and Lebanon to France, formalised in the Treaty of Sèvres.

On 1 September 1920 Grand Liban was created under French control, uniting Mount Lebanon, North Lebanon, South Lebanon and the Bekaa with Beirut as capital; the arrangement was ratified in July 1922. These boundaries became those of modern Lebanon.

A constitution inspired by the French model was adopted on 23 May 1926 and the Lebanese Republic proclaimed on 1 September 1926. A Lebanese government was established, though the country remained under French control.

The 1932 census found Christians made up 53% of the population. Because relative sect sizes are politically explosive, no census has been conducted since, leaving all later population figures as estimates.

The most notable set of codified Lebanese laws, equivalent to the French Civil Code, was promulgated in 1932. It anchored Lebanon's civil law tradition in the French model.

After Vichy authorities allowed Germany to move aircraft and supplies through Syria to Iraq in 1941, Britain invaded to forestall Nazi control. The campaign broke Vichy power in the Levant and opened the way to Lebanese independence.

On 26 November 1941, after de Gaulle visited and yielded to internal and external pressure, Catroux declared Lebanon's independence under the Free French government. It was the formal first step towards sovereignty.

The 1943 pact required a Maronite Christian president, Sunni Muslim prime minister, Shia Muslim speaker of parliament, and Greek Orthodox deputy speaker and deputy prime minister. This confessional formula defined the Lebanese state's governing arrangement and remains its central political fact.

Elections were held in 1943 and on 8 November the new Lebanese government unilaterally abolished the French mandate. French authorities imprisoned the ministers, prompting popular protests; nationalists declared a provisional government and Britain intervened diplomatically, and under intense pressure the French released the officials on 22 November 1943 and accepted Lebanese independence. An unwritten National Pact agreed the same year divided political power among Lebanon's main religious communities.

When the UN came into existence on 24 October 1945, Lebanon's founding membership legally terminated the French mandate under Article 78 of the Charter. Full independence was thereby attained.

The last French forces left in December 1946, completing the transfer of sovereignty. Lebanon thereafter controlled its own territory and defence.

The 1948 war drove 100,000 Palestinians into Lebanon, and Israel refused their return after the ceasefire. The refugee population, later estimated between 174,000 and 450,000, has lived under legal restrictions on property ownership and occupations, becoming a permanent structural factor in Lebanese politics.

Lebanon backed neighbouring Arab states with artillery cover, armoured cars, volunteers and logistics, though its troops did not officially invade. On 5–6 June 1948 the Lebanese army under Defence Minister Emir Majid Arslan took Al-Malkiyya, its only success of the war.

In the 1950s Lebanese GDP growth was the second highest in the world, built on banking, financial services and distribution for the Middle East, with Beirut serving as the regional hub for finance and trade. The era underpinned Beirut's reputation as the 'Paris of the Middle East' and the 'Switzerland of the Middle East' until the early 1970s, though prosperity alternated with periods of political turmoil.

Lebanese Muslims seeking membership of the United Arab Republic rose in armed insurrection against President Camille Chamoun, who requested American assistance amid regional Arab nationalist tensions; some 5,000 US Marines were dispatched to Beirut from 15 July. American forces withdrew by October after a political settlement installed former general Fouad Chehab as president.

Started in 1960, the programme achieved notable success until 1966, when it was halted because of war and external pressure. It remains Lebanon's only national space effort.

Following the PLO's defeat in Jordan, many Palestinian fighters moved to Lebanon in 1970 and intensified their armed campaign against Israel. The relocation inflamed sectarian tensions with the Maronites and other factions, setting the stage for civil war.

The national fertility rate dropped from 5.00 in 1971 to 1.75 in 2004, varying by sect: 2.10 for Shiites, 1.76 for Sunnis and 1.61 for Maronites in 2004. The decline reshaped Lebanon's demographic balance amid an already contested confessional arithmetic.

Fighting broke out in April 1975, pitting a coalition of Christian groups against the PLO and left-wing Druze and Muslim militias, driven largely by the Palestinian militant presence in the south, and drawing in Syrian, Israeli and Palestinian forces over the following years. The conflict lasted until the end of 1990, killing an estimated 150,000, wounding 200,000 and displacing nearly a million, and reshaped Lebanon's demography and politics.

Over 1.8 million people emigrated between 1975 and 2011, continuing waves that began in the 19th century, so that more people of Lebanese ancestry live abroad than in Lebanon. Major communities are in the United States (around 2 million), Australia (over 270,000), Canada, Brazil, West Africa and the Gulf, where about 350,000 Lebanese work.

The war damaged economic infrastructure, cut national output by half and all but ended Lebanon's position as a West Asian entrepôt and banking centre. Recovery relied on a sound banking system, small manufacturers, family remittances and international aid.

In October 1976 the Arab League agreed to establish a mainly Syrian force charged with restoring calm. It legitimised a Syrian military presence that lasted until 2005.

Four days after Fatah militants hijacked two buses in northern Israel on 11 March 1978, killing 37 Israelis, Israel invaded and occupied most of the area south of the Litani. UNSC Resolution 425 demanded withdrawal and created UNIFIL; Israeli forces left later in 1978 but retained a 19-kilometre security zone held by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army.

Shiite clerics financed and trained by Iran founded Hezbollah in the aftermath of the 1982 war, inspired by the Islamic Revolution. It fought Israel and used suicide attacks, car bombings and assassinations, aiming to end Western presence and establish a Khomeinist state, and became the most heavily armed non-state actor in the world.

On 17 July 1981 Israeli aircraft struck multi-storey buildings in Beirut containing PLO-linked offices; Lebanon's UN delegate claimed 300 civilians killed and 800 wounded. The raid drew worldwide condemnation and a temporary US embargo on aircraft exports to Israel.

PLO attacks from Lebanon prompted a full Israeli invasion in June 1982, following Ariel Sharon's plans drawn up in August 1981 to strike PLO infrastructure in West Beirut; Israeli forces reached and besieged Beirut and went on to occupy the south for years. A multinational American, French and Italian force deployed to supervise the PLO evacuation, and the civil war re-erupted in September 1982 after the assassination of President Bachir Gemayel, with Israel's Lebanese Christian militia allies killing hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese Shia civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

The 10 June decision eased a restriction imposed after Gulf states accused a Lebanese minister of remarks seen as sympathetic to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. It was widely read as a gesture of support for the Aoun government.

The 26 June framework called for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah rejected the proposal shortly afterwards.

The ministry recorded at least 3,020 people killed and 9,273 wounded by 18 May. The figures were not independently verified and covered both fighters and civilians.

The 14 April talks came amid the war triggered by the wider Iran conflict. A short truce between the two countries took effect three days later, though fighting resumed and the truce was extended and renegotiated repeatedly in the following months.

From 2 March 2026 intensified Israeli attacks across Lebanon killed over 1,000 people and displaced nearly a million, roughly 20% of the population. On 24 March Defence Minister Israel Katz announced plans to occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani as a defensive buffer zone, expanded on 31 March to include demolishing residential structures in border villages to prevent about 600,000 displaced residents from returning.

The government cited Iran's financial and military support for Hezbollah in ordering the expulsion on 24 March, during the war with Israel. It marked a further deterioration in relations between Beirut and Tehran.

The 2 March attack prompted an Israeli military operation across Lebanon that continued for months, including strikes on Beirut and a ground incursion in the south. Lebanon's government responded by formally banning Hezbollah's military activities.

The 9 January deal covered offshore exploration south of Beirut, part of long-delayed efforts to develop Lebanon's Mediterranean gas reserves. Lebanon had yet to bring any offshore gas to production despite exploration licences issued from 2017.

The 13 January designation cited the group's support for Hamas. It applied to Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya, the Brotherhood's Lebanese affiliate, which also has an armed wing.

The 23 November strike on the Haret Hreik district killed Tabatabai and four others. It was the most senior Hezbollah figure targeted since the group's ceasefire with Israel took effect in November 2024.

The 11 September decision followed years of delay and allegations of corruption in the telecoms regulatory process. It was intended to improve internet access amid Lebanon's long-running electricity shortages.

The Lebanese army commander became the country's 14th president in January 2025, ending a prolonged void at the head of state. In February Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, former ICJ president, formed a 24-minister government after a two-year caretaker cabinet, winning a confidence vote on 26 February 2025.

The collapse of the Baathist regime in Syria in December 2024 struck at Hezbollah's principal regional ally, already damaged by Israeli military action. Analysts at the United States Institute of Peace judged that the Syrian regime change began a new phase in Lebanese politics.

The Gaza war sparked renewed conflict; Israel detonated Lebanese pagers and walkie-talkies in September 2024, airstrikes on 23 September killed at least 558 people, Hassan Nasrallah was killed on 27 September, and Israel invaded on 1 October to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure. A ceasefire signed in November 2024 gave Hezbollah 60 days to end its armed presence south of the Litani while Israeli forces were to withdraw.

On 1 February 2023 the official exchange rate was cut by 90%, the first devaluation in 25 years. By 2023 GDP had shrunk 40% since 2018, the currency had lost 95% of its value, inflation exceeded 200% and Lebanon was widely considered a failed state.

The 15 May 2022 poll came with more than 80 percent of the population considered poor by the UN. Hezbollah kept its seats but its allies lost enough for the bloc to lose its parliamentary majority; the Lebanese Forces overtook the Free Patriotic Movement as the largest Christian party, and the Future Movement's abstention left a Sunni vacuum.

In April 2022 six people died and about 50 were rescued when an overloaded boat sank off Tripoli. On 22 September at least 94 people were killed when a migrant boat from Lebanon capsized off Syria's coast, with only nine survivors and 40 still missing on 24 September.

On 9 October 2021 the two main power stations ran out of fuel because of the currency crisis and shortages, cutting power to the whole country for a day. The caretaker energy minister had warned in March 2021 of 'total darkness' without money for fuel; a fuel explosion in northern Lebanon killed 28 people in August 2021.

The blast at Beirut's main port on 4 August 2020, caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely for years despite repeated warnings to officials and accidentally set alight, killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and devastated large areas of the city. Renewed protests forced the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his cabinet on 10 August, though they stayed on in caretaker capacity, and no senior figure had been convicted over the explosion by 2026.

Insufficient new deposits by 2019 produced weeks-long bank closures and arbitrary capital controls, culminating in default in 2020. By July 2020 Lebanon suffered its worst economic crisis in decades and was the first Middle East and North African country to record inflation above 50% for 30 consecutive days.

On the night of 13 October 2019 the Lebanese Civil Defense reported some 100 fires spreading across large areas of Lebanon's forests. The disaster came days before the mass protests erupted and highlighted state incapacity.

From 17 October 2019 protests triggered by planned taxes on petrol, tobacco and WhatsApp calls broadened into nationwide condemnation of sectarian rule, the liquidity crisis, unemployment, corruption and failing basic services. Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned, and Hassan Diab was designated premier on 19 December 2019 amid continuing civil disobedience.

The crisis, beginning in autumn, wiped out most of the value of the Lebanese pound and trapped depositors' savings in banks. The World Bank later described it as one of the most severe economic collapses recorded globally since the 1850s.

The 2018 law responded to Human Rights Watch findings in 2017 that open burning posed health risks and breached international obligations. Enforcement lagged: HRW researchers witnessed open burning at al-Qantara and Qabrikha in October 2018.

The February 2016 agreement granted a minimum of €400 million of support for refugees and vulnerable Lebanese citizens. It followed the suspension of Syrian refugee registration by UNHCR on 6 May 2015 at Lebanon's request.

In December 2015 the government agreed with Chinook Industrial Mining to export over 100,000 tons of untreated waste from Beirut at $212 per ton. It withdrew in February 2016 after documents on the export of trash to Russia proved to be forgeries, and on 19 March 2016 the cabinet reopened the Naameh landfill for 60 days to end the crisis.

In an unprecedented move parliament extended its mandate twice amid protests, the last on 5 November 2014, contradicting article 42 of the constitution. Lebanon was also without a president between May 2014 and October 2016, and nationwide elections were only scheduled for May 2018.

On 10 May 2013 the minister said seismic surveys covered about 10% of the sea bed, with preliminary results suggesting over 50% probability that 10% of the EEZ held up to 660 million barrels of oil and up to 30 trillion cubic feet of gas. The prospect offered a potential route out of Lebanon's fiscal dependence.

From 2012 sectarian violence and Sunni–Alawite clashes in Tripoli accompanied the spillover of the Syrian war. UNHCR figures rose from around 250,000 refugees in early 2013 to 1,000,000 in late 2014, and by October 2016 the government estimated 1.5 million Syrians in the country, prompting Christian parties to warn of damage to the confessional system.

Tensions over the tribunal's expected indictment of Hezbollah members for the Hariri assassination brought the cabinet down in early January 2011. Parliament then elected Najib Mikati, the March 8 Alliance candidate, as prime minister.

The LRI was inaugurated in 2011 with plantings of cedar, pine, wild almond, juniper, fir and oak in ten regions, following the Environment Ministry's 2010 ten-year plan to raise forest cover by 20%. Over 600,000 trees have been planted since 2011, with forest cover rising from 13.4% in 2012 to 13.6% in 2016.

Until 2005 Palestinians were barred from over 70 jobs for lack of citizenship; liberalisation laws in 2007 cut the number to around 20, and in 2010 they gained the same work rights as other foreigners. The reforms partially eased decades of occupational exclusion.

The Ministry of Tourism announced in January 2010 that 1,851,081 tourists visited in 2009, up 39% on 2008 and eclipsing the pre-civil war record; The New York Times ranked Beirut the world's top travel destination. Arrivals reached two million in 2010 but fell 37% in the first ten months of 2012 because of the Syrian war.

On 7 May 2008 Hezbollah and Amal forces took western Beirut, Lebanon's main Sunni centre, in what the government called a coup attempt; at least 62 people died. The Doha Agreement of 21 May ended 18 months of paralysis, making Michel Suleiman president and creating a unity government with an opposition veto.

The opposition refused to vote for a successor unless a power-sharing deal was reached, leaving the presidency vacant. The deadlock followed protests from 2006 demanding a national unity government with opposition veto power.

The 2007 Lebanon conflict centred on the Nahr al-Bared camp, killing at least 169 soldiers, 287 insurgents and 47 civilians. Reconstruction funds for the devastated area were slow to materialise.

Hezbollah's cross-border raid of 12 July 2006 killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two, prompting Israeli airstrikes, artillery fire and a ground invasion of the south in a 34-day war. UNSC Resolution 1701 ended the war on 14 August, ordering a ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah's disarmament, with an expanded UNIFIL force deployed; some 1,191 Lebanese and 160 Israelis died and southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs were heavily damaged.

Saudi Arabia pledged US$1.5 billion, the EU about $1 billion and other Gulf states up to $800 million toward reconstruction after the month-long 2006 war damaged the fragile economy and tourism. Over 2008 Lebanon rebuilt infrastructure mainly in real estate and tourism, producing a comparatively robust post-war economy with remittances of $8.2 billion, a fifth of the economy.

Syrian forces began withdrawing by 26 April 2005 after the Hariri assassination and the resulting protests. The departure ended a military occupation that had lasted since 1976.

Former prime minister Rafic Hariri was killed by a car bombing in Beirut on 14 February 2005; the March 14 Alliance blamed Syria while Syria and the March 8 Alliance blamed Israel, and investigators pointed to Syrian and Hezbollah-linked figures, which both denied. The killing triggered mass demonstrations that led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence, as well as UNSC Resolution 1595 and the Mehlis report of 20 October 2005 citing indications of Syrian and Lebanese intelligence involvement; a UN-backed tribunal later tried suspects linked to Hezbollah in absentia.

Beirut hosted the Arab summit in March 2002, reflecting restored standing among Arab states after the civil war. Lebanon also hosted the Francophonie Summit in October 2002 and the Jeux de la Francophonie in 2009.

Negotiations concluded in late 2001 and both sides initialled the accord in January 2002. It formalised Lebanon's trade and political relationship with the EU.

Israel completed its withdrawal in May 2000, ending a presence dating from 1978 and its security zone in the south. The Lebanese mark 25 May as Liberation Day; the withdrawal, coupled with Hafez al-Assad's death that year, emboldened opposition to Syrian troops.

Following the closure of the Bourj Hammoud dump in 1997, al-Naameh was opened in 1998. Local residents forced its closure in July 2015 after years of protest, precipitating a national waste crisis.

Under Taif the 6:5 ratio favouring Christians was replaced by parity, with the 128 seats divided equally between Christians and Muslims and proportionately among 18 denominations and 26 regions. Article 95 was amended in 1990 to commit parliament to eventually abolishing confessional political structures.

After an Arab League committee issued an accepted peace plan on 16 September 1989, Lebanon's parliament approved the Taif Agreement, which restructured power-sharing among the country's religious communities and set a timetable for Syrian withdrawal and a formula for de-confessionalising politics. The 15-year war, which killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced roughly a million more, ended at the close of 1990; the agreement formed the basis of the postwar political system though it has never been implemented in full.

Differences between Christians, Muslims and Syrians prevented parliament from choosing a president in September 1988. The vacancy deepened the constitutional crisis at the end of the civil war.

By the end of 1987 the pound had fallen so far that the legal minimum wage was worth about $17 a month and most shop goods were priced in dollars. A Save the Children director estimated 200,000–300,000 children needed assistance and lived almost entirely on subsidised bread.

The American, French, Italian and British contingents were pulled out in spring 1984 following a devastating bombing attack the previous year. Their departure left the warring Lebanese factions and Syria dominant.