West Asia At War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games

by Talmiz Ahmad

In power in Syria, the French applied divide-and-rule principles to sustain their governance of the resentful population. Syria was divided into four administrations – Damascus and Aleppo, and two communal entities, the Alawite in western Syria and the Druze in the south. The intention was to keep the people divided: minority communal entities were expected to support colonial rule, while staying away from the waves of broader nationalist fervour. All attempts at nationalist mobilization were ruthlessly crushed with police firings, mass arrests and prolonged imprisonment. However, France was quite inept in handling local sensitivities: clumsy manipulations of Druze affairs ignited a major uprising in July 1925, which then spread to other parts of Syria, including Hama and villages outside Damascus. These uprisings were crushed with brutal violence – artillery and aerial bombardments destroyed entire villages, while hundreds were summarily executed. The rebellion then spread to Damascus in October, which was also put down through aerial bombings over several weeks. The uprising ended only in October 1926, when the French had deployed about 95,000 soldiers. Sporadic low-key uprisings continued over the next years, but the back of national resistance was broken and, over the next decade, awaited a new generation of leaders.