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History

General History

Syria, located in the Levant region of the Middle East, is one of the world's oldest inhabited areas, with evidence of human settlement as early as 700,000 years ago. Its modern capital city of Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and has witnessed the rise and fall of Sumerian, Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian, and many subsequent civilizations. Historically, the term Syria was applied to much of the Levant region of the Middle East, encompassing modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan.

In the medieval period, Syria became a pivotal region in the Islamic world when Damascus became the capital of the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate in 637 AD. The region experienced various periods of stability and turmoil under subsequent Islamic dynasties, including the Abbasids, Fatimids, and Seljuks. The Ottoman Empire conquered Syria in 1516, ushering in a relatively stable period that lasted until the early 20th century.

In 1918, British-backed Arab rebels successfully liberated Damascus from Ottoman control and, in 1920, declared the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria under the leadership of King Faisal. That same year the kingdom was defeated by French troops, and France controlled Syria and Lebanon as mandates until 1946, when Syria gained independence as the Syrian Arab Republic.

The decades following Syria's independence were marked by political flux, with the country witnessing a number of coup d'états and even a brief union with Egypt from 1958-1961 under the name the United Arab Republic. The Ba'ath Party rose to power in 1963, and after 1970 was under the sole control of the al-Assad family. The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, leading to the death of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions of Syrians. The al-Assad regime collapsed in November 2024 and the political situation in Syria continues to evolve, with several portions of the country remaining fragmented.

Timeline

1516 Ottoman Empire conquers the region of modern Syria.

1920 Proclamation of the Arab Kingdom of Syria. The kingdom is defeated by the French, which form a mandate over the region.

1924 State of Syria established under French Mandate.

1930 Syrian Republic established by merger of States of Jabal Druze, Alawites and Syria.

1946 Syrian Arab Republic gained independent.

1958 Merger of Syria and Egypt into the United Arab Republic.

1961 Secession of Syria from the United Arab Republic.

1963 Syrian Ba'ath Party gains control of the country in a coup d'état.

2011 Armed conflict in Syria begins, with a number of countries in the region and beyond involved militarily or otherwise.

2024 Bashar al-Assad flees Syria and Ba'ath rule ends.