ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the social and political structures of the traditional regime, as they emerged in the late Ottoman and French periods and crystallized in the early post-independence years. The absence of those who controlled the land from the countryside translated into little concern by state or lord to protect or develop the agrarian base of society, and only a strong state, interested in and capable of containing the nomad and maintaining irrigation networks, could sustain agrarian prosperity in Syria. The French fostered new Westernized classes but discouraged the industry needed to meet their needs, sowing the seeds of economic dependency and social instability; imperialism brought the village under increased urban control, but in Westernizing the new upper and middle urban strata, widened the cultural gap between them and the rural masses.
