The Definition of a Style of Imperialism: The Internal Politics of the French Educational Investment in Ottoman Beirut

Abstract

During the latter part of the nineteenth century France established a substantial educational presence in Beirut and, through that burgeoning town, in other parts of Syria, particularly in Mt. Lebanon.1 The French emphasis on education was a product of an alliance of the Catholic missionary enterprise with French diplomacy and subsidies, and it was an important element in French imperial expansion into the Ottoman Empire. The investment in education was part of loosely organized political and economic activism that ultimately became the basis for the mandates over Syria and Greater Lebanon after the First World War.2 An analysis of this particular style of imperialism must investigate the tensions inherent in the alliance of French diplomacy with Catholic missionary enterprise. Finally, the quality of the French presence was determined by the interaction of diplomatic expediency, academic excellence, clerical devotion, and social evolution. The foremost asset which the Catholic missions contributed to