Histoire du mandat

Following the First World War and the collapse of the Turkish empire, the Versailles Treaty placed Syria and the Lebanon under French mandate. Newsreels and witnesses bring to light a forgotten colonial undertaking. “I think that French policy, from the Versailles Treaty until 1945, shows no real continuity, and gradually inspired mistrust on the part of the Syrian people and its leaders. There were also profoundly differing stances among politicians (i.e. Léon Blum in 1936). There were those, in France, who favoured Syria’s independence, and government officials and army whose only objective was to perpetuate the colonial system.” Jean Baronnet