| |
| 1858–61 |
| |
| CIVIL WAR IN LEBANON. A revolt of Maronite peasants against their Maronite feudal lords in northern Lebanon soon spread into Druze areas where it assumed a communal character, with Maronite peasants, supported by their priests, rising against Druze landlords. The Druze retaliated violently, and the Christians were defeated (June–July 1860). Thousands of Christians were killed or died of starvation, and up to 100,000 became refugees. The disturbances spilled into Damascus, where about 6,000 Christians were massacred (July 1860). France, which rallied behind the Christians, landed troops in Lebanon (Aug. 1860). | 1 |
| Under pressure from the European powers, the Ottomans issued a new administrative regulation for Lebanon (introduced on June 9, 1861, and modified on Sept. 6, 1864). Mt. Lebanon (not including Beirut, the Biqa‘, Tripoli, or Sidon) was to be an autonomous province (mutasarrifiyya) under international guarantee with a Christian governor, assisted by an elected council on which all communities were represented. This new regime, which lasted until the reestablishment of direct Ottoman rule in 1914, brought relative peace and prosperity to Lebanon. It began the process by which Lebanon evolved into an independent state, and foreshadowed the confessional basis of its modern politics. | 2 |
| |
| 1860–70 |
| |
| Ottoman reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Muslim notables in these provinces, who controlled large landed estates and appropriated much of the taxation from the peasantry, resisted vehemently the introduction of the Tanzimat reforms. Following the suppression of a revolt in Herzegovina in 1860, the Ottoman authorities began to break up the political and economic power of the landed families and to introduce reforms. They moved the capital from Travnik, the center of the landlords' power, to Sarajevo, and formed a provincial advisory council composed of representatives of the various social groups. Secular schools were opened, health facilities were improved, roads were built, and the cities were modernized. But Christian peasant discontent in the area continued, exploding in major uprisings in 1875. | 3 |
| |
| 1860–62 |
| |
| Constitutional reorganization of the Greek Orthodox community (millet) was stipulated in a series of regulations pressed on the Greek patriarch by the Ottoman authorities. The intent was to increase lay participation in the running of the community's affairs at the expense of the powerful clergy, but in the absence of substantial internal pressure for reform, communal bodies with only limited lay input were created, and the patriarch and religious hierarchy in Istanbul succeeded in maintaining their control of the finances and decisions. | 4 |
| |
| 1860–1914 |
| |
| Syrian-Lebanese emigration to the Americas. Some 300,000 to 350,000 people, the majority of them Lebanese Christians, left Syria by 1914, two-thirds traveling to the United States and most of the rest to Brazil and other parts of Latin America. Their emigration came in response to population pressure in the mountain areas, social and religious unrest, fear of military service, and a new attraction to the West fostered by the foreign schools. The remittances they sent home, and the skills and capital brought back by those who returned, contributed significantly to the economic development of Lebanon. | 5 |
| Development of the Arab press. Printing in Arabic, which had scarcely existed before the 19th century, spread steadily as presses were established in the major cities, with Cairo and Beirut serving as the principal centers of publishing. They issued hundreds of original and translated works directed at a public made more accustomed to reading and more curious about a variety of topics by exposure to modern schools. Newspapers and periodicals came into being for the first time, and were more important still in spreading knowledge, discussing current affairs, and opening windows to Western culture. Between 1870 and 1900 some 40 periodical publications and 15 newspapers were founded in Beirut alone. There emerged a new class of writers and thinkers such as Butrus al-Bustani (1819–83), who produced the first modern encyclopedia in Arabic, and Jurji Zaydan (1861–1914), the prolific novelist and journalist. This literary activity created an Arabic vocabulary capable of expressing new concepts and fostered a pride in the Arab heritage, which carried over into nationalist ideas. | 6 |
| |
| 1861–76 |
| |
| SULTAN ABDULAZIZ. Like his brother Abdulmejid, Abdulaziz was committed to the vigorous pursuit of westernizing reforms in the empire. | 7 |
| |
| 1861, Dec. 2 |
| |
| Ottoman official recognition of the union of Moldavia and Wallachia (See 1862, Feb. 5) developed steadily between 1857 and 1859 with the support of the European powers. | 8 |
| |
| 1863 |
| |
| Opening of the Beirut-Damascus road, the first major road in the Middle East fit for wheeled traffic. The carriage service reduced the 112-kilometer journey from three days to 13 hours. The road had a considerable effect on the economy of the Syrian interior as well as on the establishment of Beirut as the main harbor on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. A similar road between Jerusalem and Jaffa was opened in 1869, but wheeled traffic in the region as a whole remained limited before 1914. | 9 |
Robert College was founded by American Protestants in Bebek, Istanbul. The school (which became Bo aziçi University in 1971) has ranked among the leading foreign educational institutions in the region. | 10 |
| Adoption of the Ottoman Maritime Commerce Code, which modernized the rules of international trade in conformity with Western practices. | 11 |
| Establishment of the Ottoman Imperial Bank, a Franco-British institution that served as the Ottoman state bank. | 12 |
| |
| March 29 |
| |
| Constitution of the Armenian community (millet) was issued. It provided for an assembly of 140 members, most of them laymen, and the election by the assembly of two councils, a religious one to handle spiritual matters and a civil one to deal with taxes, education, and welfare. Alongside these central bodies based in Istanbul were corresponding councils in the provinces. The constitution strengthened lay participation, which promoted communal modernization and later the pursuit of nationalist goals. | 13 |
| |
| |
