History UsefulNotes / Lebanon

!!Lebanese media
[[AC:Actors]]
* Creator/CaseyKasem (Lebanese-American)
* Creator/IreneWhite (Lebanese-American)
* Creator/TonyShalhoub (Lebanese-American)
* Creator/PiterMarek (Lebanese-American)
* Creator/SalmaHayek
* Creator/AlejandroSaab
* Creator/KathyNajimy
* Mia Khalifa
[[AC:Artists]]
* Creator/KhalilGibran
[[AC:Comic books]]
* ''ComicBook/MalaakAngelOfPeace'' is the one Lebanese comic series to date, set in a warring Lebanon that criss-crosses with a mythological one.
[[AC:Directors]]
* Creator/JosefFares (Lebanese-Swedish)
[[AC:Films -- Live Action]]
* ''Film/TheInsult'', a 2017 film in which a minor confrontation between a Christian car mechanic and a Palestinian construction worker in Lebanon blows up into a major incident and a trial. First Lebanese film to get an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
[[AC:Films -- Animated]]
* ''Animation/{{Waves 98}}'' is an animated short film in which a young student in Beirut gets aboard a gigantic golden elephant (really!) and takes a strange and mystical journey.
[[AC:Musicians]]
* Music/DianaHaddad (Lebanese-Kuwaiti)
* Music/MashrouLeila
[[AC:Myths]]
* Myth/ArabMythology
* Myth/CanaaniteMythology
[[AC:Video Games]]
* VideoGame/AWayOut (Swedish-Lebanese)
* VideoGame/{{Pou}}
----

* Most of the works of Creator/KhalilGibran, including ''The Prophet'', are set in or at least inspired by his native rural Lebanon.

* Myth/ArabMythology
* Myth/CanaaniteMythology

UsefulNotes/{{Beirut}} used to be known as the Paris of the East, until the Civil War. If it's set in pre-war Lebanon, expect a BellyDancer to shimmy her way into the plot somehow.

** President: Michel Aoun

* '''Area:''' 10,452 km
(4,036 sq mi) (161st)

The country with a tree on its flag. There's a reason for that. The tree is a Lebanese cedar, famous enough to be mentioned in Literature/TheBible. ''A lot''. Literature/TheBible generally uses the tree and its wood as a metaphor for anything high-class or impressive, as well as writing about the actual cedars.

However, by 1975, the Palestinians had organized themselves into the PLO, which more or less became a "state within a state" in Lebanon. The Palestinians used southern Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel, which screwed up everything most massively. Various groups within Lebanon took different positions on the issue (Christians generally frowning on it, Sunnis and Druze generally supportive, Shias generally too poor to be noticed). In retaliation for the PLO bombing the crap out of them from Lebanon, Israel started bombing the crap out of the Palestinians on Lebanese soil, driving the subject much closer to home and pushing things to get much nastier. By April of 1975, it had turned into an all-out civil war. Pro-PLO militias controlled the south of the country; anti-PLO controlled the center and west; and to top it off, the north and east were invaded by Syria. Beirut itself was divided in two: the PLO and its allied militias controlled West Beirut, their enemies controlled East Beirut, and various people whose religious background did not match the militias' generally fled to the other side before they were shot.\\\

The war continued until 1990 and killed up to 150,000 people. When an uneasy peace deal was reached in TheNineties that ended the civil war, it seemed like the worst was behind Lebanon. The early 2000s saw Israel leaving the southern part of the country without any conditions. During these years, much of the country was rebuilt (although bullet holes remained an expected part of any building). However, the Syrian elephant in the room stayed on for years in an effort to thoroughly subordinate Lebanon to its control, though generally preferring to act through [[TheQuisling quislings]], [[LesCollaborateurs sympathetic locals]], and [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch well-timed and deniable "accidents"]] than directly. One of these was the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which turned out to be a massive miscalculation as it spurred major protests that forced Syria to withdraw from the country.\\\

You think it's over yet? Nope. While Syria moved back to the other side of the border, it was determined to keep its influence in-country. It had backed the Shia militia/political party Hezbollah (originally founded by followers of the first Ayatollah of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini) in the 1980s, and continued to do so after the civil war was over. Hezbollah decided that now that its Syrian protectors were gone, it would focus its attention on making Israel miserable. As a result, in July-August 2006 after Hezbollah kidnapped 2 Israeli soldiers and returned to rocketing Israel from Lebanon. In turn, Israel returned bombing the crap out of Lebanon in an attempt to destroy Hezbollah, but did not go beyond that because of internal politics and the hope that it would work enough. All of this contributed to Beirut getting torn up ''again'' just after the Lebanese had finished rebuilding it. It was never quite as intense as the civil war (a veritable bloodbath), but it was enough to give people nightmares until it more or less died down in 2009, though the country still remained divided. Hezbollah remains largely dominant in the country to the point where the country's politics have mostly boiled down to pro- and anti-Hezbollah factions, irrespective of religion (Hezbollah have just as many Christian, Druze, and Sunni allies as they have opponents).\\\

Lebanon is where ancient Phoenicia, Canaan, and other ancient civilizations were based. Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Ottomans, French, and others have ruled and made their mark over present-day Lebanon. The city of Tyre, among other cities, was very prominent in the ancient World, while the city of Baalbek has a Roman-era temple. For a very long time, Lebanon was a Christian country, and the only one in the UsefulNotes/ArabWorld. Because of all the commotion in the late 20th century, a great deal of the Christians, who are historically wealthier than their Muslim neighbors, emigrated and settled in various countries, particularly Brazil, the United States, Australia (where they are [[FantasticRacism stereotypically hated]]) and other countries, creating the aforementioned humongous diaspora. Many have done very ''well'' for themselves indeed (for instance, Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecom magnate who traded places with Bill Gates for the title "richest man in the world" for much of the 2000s and 2010s, is of Lebanese descent; we would also be remiss in not mentioning Music/{{Shakira}}, whose paternal grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to Colombia via New York). This has some benefits--whenever bad things go on in Lebanon, the diaspora sends back aid and often invests in rebuilding schemes[[note]]Though if the violence hasn't died down yet, nobody bothers patching things up, so wait for a few years after each one apparently ends...[[/note]]. That's not to say that the Christians disappear altogether, though; estimates count that 40% of the population still identify as Christians.

Lebanon is where ancient Phoenicia, Canaan, and other ancient civilizations were based. Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Ottomans, French, and others have ruled and made their mark over present-day Lebanon. The city of Tyre, among other cities, was very prominent in the ancient World, while the city of Baalbek has a Roman-era temple. For a very long time, Lebanon was a Christian country, and the only one in the UsefulNotes/ArabWorld. Because of all the commotion in the late 20th century, a great deal of the Christians, who are historically wealthier than their Muslim neighbors, emigrated and settled in various countries, particularly Brazil, the United States, Australia (where they are [[FantasticRacism stereotypically hated]]) and other countries, creating the aforementioned humongous diaspora. Many have done very ''well'' for themselves indeed (for instance, Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecom magnate who trades places with Bill Gates for the title "richest man in the world", is of Lebanese descent; we would also be remiss in not mentioning Music/{{Shakira}}, whose paternal grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to Colombia via New York). This has some benefits--whenever bad things go on in Lebanon, the diaspora sends back aid and often invests in rebuilding schemes[[note]]Though if the violence hasn't died down yet, nobody bothers patching things up, so wait for a few years after each one apparently ends...[[/note]]. That's not to say that the Christians disappear altogether, though; estimates count that 40% of the population still identify as Christians.

Lebanon ('''Arabic:''' لبنان‎ Libnān or Lubnān), officially known as the '''Lebanese Republic''' ('''Arabic:''' الجمهورية اللبنانية‎ Al-Jumhūrīyah Al-Libnānīyah) is a Western Asian country and one of the world's only two multiconfessional countries, with 18 official religions made up of various sects of the three monotheist faiths[[note]]As follows: Muslim groups: orthodox Twelver Shias (the largest single group by most estimates), orthodox Sunnis, Alawites (heterodox/quasi-[[UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} Gnostic]] Twelvers), orthodox Ismaili Shias, and Druzes (heterodox/quasi-Gnostic Ismailis who don't particularly think of themselves as Muslim). Christian groups: Maronite Catholics, Melkite/Greek (i.e. Eastern) Orthodox, Melkite/Greek Catholic, Protestant, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Assyrian, Chaldean Catholic, Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, and Latin Catholic. (The first three of these Christian groups are largely native to Lebanon, reflecting historic schisms and reunions over the centuries in one of Christianity's oldest territories. The last seven are mainly ethnic religions associated with specific ethnic minorities that have communities in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Protestants got to where they are by poaching from everyone else.) [[AndZoidberg And Jewish]].[[/note]] However, it's unclear how many people follow what religion in the country; a full census has not been conducted since 1932. This is because the Lebanese Constitution divvies up power along religious lines to (barely) hold together the extremely sectarian nature of the population. The three highest posts in the country are reserved for each members of the religious: a Maronite Catholic President, a Sunni Muslim Prime Minister, and a Shia Muslim Speaker of Parliament. ''No exceptions''.

Lebanon ('''Arabic:''' لبنان‎ Libnān or Lubnān), officially known as the '''Lebanese Republic''' ('''Arabic:''' الجمهورية اللبنانية‎ Al-Jumhūrīyah Al-Libnānīyah) is a Western Asian country and one of the world's only two multiconfessional countries, with 18 official religions made up of various sects of the three monotheist faiths[[note]]As follows: Muslim groups: orthodox Twelver Shias (the largest single group by most estimates), orthodox Sunnis, Alawites (heterodox/quasi-[[UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} Gnostic]] Twelvers), orthodox Ismaili Shias, and Druzes (heterodox/quasi-Gnostic Ismailis who don't particularly think of themselves as Muslim). Christian groups: Maronite Catholics, Melkite/Greek (i.e. Eastern) Orthodox, Melkite/Greek Catholic, Protestant, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Chaldean Catholic, Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, and Latin Catholic. [[AndZoidberg And Jewish]].[[/note]] However, it's unclear how many people follow what religion in the country; a full census has not been conducted since 1932. This is because the Lebanese Constitution divvies up power along religious lines to (barely) hold together the extremely sectarian nature of the population. The three highest posts in the country are reserved for each members of the religious: a Maronite Catholic President, a Sunni Muslim Prime Minister, and a Shia Muslim Speaker of Parliament. ''No exceptions''.

Lebanon ('''Arabic:''' لبنان‎ Libnān or Lubnān), officially known as the '''Lebanese Republic''' ('''Arabic:''' الجمهورية اللبنانية‎ Al-Jumhūrīyah Al-Libnānīyah) is a Western Asian country and one of the world's only two multiconfessional countries, with 18 official religions made up of various sects of the three monotheist faiths[[note]]To wit: Alawite, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Assyrian Church, Chaldean Catholic, Copts, Druze, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Ismaili, Jewish, Latin Catholic, Maronite Catholic, Protestant, Sunni, Shia, Syriac Catholic, and Syriac Orthodox[[/note]]. However, it's unclear how many people follow what religion in the country; a full census has not been conducted since 1932. This is because the Lebanese Constitution divvies up power along religious lines to (barely) hold together the extremely sectarian nature of the population. The three highest posts in the country are reserved for each members of the religious: a Maronite Catholic President, a Sunni Muslim Prime Minister, and a Shia Muslim Speaker of Parliament. ''No exceptions''.

One of the few nations (the other famous examples being UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} [[note]]Incidentally, Lebanon itself is home to a substantial Armenian community, and a not insignificant number of Lebanese Armenians themselves emigrated around the world. This makes for a sizeable population who are part of both the Lebanese ''and'' the Armenian Diaspora.[[/note]] and, [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora of course]], UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}) in which the people who live outside the country far outnumber those who live inside it. Not counting residents, refugees, and the like, the total population of Lebanon is (as of 2018) slightly more than 4 million. The diaspora? ''14 million''. And this is all made very, very, recently, so you can bet that the country's population would be much higher if there were no wars.

One of the few nations (the [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora other famous example]] being UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}[[note]]UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} falls in the same category, though they are often forgotten. Ironically, Lebanon itself is home to a substantial Armenian community, and a not insignificant number of Lebanese Armenians themselves emigrated around the world. This makes for a sizeable population who are part of both the Lebanese ''and'' the Armenian Diaspora.[[/note]]) in which the people who live outside the country far outnumber those who live inside it. Not counting residents, refugees, and the like, the total population of Lebanon is (as of 2018) slightly more than 4 million. The diaspora? ''14 million''. And this is all made very, very, recently, so you can bet that the country's population would be much higher if there were no wars.

* '''Highest point:''' Qurnat as-Sawda' (3088 m/10,131 ft) (62nd)

Lebanon's history since independence in TheForties has been checkered at best. A major reason for this is that its independence was not really accepted by Syria, who held that Lebanon was more or less a(n autonomous at best) part of Syria proper. This even went as far as to show in the maps produced, showing the border between the two countries as being internal, like you would get between American states. Being a fairly small and weak country that had sizable ties with Israel and the West, it didn't contribute very much to the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict, even in the initial invasion of Israel in 1948. However, thousands of Palestinians fled to Lebanon, whose government refused to allow the Palestinians to integrate. They've been living in permanent refugee camps in the countryside ever since, a major problem that would come back to haunt the country in its times of trouble. Particularly since the camps soon became instruments of the Palestine Liberation Organization, serving and political and military strongholds that they would later use to pressure and eventually intervene in internal Lebanese politics. Following the Six-day War, a lot of pro-Israeli pundits have been accused of using Lebanon's restrictions on Palestinian refugees as a tactic to deflect attention from Israel's own occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment that's all that will be said on the matter here]].\\\

During the truly ancient era, Lebanon, like its neighbor UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, was known as the land of Canaan. Its indigenous people, the Phoenicians, rose as an important power after the Late Bronze Age collapse circa 1200 BCE destroyed the authority of their previous overlords, the Egyptians and Hittites. They established a loose thalassocracy spanning the entire Mediterranean and became precursors of the Punic, a branch of the Phoenicians who settled in UsefulNotes/{{Tunisia}} and mixed in with local Berbers who survived up to the last of the UsefulNotes/PunicWars in the 2nd century BCE, long after the Phoenicians declined as an entity. The Phoenicians famously created a writing system inspired by the one that existed in the Sinai peninsula, which in turn was inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs. This system was borrowed by the Greeks, through whom it became ancestor to the Roman and Cyrillic alphabets, while through the Arameans it became ancestor to most abjads in the Middle East (including Hebrew and Arabic) as well as the Brahmi script of the Indian subcontinent.\\\

The decline of the Phoenicians in the 9th century BCE marked the end of the region's independence for a long time. In fact, Lebanon never became a sovereign state again until independence in 1943. Various foreigners vied for power over the next 2700 years, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders, and the French. The Arab conquest of the 7th century CE brought about Arabization of the previously Aramean state (like most of the Levant, the Lebanese spoke Aramaic at the time), although most of the population remained Christians. Through contact with the Catholic Crusaders who occupied the land in TheHighMiddleAges, the Maronite Christians, who had been isolated from the Catholic Church since the Schism of 1054, affirmed their loyalty to UsefulNotes/ThePope. It was also around this time that the Druze faith emerged and communities pursuing the new religion began to pop up in the Mount Lebanon area.\\\

Lebanon's history since independence in TheForties has been checkered at best. A major reason for this is that its independence was not really accepted by Syria, who held that Lebanon was more or less a(n autonomous at best) part of Syria proper. This even went as far as to show in the maps produced, showing the border between the two countries as being internal, like you would get between American states. Being a fairly small and weak country that had sizable ties with Israel and the West, it didn't contribute very much to the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict, even in the initial invasion of Israel in 1948. However, thousands of Palestinians fled to Lebanon, whose government refused to allow the Palestinians to integrate. They've been living in permanent refugee camps in the countryside ever since, a major problem that would come back to haunt the country in its times of trouble. Particularly since the camps soon became instruments of the Palestine Liberation Organization, serving and political and military strongholds that they would later use to pressure and eventually intervene in internal Lebanese politics. Following the Six-day War, a lot of pro-Israeli pundits use Lebanon's restrictions on Palestinian refugees as a tactic to deflect attention from Israel's own occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment that's all that will be said on the matter.]]\\\

The war continued until 1990 and killed up to 150,000 people. When an uneasy peace deal was reached in TheNineties that ended the civil war. The early 2000s saw Israel leaving the southern part of the country without any conditions. During these years, much of the country was rebuilt (although bullet holes remained an expected part of any building). However, the Syrian elephant in the room stayed on for years in an effort to thoroughly subordinate Lebanon to its control, though generally preferring to act through [[TheQuisling quislings]], [[LesCollaborateurs sympathetic locals]], and [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch well-timed and deniable "accidents"]] than directly. One of these was the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which turned out to be a massive miscalculation as it spurred major protests that forced Syria to withdrawal.\\\

''Economically'', on the other hand, Lebanon has been suffering big time. Since TheNewTens the country has been experiencing from another kind of war: a financial crisis. There are many factors to this, the biggest being decades of state corruption and waste but also the impact of the Syrian Civil War. Syria is among Lebanon's important trade partners, so for a long time trade with Syria was off-limits as Syria was blockaded for most of the civil war (it's only until 2018 that UsefulNotes/{{Jordan}} finally reopened its borders, followed by Iraq in 2019. UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, meanwhile, remains Assad's archenemy), while Lebanon has no diplomatic or economic relations with Israel since the end of the Lebanese Civil War. The increasing influence of the Iran-allied Hezbollah, which has been designated a terrorist group by the Arab League, the US, and the UK, also made the Gulf Arab nations, long aid donors for Lebanon, largely stay away, as do the West (albeit to a much lesser extent). Foreign reserves and donor money rapidly dried up, causing a currency crisis that saw the Lebanese pound being depreciated as much as ''[[RidiculousExchangeRates 5 times]]'' to the dollar in the black market. This eventually triggered a protest movement in the late 2019 that continues to this day. However, the protests have yet to see tangible results (Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri decided to step down, but only because he is a critic of Hezbollah) and in fact seem to [[FromBadToWorse grow worse every day]]. Lebanon declared a debt default in March 2020, when it announced that it could not meet payments to foreign bondholders. And if that's not enough, on 4 August 2020, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion a massive explosion in the Port of Beirut]] devastated much of a city already suffering from everything mentioned before and the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, killing over 220 people, injuring over 6,000, and displacing up to 300,000 from the homes.

''Economically'', on the other hand, Lebanon has been suffering big time. Since TheNewTens the country has been experiencing from another kind of war: a financial crisis. There are many factors to this, the biggest being decades of state corruption and waste but also the impact of the Syrian Civil War. Syria is among Lebanon's important trade partners, so for a long time trade with Syria was off-limits as Syria was blockaded for most of the civil war (it's only until 2018 that UsefulNotes/{{Jordan}} finally reopened its borders, followed by Iraq in 2019. UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, meanwhile, remains Assad's archenemy), while Lebanon has no diplomatic or economic relations with Israel since the end of the Lebanese Civil War. The increasing influence of the Iran-allied Hezbollah, which has been designated a terrorist group by the Arab League, the US, and the UK, also made the Gulf Arab nations, long aid donors for Lebanon, largely stay away, as do the West (albeit to a much lesser extent). Foreign reserves and donor money rapidly dried up, causing a currency crisis that saw the Lebanese pound being depreciated as much as ''[[RidiculousExchangeRates 5 times]]'' to the dollar in the black market. This eventually triggered a protest movement in the late 2019 that continues to this day. However, the protests have yet to see tangible results (Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri decided to step down, but only because he is a critic of Hezbollah) and in fact seem to [[FromBadToWorse grow worse every day]]. Lebanon declared a debt default in March 2020, when it announced that it could not meet payments to foreign bondholders. And if that's not enough, on 4 August 2020, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosions massive explosions in the Port of Beirut]] devastated much of a city already suffering from everything mentioned before and the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, killing over 220 people, injuring over 6,000, and displacing up to 300,000 from the homes.

* '''Highest point:''' Qurnat as-Sawda' (3088 m/10,131 ft) (81st)

* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' LB