After the Ottomans came the French...

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire, which included Lebanon, supported Germany.  This meant that, when Germany lost and became poor, all of Germany's supporters also became destitute and in need of guidance (A).  After the Great War, the leading Allied countries divided up the territories that the enemies had possessed.  This resulted in the French overtake of Lebanon (A).  The Allied Powers officially gave the lands of Lebanon and Syria to France in 1923 (D). The presence of the French increased the trade in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.  Beirut began to be a prestigious silk trading port. Later, the French and the Lebanese signed a treaty of 'friendship and independence,' a treaty that the French government never approved (D).  In 1941, British and Free French troops controlled Lebanon (D).  In 1926, the Lebanese emerged as the Lebanese Republic (C). Their presence became an imposing one.  So, in 1943, the government held elections and the Lebanese won; the Lebanese were competing with the Free French soldiers and the British who were currently there (D).  Unsatisfied with the results of the elections, the French arrested the president and nearly the entire government in late 1943, just a short time after the elections occurred (D).  The Lebanese kept trying to achieve independence, but it took a couple of crises to acquire it.  The power struggle between Lebanon and France over Lebanon was very similar to a child's game of tug-of-war.  Lebanon would declare itself independent, but then the French would come in and take back control and change everything back to how it was under French power (D).  Lebanon had a tough trek, but eventually achieved the ultimate goal of freedom.