MGV News   Kenya: Drone Fighters Protect Shipping From Somali Pirates Vetican City: Bishops Say to Corrupt African Leaders, "Repent or Quit" Australia: Rights Body Claims Immigrant Children Being Detained Illegally Dominican Republic: Canadian Missionary Accused of Sex-Abuse in Haiti China: Prison Boss Dismissed Over Deadly Escape   Specials Graduate/Professional School Opportunities

The Syrian Arab Republic

Before the modern era, the land of Syria was variously under different conquerors. The Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Hittites, Assyria, the Chaldeans and the Persians. The country was over-run by Alexander the Great of Greece in 333 BC. Antioch was founded by one of Alexander's generals Seleucus I. In 64 BC Syria became a Roman province. Syria was a Byzantine province from 395 AD to 636 when it was captured by Arab Moslems. Christian Crusaders took it back in 1099 and made it part of the Kingdom of Jarusalem. It was later (1174-1187) taken by the Muslims under Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt. Mongols overran Syria in 1260. By 1516 the Ottomans were in control.

When the First World War ended in 1918, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and Syria came under French rule through the May 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. From 1920 onward, Syrian nationalist opposition to French rule intensified. In September 1936 Syria and France negotiated a treaty for Syrian independence, but the French refused to ratify the treaty and continued to occupy the country. In 1941, Syria again proclaimed its independence, but international recognition did not come until January 1, 1944. In February 1945 Syria joined the Allied Nations in declaring war on Germany and Japan. After the end of the Second World War, on April 17, 1946, the last of the French troops occupying Syria were withdrawn and the country came fully under an independent republican government.