a. The Emirs Maan
In 1516, the Lebanon fell into the hands of the Turk-Ottomans. The Sultan kept at their places the Lebanese Emirs and provided them with a certain autonomy in the management of their regions. This autonomy and the weakening of the Ottoman central power, encouraged the spirit of independence the Emirs Maan of the Mountain have, especially Emir Fakhr-ed-Din II (1572).

Emir Fakhr-ed-din II took in hand the unity of the country by federating the eminent Druze. He concluded treaties with Toscany. The religious tolerance given to the Maronites encouraged them to spread in the Mountain from the North to the south of the country. The Lebanon knew a real economic and urban rise: the ports (Sidon and Beirut) opened on the western commerce, the roads spread, and Italian engineers built palaces and caravansaries.

The country reached a turning point in culture with the creation of the Maronite School of Rome in 1584. The Papacy established the school to instruct the young religious Maronites. This was the start of a cultural soaring, and the introduction of the XIX century Renaissance.

b. The Emirs Chehab
The Emirs Chehab continued the work of the Maans. Under the Emir Bechir II, converted to Christianity, the Lebanon knew calmness and prosperity. The Egyptian troops reached the Lebanon in 1830 and broke the serene atmosphere.

Abusing of the protectorate of the troops of Mehamed-Ali, Bechir summoned the inhabitants to pay huge sums of money. The echoes of the French revolution probably inspired the Maronites who started a series of peasant revolts that have already started in 1820. These popular rebellions asked for equality among the citizens, the independence of the Emir vis-à-vis the Ottomans, and yearned to let the public property prevail over the private one.

In 1840, the popular revolts and the European foreign intervention obliged the Prince Bechir to resign, and to leave the country in a real and harsh vacancy of power. The choice of Bechir III to replace his cousin Bechir II at the head of the Emirate did not fill the gap.


c. The bloody community conflicts
Bloody conflicts blew up between Druze and Maronites from 1841 to 1860. The Maronites, who were the new power of the country by their number, their economic and cultural power, and the conversion of the Emirs Chehab and Abu-L-Lam'a to Christianity, believed in the legitimacy of their gaining the power. The Druzes, who have become a minority and without any economic strength, held on to their old prerogatives and opposed the Maronites by force.

These conflicts, poked up by the Ottomans, weakened the country and deteriorated to become bloody massacres.

The Lebanon was divided into two administrative divisions (Caimacamat): one Druze, lying south of Beirut, and directed by a Druze prince; the other Christians lived in the Druze part, and a minority of Druze in the Christian part.

At the heart of this administrative division, the Druzes kept their social structure, while the Maronite peasants, going back to the spirit of their popular movements (1820 - 1840), revolted in 1858 against the eminent persons (specially the Khazen) to reform their agrarian structures.

A real religious war started in 1860, to which, the Maronites and other Christians, disarmed by the Ottoman garrison, opposed a very small resistance and suffered heavy losses in lives and ownership. The massacre was interrupted thanks to the intervention of Napoleon III French troops.

d. The Organic Rules: The "Mutassarifiah"
An international commission, consisting of representatives of the great European powers (Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia), in collaboration with the representative of the Ottoman Sultan, met in 1861, to talk about the Lebanon. The result was the issuing of the Organic Rules of the "Mutassarifiah", or the small Lebanon limited to the Mountain (Mount-Lebanon).

The country was amputated from its big coastal cities and from the great plain of the "Bekaa", and from a big part of the South. However, an interior autonomy was provided; a representative council had the role of counselor before a Christian Catholic, non-Lebanese, Ottoman governor "Mutassarif', who had to administer the new organization of the Lebanese Mountain. During the period of the "Mutassarifiaah", the Lebanon became the home of the Arabic literature Renaissance "the Naha", The Renaissance spread over the Mountain and also over Beirut. The city gained back the fame of the yesteryears after the restoration, the enlargement, and the opening of its port (end of the XIXth century), towards the big routes of international traffic.

Two universities (American and Jesuit), were founded in Beirut, the schools of missionaries and of local foundations and organizations multiplied; publishing houses and press organs became numerous, writers and poets grew famous and some (Gibran Khalil Gibran) shone in the international sky.