Syria's journey from union to state under French rule

First divided into mini-states, France later merged them into a federal union in 1922, which was a spectacular failure. In 1925, it was replaced by the Syrian state with Damascus as the capital.

ويكبيديا

Syria's journey from union to state under French rule

Sami Moubayed

last update on 18 Aug 2025

"In my naivety, I believed that the union between the states of Damascus and Aleppo was a momentous historical event for Syria. So I rushed to the government Serail to record the events of that happy day for future Syrian generations. Imagine my profound astonishment when I reached Marjah Square, where I found the people of Damascus entirely unconcerned, passing through the streets as indifferent bystanders, as if all of this did not concern them."

With these words, French journalist Alice Poulleau describes her observations in Damascus on 1 January 1925, when the Damascus State merged with the Aleppo State to form what the French called Etat du Syrie (State of Syria). After five years of fragmentation and semi-autonomy, this merger put an end to the mini-state system that the French had imposed when occupying Syria back in 1920.

Colonial France had initially divided Syria and would later merge the mini-states into the Syrian Federation, or the Itihad al-Duwal al-Souriyya (Syrian Union), on 29 June 1922. When the federal experiment failed, it was swiftly dismantled by the French and replaced by the Syrian State in 1925—the entity that Poulleau references in her journal.

Borders of these mini-states were drawn on maps, without physical barriers separating them in reality. Each adopted its own flag and independent administrative system, and only two had local rulers (Haqqi al-Azm in Damascus and Kamil Pasha al-Qudsi in Aleppo). Both the Alawite and Druze states were placed under direct French military control.

The State of Damascus included the cities of Homs and Hama, while the Druze State encompassed the entire Houran province and the strategic cities of Daraa and Sweida. Authority of the State of Aleppo extended to the Euphrates River as far as Deir ez-Zor, while that of the Alawite State reached Latakia, Tartus, and Masyaf.

According to French statistics, the population of the State of Damascus stood at 600,000: 75% Sunni Muslims and 11.3% Christians, along with a 10,000-strong mix of Shiites, Jews, Alawites, and Druze, plus 49,000 foreigners (mostly French citizens or soldiers from France’s North African colonies).

Damascus grievances

The Damascus State was given a blue flag with a white circle at its centre and a small French flag in the upper left corner. Damascene anger did not stem from separating their city from Aleppo, but because the capital of the federal project was Aleppo rather than Damascus, and its president, Subhi Barakat, was a northerner from Antioch, and not a native of Damascus.

Subhi Barakat tried appeasing the Damascenes by appointing Sami Pasha Mardam Bey as his deputy, but this didn't satisfy them. Adding insult to injury, the people of Damascus were deeply concerned about detaching their state from Palestine and Lebanon—specifically from the port of Beirut—and imposing customs tariffs on goods exported from Damascus to these two countries. Beirut at the time was considered the port of Damascus; all the city’s trade and industry was exported through it before the establishment of Latakia Port in the early 1950s.

Suddenly, Beirut became an independent city separated from Damascus by land borders, and goods exported to Tiberias, Jaffa, Nablus, and Jerusalem were now required to pay customs duties shared by the French and British. The Damascus Chamber of Commerce submitted a brief to the French High Commissioner challenging the customs tariffs imposed on goods exported to Palestine and Lebanon, stating: "No fewer than 25,000 Damascene families working in industry and trade with Palestine contribute 3mn golden Ottoman liras to the state treasury per year." The brief added that most of them would now become unemployed due to the customs duties and borders imposed by the Mandate authority.

Aleppo grievances

Conversely, Aleppo was no more satisfied with the federalism than Damascus, despite being the wealthiest of the three mini-states and hosting the capital. While Damascenes’ anger resulted from borders with Palestine and Lebanon, Aleppine anger was because borders suddenly emerged with Türkiye, severely damaging Aleppo’s thriving industries there.

The population of the Aleppo State was 604,000: 520,000 Sunni Muslims, 52,000 Christians, 7,000 Jews, and 3,000 foreigners. It was assigned a white flag adorned with three stars and a French flag on its left edge.

The main problem of the Aleppo State lay in its own wealth, with the French deducting 1.2mn French francs from its coffers to finance the impoverished Alawite State during its first year. The Union made it obligatory for each of the three states to channel 50% of its revenue to the state treasury, which would then be distributed according to the specific needs of each of the three states.

Aleppines demanded abolishing the federalist experiment altogether because it drained their treasury for the sake of others

Aleppo needed financial assistance from no one, yet found its funds lavishly spent on agricultural projects in the Alawite villages, or on the schools of Damascus or roadworks in Homs and Hama. Aleppine merchants were unhappy, claiming that the money of Aleppo should be spent on Aleppo.

Moreover, due to the cost of living in Damascus, salaries in the Damascus State were higher than those in the Aleppo State, and finally, due to Damascene insistence, the capital was transferred from Aleppo to Damascus on 30 October 1923, killing whatever reason was left for the Aleppines to continue supporting the federalism project.

Alawite State grievances

The primary concern of the Alawite State was that the Alawites themselves were the weakest link in their own state, constituting only 4% of its employees. All senior and respectable positions were held by Sunni Muslims or Christians due to their higher education and social status, including the administration of courts and schools.

The term "Alawite" was relatively new to the Syrian dictionary, having been created by foreigners in the 20th century and then popularised by the French to distinguish Alawites from Sunni Muslims, whom they called "Mohammadians." The population of the Alawite State was 101,000 Alawites, 94,000 Sunni Muslims, 34,000 Christians, and 5,000 Ismailis. Secondly, the Alawites complained that they were treated as an underclass by the Damascenes and Aleppines, and twice in 1924, they threatened to withdraw from the union.

The Alawites were equally unhappy with being forced to relinquish privileges granted by France at the start of the Mandate, like Sharia courts, schools, and postal services. Alawite State delegate Ismail Hawash attempted to preserve its judicial independence, but his suggestion was denied by a unanimous vote for court centralisation in 1923.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the Alawite State was that the French permitted this religious minority to join the police and the Levant Army, giving Alawite youth a sense of strength, importance, and self-defence capability. From that day onwards, a military culture emerged among Alawite households, encouraging army enlistment.

Wikipedia — An Alawite falconer photographed by Frank Hurley in Baniyas, Syria, during World War II.

That started under the mandate and would continue into the early years of independence, even before the Baath Party came to power in 1963. This military culture did not exist among other components of Syrian society—certainly not in the major cities and among the established Sunni families who viewed military service with contempt. As the Alawites flocked to serve in the army, Sunnis did their best to avoid it.

Unity of Syrian lands

With that in mind, each of the three states found many reasons to reject federalism and demand a return to self-autonomy. The Damascenes wanted unity, but only if their city was the capital. In their collective consciousness, it was only natural for Damascus to be the centre of the new state, given that it had been the capital of the Umayyad Dynasty, under whose rule Islam spread across the world. Even during the brief monarchy that preceded the mandate in 1919-1920, Damascus was the capital of the Syrian Kingdom, and its chamber of deputies hosted delegates from Jerusalem, Jaffa, Beirut, Tripoli, and other cities of Greater Syria.

When High Commissioner Maxime Weygand arrived in Syria in May 1923, he toured the three mini-states and heard various objections from residents, most dissatisfied with the federal experiment.

Alawites said they feared Sunni domination in their state and resented Damascene and Aleppine superiority. One of them, Ibrahim al-Kanj, told Weygand that he preferred joining Greater Lebanon, where the majority was Christian. Sunnis in the Alawite State argued in favour of union and rejected federalism, while Aleppines demanded abolishing the experiment altogether because it drained their treasury for the sake of others.

On 5 December 1924, Maxime Weygand signed two decrees: The first abolishing the Syrian Union and replacing it with the "State of Syria" (merging the states of Damascus and Aleppo). The second decree detached the Alawite State from the Syrian State and restored the autonomy it had enjoyed during the first two years of the mandate.

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