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- Title
Educational Conquest: Schools as a Sphere of Politics in French Mandate Syria, 1936–1946.
- Authors
DUECK, JENNIFER M.
- Abstract
This article deals with the significance of the school as a space for colonial and diplomatic power struggles in the French Mandate territories of Syria and Lebanon between 1936 and 1945. Often underestimated in their importance to colonial and international affairs, schools were an integral part of France’s precarious political administration in the Levant. Although fiercely anti-clerical at home, the French government relied extensively on long-established Catholic missionary schools to entrench its control. These schools emerged as a space for conflict, both symbolically and physically, as a result of their association with France’s policy of promoting non-Sunni communities at the expense of the regional Sunni majority. Within the context of these policies, French schools became a symbol of privilege for francophile Christian elites and of oppression for Muslim or pan-Arab groups disaffected with the regime. The discussion here addresses the role of schools as a focus for conflict and cooperation among French officials and educators working in the Levant, as a forum for Franco-Syrian colonial interaction and as an object of international diplomatic dispute as Syria gained its independence.
- Subjects
SYRIA; LEBANON; FRANCE; FRENCH schools abroad; FRENCH politics &; government; CATHOLIC missionaries; CHRISTIANS; EDUCATION of Muslims; EDUCATION; TWENTIETH century
- Publication
French History, 2006, Vol 20, Issue 4, p442
- ISSN
0269-1191
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/fh/crl023