Great Famine of Mount Lebanon
The Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918) (Classical Syriac: ܟܦܢܐ, romanized: Kafno, lit. 'Starvation'; Arabic: مجاعة جبل لبنان, romanized: Majā'at Jabal Lubnān; Turkish: Lübnan Dağı'nın Büyük Kıtlığı) was a period of mass starvation on Mount Lebanon during World War I that resulted in the deaths of 200,000 people, most of whom were Maronite Christians.
| Great Famine of Mount Lebanon مجاعة جبل لبنان | |
|---|---|
Starving man and children in Mount Lebanon | |
| Country | Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Ottoman Empire, modern day Lebanon |
| Location | Mount Lebanon |
| Period | 1915–1918 |
| Total deaths | Est. 200,000 |
| Effect on demographics | Population of 400,000 declined by 50% |
There were many reasons for the famine in Mount Lebanon. Natural as well as man-made factors both played a role. Allied forces (United Kingdom and France) blockaded the Eastern Mediterranean, as they had done with the German Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe, in order to strangle the economy and weaken the Ottoman war effort. The situation was exacerbated by Jamal Pasha, commander of the Fourth Army of the Ottoman Empire, who deliberately barred crops from neighbouring Syria from entering Mount Lebanon, in response to the Allied blockade. Additionally, a swarm of locusts devoured the remaining crops, creating a famine that led to the deaths of half of the population of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, a semi-autonomous subdivision of the Ottoman Empire and the precursor of modern-day Lebanon. Ottoman Mount Lebanon had the highest per capita fatality rate of any ‘bounded’ territory during the First World War.
Other areas in modern-day Lebanon, according to multiple sources, were also famine-stricken. However, due to poor documentation, casualties were never recorded. Some of the areas hit with no documentation include Tyre, Zahle, Akkar and Bint Jbeil.