Syrian Civil War: Causation Essay example -- arab republic, ottoman rul

Middle East Project: Syrian Civil War: Causation After four hundred years of indecisive Ottoman rule, and three decades fighting the mandate of the French, the many diverse peoples of Syria finally could call Syria their own. Yet, independence was not synonymous with peace. Without a common enemy, the Syrian people remembered their differences and began to squabble amongst themselves. Even now, seven decades after the formation of the Syrian Arab Republic, peace is yet but a far-flung dream. In June of 2000, then-President Hafez al-Assad, of the previous Ba’ath Party, passed away and his title was left, through an unfortunate accident, in the hands of his second, less determined son, Bashar al-Assad. With his death came strife. Powerful clashing forces previously kept quashed by Ba’ath Party Rule began to emerge yet again, and Syria was plunged into conflict. The Syrian civil war crisis, commonly accepted to have begun with the rule of Bashar al-Assad, had roots in history extending past Hafez al Assad (Ba’ath Party Ruling) and, through a combination of external pressures, environmental and foreign, and internal inconsistency and weakness blossomed into the situation today. The Ba’ath Party, the name Arabic for â€Å"Renaissance† or â€Å"Resurrection† (Polk), was founded in 1947 by Michel Aflaq, a Syrian teacher whose views on nationalism gained him support from Arabs across the area (â€Å"Profile†). Quickly merging with other parties, the now-Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party became real competition to its opposition as its popularity surged among students of the nation. Historically, as Syrian people were (and are) extremely diverse, a wide range of opinions on nationalism and religion have been presented, each addressing a different aspect of ... ...LIO, 2014. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. "Urban and Rural Human Geography in Syria." News and Events: Point of View. Geography Services, n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. . Warner, Andy. "Syria’s First Family." Slate. SlateGroup, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. . Washington Post. "Syrian Civil War: A Rising Death Count." Washington Post. Washington Post, n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. . Zahler, Kathy. The Assads' Syria. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century, 2010. Print. Dictatorships. Zuhur, Sherifa. "Bashar al-Assad." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.