Lebanon's Civil War Spark: The National Pact

The Lebanese Civil War did not begin with a bang in 1975, but with a quiet agreement in 1943. In this episode, we explore the National Pact, an unwritten social contract that defined Lebanon’s independence from France and established its fragile confessional power-sharing system. We trace how this arrangement balanced Maronite political dominance with Muslim demographic reality, creating a state that was unique in the Middle East yet inherently unstable. Through the lens of figures like Bechara El Khoury and Riyad al-Solh, we examine how this compromise prevented immediate conflict for thirty years, only to fracture under the weight of regional wars, Palestinian refugee influxes, and shifting demographics. This is the story of how Lebanon tried to build a nation without a unified national identity, relying instead on a delicate balance of religious communities that ultimately could not withstand the pressures of the modern era.

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