Franco-Syrian War

Franco-Syrian War
Part of the interwar period

Syrian soldiers at Maysalun, 1920
Date8 March 1920 – 25 July 1920[2][3][4][5]
(4 months, 2 weeks and 3 days)
Location
Result

French victory

Territorial
changes
Dissolution of the Arab Kingdom of Syria
Belligerents

French Third Republic French Republic

Kingdom of Syria

  • Kingdom of Hejaz Arab militias
HaShomer
Commanders and leaders
French Third Republic Alexandre Millerand
French Third Republic Henri Gouraud
French Third Republic Mariano Goybet
French Third Republic Georges Clemenceau
King Faisal Surrendered
Yusuf al-'Azma 
Kingdom of Hejaz Ibrahim Hananu[6]
Kingdom of Hejaz Subhi Barakat[6]
Kingdom of Hejaz Saleh al-Ali
Ahmed ibn Ali w Mohhamd ibn Talut Executed
Joseph Trumpeldor 
Strength
70,000 French soldiers[1] 5,000 Arab militias
Casualties and losses
5,000 killed 8 killed

The Franco-Syrian War took place during 1920 between the Hashemite rulers of the newly established Arab Kingdom of Syria and France. During a series of engagements, which climaxed in the Battle of Maysalun, French forces defeated the forces of the Hashemite monarch King Faisal, and his supporters, entering Damascus on July 24, 1920. A new pro-French government was declared in Syria on July 25, headed by 'Alaa al-Din al-Darubi[7] and the region of Syria was eventually divided into several client states under the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. The British government, concerned for their position in the new mandate in Iraq, agreed to declare the fugitive Faisal as the new king of Iraq.

  1. ^ a b Caroline Camille Attié: Struggle in the Levant: Lebanon in the 1950s, I.B.Tauris, 2004, ISBN 1860644678, page 15-16
  2. ^ Sarkees, Meredith Reid; Wayman, Frank Whelon (1 July 2010). Resort to war: a data guide to inter-state, extra-state, intra-state, and non-state wars, 1816-2007. CQ Press. ISBN 9780872894341 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Peretz, Don (3 September 1994). The Middle East Today. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275945756 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Benny Morris. Victims. the date of the first attack of Arabs against French interest on March, 1st.
  5. ^ Tom Segev in One Palestine. Complete. the date of the first attack of Arabs against French interest on March, 1st.
  6. ^ a b Tauber E. The Formation of Modern Syria and Iraq. p.22
  7. ^ Eliezer Tauber The Formation of Modern Syria and Iraq. p.37