Passage sees major since highest Antiquity, Syria orders the roads which, by the valley of Euphrate or through the desert, lead towards Iraq and the countries of the Gulf. Resulting from the cutting-up of the Ottoman Empire the shortly after the First World War, the layout frontier, artificial, follows the railway of Taurus (limit with Turkey), the Jordanian border being a simple line dividing the grounds of course of old wandering tribes.

Ancient Syria

Tally natural in which opens out Mesopotamian civilization to the IV E and III E thousand-year-old front J. - C., the valley of Euphrate saw the birth of the first urban civilizations and official constructions by populations controlling the writing.  

The vestiges of Husband bring the proof that Syria of the II E thousand-year-old was a crossroads political, economic and cultural famous, and thus also coveted. Parcelled out and divided into a multiplicity of small principalities subjected to the alliances concluded with powerful neighbors, Syria will undergo several dominations: Phoenicians and Aramaics, Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Persians leave to differing degree their print.

Alexandre Large the, victorious one of Persians (331 av. J. - C.), subjects Syria and encourages the hellenisation, melting in particular of many cities. Antioche becomes the capital of this Mesopotamian Syria; Damas and Tadmor (Palmyre, the “city of the palm trees”), inside, are essential like great centers. Séleucos (general of Alexandre, future Séleucos Ier Nikatôr), founds in the valley of Oronte a State which has Antioche for capital (the kingdom of Syria) and which, by successive stages, will extend from the Mediterranean in India.  

In 64 av. J. - C., Rome subjects Syria, which, divided in five provinces, becomes an agricultural countered rich person. The corn and the olive-tree ensure the extension of the trade in the direction of the Mediterranean. The cities, subjected to the Roman influence, do not cease developing. Playing a part in the evolution of the Roman Empire, Syria provides a dynasty of emperors, of which Septime Sévère, Caracalla and Philippe the Arab. In Palmyre, Zénobie founds a transitory Syrian empire (257-272), from which Aurélien will come easily to end. But Rome contains more and more with difficulty the attack of its neighbors. Persians on several occasions threaten Syria, which, from 395, is included in the Byzantine Empire and fall under the cane from Constantinople. The weakness of the Byzantine administration, only concerned about raise the tax, and the excuses of the emperors facilitate the Arab conquest.  

Arab Syria

Weaken by the fights which oppose them, Byzantine and Persian cannot resist the Arab expansion. Damas falls into 635. The victory of Yarmouk (636) over the troops of Héraclius Ier makes it possible to the Arabs to make sure control of Syria. The dynasty omeyyade (661-750), founded by Moawiyya, exerts its radiation from Damas, its capital. The marine of the caliph seizes the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Crete, Rhodos), while the terrestrial troops come to camp under the walls of Constantinople. The administration is reorganized, sciences develop, the mosques and the palates multiply.

However, Omeyyades fall under the blows from the Abbasids, which make of Baghdad the capital of their new Empire (750-1258), whose Syria becomes a simple province. The country knows one period disturbed at the time when the Empire starts to be dismembered.

From the XI E century, the crusades modify the territorial structures. The “Latin kingdom” created by the crusaders is a federation of four feudal States which could never dominate the interior of the country, Damas and Homs remaining of the Moslem citadels. Important commercial colonies established on the littoral ensure the circulation of the products from Asia towards Europe.

After Salah Aldine (Saladin) had crushed the Francs in 1187, Syria becomes a province of Egypt of the Mamelukes. The Arab East is then threatened on several occasions by the Mongolian invaders, especially by Tamerlan (put at bag of Alep and Damas in 1400-1401).

Othoman Syria

After having taken Constantinople, the Othomans demolish the Mamelukes in 1516, annex Syria with their new empire and divide it into three then into four pachaliks (Damas, Tripoli, Alep and Saïda). However, the Turkish domination is mainly felt in the cities, the local emirs exerting their own power everywhere else. Méhémet-Ali benefits a time from the weakness of the Sublime Door to control the country (1832-1840). The arrival of the Young Turks to the power does not improve the situation. Their attempts at assimilation reinforce on the contrary the national feeling.

The First World War gives to many Syrians the opportunity to be opposed to the Othoman supervision. Combined Germans, the Turks, defeated by the English and the Arab armies of the emir Fayçal, are definitively driven out of Syria in October 1918.

The French mandate (1920-1941)

The nationalists wish to gather around Damas the Arab grounds formerly placed under Othoman control. The emir Fayçal goes to Europe to assert a complete Arab independence.

A Syrian national congress, at this meeting in Damas in March 1920, proclaims the independence of “Large Syria”. In April, the conference of San Remo confirms the Sykes-Barb agreements and gives to France mandate on Lebanon and Syria: it is the collapse of the Arab great project. The French troops, after having demolishes the of the sherifs ones, enter to Damas in July 1920. Disappointment is immense among the nationalists damascenes, which will never admit the creation of Lebanon.

France, which is given for mission of giving in state the country and of leading it towards independence, encounters their hostility. In 1925 the revolt of the djebel Druze bursts, which will be repressed very hard. The restored order, the confrontation with the nationalists is on the political plan. The come to power of the Popular front in 1936 raises hopes. But the treaty free-Syrian envisaging the independence of Syria within a period of three years, approved by the Syrian Parliament, will never be subjected to the ratification of the French Parliament.

The day before L has Second world war, France agrees to yield to Turkey the sandjak of Alexandrette, causing the dissatisfaction with the Syrians again. Proclaimed in September 1941, the end of the mandate and independence intervene indeed at the conclusion of the Second world war.

Independent Syria

Initially, the politicians who contributed to negotiate independence reveal not very ready to lead the business. From 1949 to 1954, the country knows a succession of military coups d'etat, while achieve progress in favor of the construction of a unit State and that, on the external level, the country underlines its independence by refusing the American assistance.

The return of the soldiers in their barracks opens the way with a parliamentary mode, in accordance with the Constitution of 1950. But the political life remains run up: tendencies pro-Iraqi and pro-Egyptian women clash, and the Baath party, Arab Socialist, extend his influence. On the external level, the hostility with regard to the United States is confirmed, while a bringing together with the USSR takes shape. The Egyptian influence grows and, in 1958, the union syro-Egyptian woman leads to the creation of United Arab Republic (RAU), dissolved in 1961. The operation of a unit State seems difficult.

In 1961, a coup d'etat fomented by officers, with the support of the preserving middle-class, puts a term at it. As from 1963, the Baath party reaches the power and eliminates the tendency pronassérienne. The attempts at bringing together with Iraq, where also dominates the Baath party, do not succeed. In 1964, a new constitution makes of Syria a democratic republic and Socialist, integral part of the Arab nation. The internal fights and competitions are very sharp inside the party.

In 1970, the general Hafez Al-Assad, a alaouite supported by the army, takes in hand the destiny of Syria. On the external level, its policy is marked by its control of Lebanon and the problem of Golan, occupied by Israel since 1967. On March 11th, 1999, the general Al-Assad, whose party, the National front progressist, had gained largely in November 1998 the elections organized to name the 250 representatives of the Council of the people, is renewed in charge of the State.

Only candidate to be presented, his re-election takes place in a climate of economic moroseness, marked by an insufficiently high growth (2 % in 1998) to compensate for the strong population growth, by the fall of the oil price - whose receipts ensure nearly 70 % of the value of exports and 40 % of the budget of the State -, and by the frilosity of the foreign investors, rejected by the archaism of the official and legal system.

In March 2000, Hafez Al-Assad has named Mohammad Moustapha Miro with the direction of the government, to replace Mahmoud Al-Zou' Bi, Prime Minister for thirteen years. The choice of the governor of Alep, presented like a reformer, to direct a largely altered team, has seemed to indicate a will to more open with modernity a country touched by the economic recession for two years.

On the diplomatic level, the peace talks with Israel, which knew a certain projection following the effective withdrawal of the Israeli troops of the Lebanon-South in May, remain always blocked on the question of the Israeli occupation of Golan. Against any waiting, the sudden death, on on June 10th, of the Head of State and the awaited arrival of its designated successor, his Bachar son, largely voted by plebiscite by the Baath party, inaugurate a new political era.