Alcohol consumption, economic resource and League of Nations pressures in French Syria and Lebanon (1923–1946)

Abstract

Syria and Lebanon were declared French mandates by the League of Nations just after the First World War at the climax of a global prohibition, especially in the United States. Contrary to North Africa, Levant was already a great land of wine and arak production, especially through religious congregations. In that context, especially during the 1930s crisis, the French authorities were asked to protect and sustain the Lebanese vineyards, and more generally the alcohol levant economy. However, at the same time the administrators were pressured by Muslim lobbies and the League of Nations to ‘improve the social situation’ in the territories they had to manage, which could mean a stronger control of alcohol consumptions. In that context, alcohol regulation was a part of the paternal Republicanism that, according to Elizabeth Thompson, characterized the social policy of France in the Levant. How could the authorities manage these two different stakes? To try to answer, I have analysed the Lebanon newspapers from the nineteen-twenties in Saint-Joseph University and special issues on alcohol control, from French security services of the mandate, at the French Diplomatic Archives of Nantes (CADN).