Franco-Syrian War in the context of "Mandate for Palestine"

During the British rule in Mandatory Palestine, there was civil, political and armed struggle between Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish Yishuv, beginning from the violent spillover of the Franco-Syrian War in 1920 and until the onset of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The conflict shifted from sectarian clashes in the 1920s and early 1930s to an armed Arab Revolt against British rule in 1936, armed Jewish Revolt primarily against the British in mid-1940s and finally open war in November 1947 between Arabs and Jews.

Southern Syria (Arabic: سوريا الجنوبية, romanized: Sūriyā al-Janūbiyya) is a geographical term referring to the southern portion of either the Ottoman-period Vilayet of Syria, or the modern-day Arab Republic of Syria.

The term was used in the Arabic language primarily from 1919 until the end of the Franco-Syrian war in July 1920, during which the Arab Kingdom of Syria existed.

The Interregnum (between rulers) period in Transjordan was a short period during which the region had no established ruler or occupying power that lasted from the end of the Franco-Syrian War on 25 July 1920 until the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan on 11 April 1921.

Transjordan was in the British sphere of influence, but the British did not send an army or administration, and the government of the Hashemite Arab Kingdom of Syria under Prince Faisal had collapsed after being defeated by the French during the Battle of Maysalun in July 1920. British High Commissioner for Palestine Herbert Samuel wrote that the area was "left politically derelict"; the region was extremely poor, sparsely populated, and widely considered ungovernable.

The Syrian Arab Kingdom (Arabic: المملكة العربية السورية, al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabiyya al-Sūriya) was an unrecognized monarchy existing briefly in the territory of historical Syria. It was announced on 5 October 1918 as a fully independent Arab constitutional government with the permission of the British Empire. It gained independence as an emirate after the withdrawal of British forces from OETA East on 26 November 1919, and was proclaimed a kingdom on 8 March 1920.

As a kingdom, the state existed for a little over four months, from 8 March to 25 July 1920. During its brief existence, the kingdom was led by Faisal bin Hussein, son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. Despite its claims over the region of Syria, Faisal's government controlled a limited area and was dependent on Britain, which, along with France, generally opposed the idea of a Greater Syria and refused to recognize the kingdom. After a four-month-long war, the kingdom surrendered to French forces on 25 July 1920.

The Battle of Maysalun (Arabic: معركة ميسلون), also known as the Battle of Maysalun Pass or the Battle of Khan Maysalun (French: Bataille de Khan Mayssaloun), was a four-hour battle fought between the forces of the Arab Kingdom of Syria and the French Army of the Levant on 24 July 1920 near Khan Maysalun in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Damascus.

In October 1918, Arab rebels, under Hashemite Emir Faisal, captured Damascus during the British-backed Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Faisal then formed a government under the auspices of the Allied military occupation administration of "OETA East", consistent with an earlier Anglo-French agreement. The French encountered local revolts when their forces entered the country, and in March 1920, Faisal was proclaimed King of Syria. A month later, the League of Nations allocated Syria to France as a mandate.

The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq (Arabic: الانتداب البريطاني على العراق, romanized: al-Intidāb al-Brīṭānī ʿalā l-ʿIrāq), was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolution against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and a 1924 undertaking by the United Kingdom to the League of Nations to fulfil the role as Mandatory Power.

Faisal ibn Husayn, who had been proclaimed King of Syria by a Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July of the same year. Faisal was then granted by the British the territory of Iraq, to rule it as a kingdom, with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) retaining certain military control, but de facto, the territory remained under British administration until 1932.

Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi (Arabic: فيصل بن حسين بن علي الهاشمي, romanized: Fayṣal bin Ḥusayn bin ʻAlī al-Hāshimī; 20 May 1885 – 8 September 1933) was a Hejazi statesman who served as the King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 until his death in 1933. A member of the Hashemite family, he was a leader of the Great Arab Revolt during the First World War, and ruled as the unrecognized King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria from March to July 1920 when he was expelled by the French.

The third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Emir and Sharif of Mecca, Faisal was born in Mecca and raised in Istanbul. From 1916 to 1918, with British assistance, he played a major role in the revolt against the Ottoman Empire. He helped set up an Arab government in Syria, based in Damascus, and led the Arab delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In 1920, the Syrian National Congress proclaimed Faisal king, rejecting the French claim to a Mandate for Syria. In response, France invaded a few months later, abolished the kingdom and forced him into exile.

The Sharifian or Sherifian Solution (Arabic: الحلول الشريفية) was an informal name for post-Ottoman British Middle East policy and French Middle East policy of nation-building. At first put forward by T. E. Lawrence in 1918, it was a plan to install the three younger sons of Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi (the Sharif of Mecca and King of Hejaz) as heads of state in newly created countries across the Middle East, whereby his second son Abdullah would rule Baghdad and Lower Mesopotamia, his third son Faisal would rule Syria, and his fourth son Zeid would rule Upper Mesopotamia. Hussein himself would not wield any political power in these places, and his first son, Ali would be his successor in Hejaz.

Given the need to rein in expenditure and factors outside British control, including France's removing of Faisal from Syria in July 1920, and Abdullah's entry into Transjordan (which had been the southern part of Faisal's Syria) in November 1920, the eventual Sharifian solution was somewhat different, the informal name for a British policy put into effect by Secretary of State for the Colonies Winston Churchill following the 1921 Cairo conference. Faisal and Abdullah would rule Iraq and Transjordan respectively; Zeid did not have a role, and ultimately it proved impossible to make satisfactory arrangements with Hussein and the Kingdom of Hejaz. An underlying idea was that pressure might be applied in one state to secure obedience in another; as it transpired, the inherent assumption of family unity was misconceived.