ABSTRACT
The Lebanon to be considered in the present chapter is the Lebanon, in the main, that existed to 1975. Lebanon's polity has been dominated by the heads of powerful clans, the zu'ama, representing different sectarian clienteles, operating in the rough and tumble of politics through toughs, the qabada'i. The successful economy of Lebanon prior to 1975 was to the credit of the commercial spirit of its people who, if not direct heirs of the Phoenicians, are similar to them as inveterate travellers, merchants, entrepreneurs. Mass education began among the Maronites in the eighteenth century, and in the early nineteenth century American and French missionaries extended educational opportunities to the rest of the country. Lebanon, with the Civil War, virtually disintegrated as any sort of a nation, and some of her communities today are more likely to opt for a separate existence than for the reconstruction of the nation, unwilling anymore to submerge their identities in any common Lebanese identity.
