Modern history of Syria

Flag of the Arab Kingdom of Syria (1920)
Flag of Syria under French mandate (1920-1922)
Flag of the Syrian Federation, later State of Syria under French mandate (1922-1925 and 1925-1930)
Flag of the Syrian Republic (1932-1958), and again from 1961 to 1963
Flag of the United Arab Republic (1958-1961) and again of the Arab Republic of Syria since 1980
Flag of the Syrian Arab Republic 1963-1972
Flag of the Syrian Arab Republic, 1972-1980

The modern history of Syria begins with the termination of Ottoman control of Syria by French forces and the establishment of the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration during World War I. The short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria emerged in 1920, which was however soon committed under the French Mandate, which produced the short-lived autonomous State of Aleppo, State of Damascus (later State of Syria), Alawite State and Jabal al-Druze (state); the autonomies were transformed into the Mandatory Syrian Republic in 1930. Syrian Republic gained independence in April 1946. The Republic took part in the Arab-Israeli War and remained in a state of political instability during the 1950s and 1960s.

The 8 March 1963 coup resulted in the installation of the National Council for the Revolutionary Command (NCRC), a group of military and civilian officials who assumed control of all executive and legislative authority. The takeover was engineered by members of the Ba'ath Party led by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. He was overthrown in early 1966 by Marxist-Leninist military dissidents of the party led by General Salah Jadid. Since the Arab Spring of 2011, Bashar al-Assad's government has been involved in the ongoing Syrian civil war.


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