Editing History of Lebanon (section)

===Sectarian conflict: European powers begin to intervene===
[[File:Christian Church and Druze khalwa in Maaser el Chouf.jpg|thumb|[[Christian Church]] and [[Druze Khalwa]] in [[Chouf District|Shuf Mountains]]: Historically; the [[Christianity and Druze|Druzes and the Christians]] in the Shuf Mountains lived in complete harmony.<ref name="Hobby 1985 53">{{cite book|title= Near East/South Asia Report|last=Hobby|year=1985| page =53|publisher=Foreign Broadcast Information Service|quote= the Druzes and the Christians in the Shuf Mountains in the past lived in complete harmony..}}</ref> ]]
The discontent grew to open rebellion, fed by both Ottoman and British money and support: Bashir II fled, the Ottoman Empire reasserted control and Mehmed Hüsrev Pasha, whose sole term as Grand Vizier ran from 1839 to 1841, appointed another member of the Shihab family, who styled himself Bashir III. Bashir III, coming on the heels of a man who by guile, force and diplomacy had dominated Mt Lebanon and the Biqa for 52 years, did not last long. In 1841 conflicts between the impoverished Druze and the Maronite Christians exploded: There was a massacre of Christians by the Druze at Deir al Qamar, and the fleeing survivors were slaughtered by Ottoman regulars. The Ottomans attempted to create peace by dividing Mt Lebanon into a Christian district and a Druze district, but this would merely create geographic powerbases for the warring parties, and it plunged the region back into civil conflict which included not only the sectarian warfare but a Maronite revolt against the Feudal class, which ended in 1858 with the overthrow of the old feudal system of taxes and levies. The situation was unstable: the Maronites lived in the large towns, but these were often surrounded by Druze villages living as ''perioikoi''.
[[Image:18620eventsChristianrefugees.jpg|thumb|Christian refugees during the [[1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus|1860 strife between Druze and Maronites in Lebanon]]]]

The relationship between the [[Druze]] and [[Christians]] has been characterized by [[harmony]] and peaceful [[Plurinationalism|coexistence]],<ref>{{cite book|title=The Druze Community and the Lebanese State: Between Confrontation and Reconciliation| first=Yusri|last=Hazran|year= 2013| isbn= 9781317931737| page = 32|publisher=Routledge|quote= the Druze had been able to live in harmony with the Christian}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Confrontation and Coexistence| first=Pinḥas |last=Artzi|year= 1984| isbn= 9789652260499| page =166 |publisher=Bar-Ilan University Press|quote=.. Europeans who visited the area during this period related that the Druze "love the Christians more than the other believers," and that they "hate the Turks, the Muslims and the Arabs [Bedouin] with an intense hatred.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title= The Druzes and the Maronites|last=CHURCHILL|year= 1862| page =25 |publisher=Montserrat Abbey Library|quote= ..the Druzes and Christians lived together in the most perfect harmony and good-will..}}</ref><ref name="Hobby 1985 53"/> with amicable relations between the two groups prevailing throughout history, with the exception of some periods, including [[1860 Mount Lebanon civil war]].<ref name="google">{{cite book |title=An Occasion for War: Civil Conflict in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860 |last=Fawaz |first= L.T. |date=1994 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=9780520087828 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_nE7RjS91_E4C |access-date=2015-04-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Vocke |first=Harald |title=The Lebanese war: its origins and political dimensions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fvu6AAAAIAAJ&q=The+Lebanese+war:+its+origins+and+political+dimensions |year=1978 |publisher=C. Hurst |isbn=0-903983-92-3 |pages=10 }}</ref> In 1860, this would boil back into full scale [[1860 Druze-Christian conflict in Lebanon|sectarian war]], when the Maronites began openly opposing the power of the Ottoman Empire. Another destabilizing factor was France's support for the Maronite Christians against the Druze which in turn led the British to back the Druze, exacerbating religious and economic tensions between the two communities. The Druze took advantage of this and began burning Maronite villages. The Druze had grown increasingly resentful of the favoring of the Maronites by Bashir II, and were backed by the Ottoman Empire and the wali of Damascus in an attempt to gain greater control over Lebanon; the Maronites were backed by the French, out of both economic and political expediency. The Druze began a military campaign that included the burning of villages and massacres, while Maronite irregulars retaliated with attacks of their own. However, the Maronites were gradually pushed into a few strongholds and were on the verge of military defeat when the [[Concert of Europe]] intervened<ref>White (1899)</ref> and established a commission to determine the outcome.<ref>Shehadi (1992)</ref> The French forces deployed there were then used to enforce the final decision. The French accepted the Druze as having established control and the Maronites were reduced to a semi-autonomous region around [[Mount Lebanon]], without even direct control over Beirut itself. The Province of Lebanon would be controlled by the Maronites, but the entire area was placed under direct rule of the governor of Damascus, and carefully watched by the Ottoman Empire.

The long siege of [[Deir al-Qamar]] found a Maronite garrison holding out against Druze forces backed by Ottoman soldiers; the area in every direction was despoiled by the besiegers. In July 1860, with European intervention threatening, the Turkish government tried to quiet the strife, but Napoleon III of France sent 7,000 troops to Beirut and helped impose a partition: The Druze control of the territory was recognized as the fact on the ground, and the Maronites were forced into an enclave, arrangements ratified by the Concert of Europe in 1861. They were confined to a mountainous district, cut off from both the Biqa and Beirut, and faced with the prospect of ever-growing poverty. Resentments and fears would brood, ones which would resurface in the coming decades.

[[Image:LebaneseFighters.jpg|thumb|left|Lebanese soldiers, 1861–1914]]

[[Youssef Bey Karam]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ehdenfamilytree.org/getperson.php?personID=I1&tree=ehden |title=Youssef Bey Karam on Ehden Family Tree website |access-date=2019-04-10 |archive-date=2019-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329220258/https://www.ehdenfamilytree.org/getperson.php?personID=I1&tree=ehden |url-status=dead }}</ref> a Lebanese nationalist played an influential role in Lebanon's independence during this era.

In December 1831 Tyre fell under the rule of [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali Pasha]] of Egypt, after an army led by his son [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]] had entered Jaffa and Haifa without resistance.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ottoman Wars, 1700–1870: An Empire Besieged|last=Aksan|first=Virginia|author-link=Virginia H. Aksan|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=9780582308077|location=New York|pages=370–371}}</ref> Two years later, Shiite forces under Hamad al-Mahmud from the Ali al-Saghir dynasty rebelled against the occupation. They were supported by the [[British Empire]] and [[Austria-Hungary]]: Tyre was captured on 24 September 1839 after allied naval bombardments.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Politics of Interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon, 1830–61|last=Farah|first=Caesar E.|publisher=I.B.Tauris / Centre for Lebanese Studies|year=2000|isbn=978-1860640568|location=Oxford / London|pages=42}}</ref> For their fight against the Egyptian invaders, al-Mahmud and his successor Ali El-Assaad – a relative – were rewarded by the Ottoman rulers with the restoration of Shiite autonomy in Jabal Amel. However, in Tyre it was the Mamluk family that gained a dominant position. Its head Jussuf Aga ibn Mamluk was reportedly a son of the anti-Shiite Jazzar Pasha.