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| 1920, Sept. 1 |
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| CREATION OF GREATER LEBANON, an administrative district within the French mandate for Syria. The new territory included the former autonomous district of Mt. Lebanon along with the Biqa and the environs of Tripoli, Sidon, and Tyre. | 1 |
| With the exception of the Christians living around Mt. Lebanon and in Beirut, the inhabitants of the new district did not wish to be included in it. Throughout the mandate, Muslims called for reintegration into Syria. | 2 |
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| 1922 |
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| Approval of the French mandate by the League of Nations. Greater Lebanon thereby became a separate administrative territory from French Syria. | 3 |
| Death of Farah Antun (b. 1874), a Christian journalist who spent much of his career in Cairo and New York. He was most noted for publishing al-Jami'a, a widely read political journal. The central idea in his political writings was the demand for separation of religion and state so that all citizens, regardless of their religious affiliations, could participate equally in political life. | 4 |
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| 1923 |
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| Abolition of the Capitulations. | 5 |
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| 1926, May 23 |
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| Promulgation of the Lebanese constitution, which formally established the Lebanese Republic. The centerpiece of the constitution was the creation of a confessional system by which power and representation in the political system were apportioned to various religious groups according to their share of the total population. Among Christians, the major groups were the Maronites, who formed the biggest constituency in Lebanon (29 percent in 1932), and the Greek Orthodox (10 percent) and the Greek Catholics (6 percent). Muslims were divided primarily among Sunnis (23 percent), Shi’ites (20 percent), and Druze (7 percent). The remainder of the population consisted of miscellaneous Christian factions like the Armenians. | 6 |
| The constitution provided for a bicameral legislature in which the lower house was popularly elected and the upper house (permanently dissolved the following year) was appointed by the French high commissioner. It also established a presidency and a cabinet. On May 26, the legislature elected Charles Dabbas, a Greek Orthodox, the first president of Lebanon. | 7 |
| According to the constitution, the Lebanese government exercised control only over domestic affairs. Foreign relations were left to the French authorities. In practice, the French high commissioner also enjoyed extensive power through his right to appoint advisers to the various Lebanese ministries. | 8 |
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| 1926–33 |
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| Henri Ponsot served as French high commissioner. | 9 |
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| 1932 |
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| Founding of the Parti Populaire Syrien by Antun Sa'ada. In organization and discipline, the party resembled the many Fascist groups that were surfacing throughout Europe. The party's central demand was the reunification of Lebanon with Syria and ultimately, the creation of a state embracing all of Greater Syria. | 10 |
| Last official census. The survey determined that 51 percent of the population was Christian and the remainder Muslim. The data further showed that the Muslim population was growing at a higher rate than the Christian. To protect the dominant position of Christians in Lebanese society, the authorities decided to forgo future censuses. The independent government of Lebanon later adopted the same policy of intentional oversight. | 11 |
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| May 9 |
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| Fearing the possible election of a Sunni Muslim, Muhammad al-Jisr, as president, the French high commissioner dissolved the legislature and suspended the constitution of 1926. Upon the request of the French, Charles Dabbas remained as acting president. | 12 |
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