French Mandate of Syria in the context of "Izz ad-Din al-Qassam"

Hatay State (Turkish: Hatay Devleti; French: État du Hatay; Arabic: دولة حطاي, romanized: Dawlat Ḥaṭāy), also known informally as the Republic of Hatay (Arabic: جمهورية حطاي, romanized: Jumhūriyyat Ḥaṭāy), was a transitional nation that existed from 2 September 1938 to 29 June 1939, being located in the territory of the Sanjak of Alexandretta of the French Mandate of Syria. The state was transformed de facto into the Hatay Province of Turkey on 7 July 1939, de jure joining the country on 23 July 1939.

Michel Aflaq (Arabic: ميشيل عفلق, romanized: Mīšīl ʿAflaq‎, Arabic pronunciation: [miˈʃel ˈʕaflaq]; 9 January 1910 – 23 June 1989) was a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Ba'athism and its political movement; he is considered by several Ba'athists to be the principal founder of Ba'athist thought. Aflaq published various books during his lifetime, such as The Road to Renaissance (1940), The Battle for One Destiny (1958) and The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution (1975).

Born into a middle-class family in Damascus, Syria, he studied at the Sorbonne, where he met his future political companion Salah al-Din al-Bitar. Aflaq returned to Syria (at that time part of the French-ruled Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon) in 1932, beginning his political career in communist politics. He became a communist activist, but broke his ties with the communist movement when the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party supported colonial policies through the Popular Front under the French Mandate of Syria. In 1940, Aflaq and al-Bitar established the Arab Ihya Movement (later renaming itself the Arab Ba'ath Movement, taking the name from Zaki al-Arsuzi's group by the same name). The movement proved successful, and in 1947 the Arab Ba'ath Movement merged with al-Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath organisation to establish the Arab Ba'ath Party. Aflaq was elected to the party's executive committee and was elected "'Amid" (meaning the party's leader).

The State of Damascus (French: État de Damas; Arabic: دولة دمشق Dawlat Dimashq) was one of the six states established by the French General Henri Gouraud in the French Mandate of Syria which followed the San Remo conference of 1920 and the defeat of King Faisal's short-lived monarchy in Syria.

The other states were the State of Aleppo (1920), the State of Alawites (1920), the State of Jabal Druze (1921), the Sanjak of Alexandretta (1921), and the State of Greater Lebanon (1920), which later became the modern country of Lebanon.

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 Syrian Federation (Arabic: الاتحاد السوري; French: Fédération syrienne), officially the Federation of the Autonomous States of Syria (French: Fédération des États autonomes de Syrie), was a federal state administered by French Mandate of Syria. It was constituted on 28 June 1922 by High Commissary Gouraud. It comprised the States of Aleppo, Damascus, and of the Alawites, spanning an area of 119,000 to 120,000 km. It was officially dissolved by decree of 5 December 1924 "which received its application starting on 1 January 1925".

Subhi Bey Barakat al-Khalidi (Arabic: صبحي بك بركات الخالدي; Turkish: Suphi Bereket; 1889–1939) was a Turkish-born Syrian politician who served as the first president of Syria from 1922 until his resignation in 1925. He served during the French Mandate where the French controlled the country. He also served as the fourth prime minister during his tenure as president.

Part of the reason the French supported his candidacy as president of the Syrian Federation was because as neither a native of Damascus nor a very strong Arabic speaker (Turkish was his mother tongue), he did not seem to pose a nationalist threat to French rule.

Jabal al-Druze (Arabic: جبل الدروز, French: Djebel Druze) was an autonomous state in the French Mandate of Syria from 1921 to 1936, designed to function as a government for the local Druze population under French oversight.

A separate independent Druze state to be established in the Golan Heights was proposed by Israeli politician Yigal Allon in his Allon Plan.