efforts of Fuad Pasha.52 He had secretly aspired to make massive arrests among the Druze population, if not to engage them militarily, and to deploy the French forces in Damascus and the Syrian interior.53 He was thwarted by Fuad Pasha, who did his utmost to prove the presence of the French Expeditionary Force redundant, if not detrimental. As a result, the contribution of the French force was limited to deployment in the mixed districts and the Bekaa Valley, after the flight of most of the Druze warriors, as a moral guarantee to the returning Christians; for lack of any military task, they acted as masons and carpenters, helping the Christians of these sectors to rebuild their houses.
The frustrated general consequently endeavored to meddle in political affairs. He was dissatisfied with the European Commission's approach to the Lebanese question and was anxious to press for a solution more congenial to his own views. Writing to the French minister of foreign affairs, he began to assert that his mission was really “more political than military.”54 As he understood it, his mission and that of the French forces was to ensure a secure future for the Christians of Lebanon, and he made it his responsibility to achieve this aim before leaving the region.
The commander-in-chief of the French expedition had some clear ideas about the future of Lebanon and of the region. He knew Syria well, having joined the Egyptian army in the 1830s, when he acted as aide-de-camp to the commander of the Egyptian forces, Sulayman Pasha, and participated in his Syrian campaigns.55 At that time, he had also visited the late Emir Bashir II in his palace in Bayt al-Din and was apparently quite impressed by his personality. Beaufort was therefore inclined from the start toward a restoration of the Shihabi Emirate on a more sound and firm basis.
Map of Lebanon from a survey by the topographical service of the 1860-61 French Expeditionary Force for Syria, deposited in the archives of the war ministry. Paris: Lemercier, 1862.
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
All along, Beaufort's views remained articulated around this same premise. In his opinion, the European Commission's favored plan aiming at a complete restructuring of Syria and a reorganization of Lebanon within the framework of the other Syrian provinces was unacceptable and, at any rate, inopportune. To begin with, the idea of restoring any sort of Ottoman authority over the Christians of Lebanon seemed totally abhorrent to him: “While the necessities of the political entente in Europe require that the integrity of the Ottoman Empire be preserved, humanity and civilization require that the Christians of the East, whose ancient privileges give them indisputable rights, be delivered once and for all from the incessant dangers of the Muslim fanaticism fostered by the interference of Porte agents in the country's administration.”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
