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| 1948, April 17 |
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| Reelection of Shukri al-Quwatli as president. | 1 |
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| 1949 |
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| Three successive MILITARY COUPS. The first one (March) was conducted by the commander in chief of the army, Husni al-Za`im, who became president in July. Za‘im expanded the army from 5,000 to 27,000 men but failed to secure his own position, and as a result, he was deposed the following month (Aug. 14) by Col. Muhammad Sami al-Hinnawi. The latter was in turn brought down (Dec. 19) by yet another coup, organized by Col. Adib al-Shishakli, who briefly stabilized the political situation. At first, he attempted to restore civilian government. But in Nov. 1951 he moved entirely to military rule after failing to work out a satisfactory arrangement with the politicians. | 2 |
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| 1950 |
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| Dissolution of the Syrian-Lebanese Customs and Monetary Union. | 3 |
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| 1952, Nov. 26 |
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| Death of Ali al-Darwish (b. 1884), one of the great specialists in traditional Middle Eastern music. He trained numerous musicians and put together an extensive collection of material on melodic modes and rhythmic patterns. | 4 |
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| 1953 |
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| Abolition of minority law. The special legal codes relating to Alawi and Druze personal law were eliminated. | 5 |
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| 1954, Feb. 25 |
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| Resignation of Shishakli, following widespread protests against his regime. The disturbances began with a tribal revolt in Jabal Druze (July 1953). Soon afterward, strikes and demonstrations erupted throughout the country. The final blow to Shishakli was a military rebellion centered originally in Aleppo and spreading to the other large towns in Syria outside Damascus. Rather than plunge the country into civil war, Shishakli stepped down as president. Civilian government was immediately reinstated, and Faris al-Khuri assumed office as prime minister. | 6 |
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| 1954–58 |
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| PARTY POLITICS AND WEAK GOVERNMENTS. The leading parties were the National Party and the People's Party, dominated by the preindependence class of notables and the emerging Ba‘th Party. Few of the parties were willing to cooperate with one another. Political paralysis was heightened by the Suez War (1956), which drew Syria ever closer to Egypt. By 1958, union with Egypt was regarded as the only solution to Syria's ineffectual system of government. | 7 |
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| 1955 |
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| Signing of a defense pact with Egypt. Syrian foreign policy began to favor the Soviet bloc. | 8 |
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| 1960–80 |
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| Rapid urbanization of Syrian society. The percentage of urban dwellers rose from 30 to 50 percent of the population. | 9 |
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| 1961, Nov |
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| RESTORATION OF CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT. The military officers who had revolted against Egyptian rule (in the form of the United Arab Republic ( (See 1958, Feb. 1)), 1958–61) issued a constitution and organized elections (Dec. 1). Nazim al-Qudsi won the vote for the presidency (Dec. 14). Like the civilian regimes of 1954–58, the governments of the next two years were riven by factional rivalries and were unable to exercise effective power. | 10 |
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| 1962, March 28 |
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| A bloodless COUP was organized by army officers. The army ordered changes in the government (retaining al-Qudsi as president) and then quickly returned to the barracks (April 13). | 11 |
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| Sept. 13 |
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| Appointment of Khalid al-Azm as prime minister. He dissolved Parliament (Sept. 24) and announced that he would govern by decree until the next elections, to be staged within one year. | 12 |
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