Editing Hashim al-Atassi (section)

== Background and early career ==
He was born in [[Homs]] in 1875<ref>{{cite book|last=Jessup|first=John E.|title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945-1996|year=1998|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|page=42|url=https://www.questia.com/read/106899354/an-encyclopedic-dictionary-of-conflict-and-conflict|access-date=29 August 2017|archive-date=10 October 2017|isbn=978-0313281129|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010024655/https://www.questia.com/read/106899354/an-encyclopedic-dictionary-of-conflict-and-conflict|url-status=dead}}</ref> to the large, landowning and politically active [[Atassi]] family. He studied public administration at the [[Mekteb-i Mülkiye]] in [[Istanbul]], and graduated in 1893.<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Corinne Lee Blake|title=Training Arab-Ottoman bureaucrats: Syrian graduates of the Mulkiye Mektebi, 1890-1920|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303968458 |location=[[Princeton University]]|page=16|id={{ProQuest|303968458}}|degree=PhD|isbn=979-8-208-26719-6|year=1991}}</ref> He began his political career in 1888 in the [[Ottoman province|Ottoman vilayet]] of [[Beirut]], and through the years, up to 1918, served as Governor of Homs, [[Hama]], [[Baalbek]], [[Anatolia]], and [[Jaffa]], which included the then-small suburb of [[Tel Aviv]]. In 1919, after the defeat of [[Ottoman Turkey]] during [[World War I]], he was elected chairman of the [[Syrian National Congress]], the equivalent of a modern parliament.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pipes|first=Daniel|author-link=Daniel Pipes|title=Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition|publisher =[[Oxford University Press US]]|year=1992|page=26|isbn=978-0-19-506022-5}}</ref> 

On 8 March 1920 that body declared independence as a constitutional monarchy, under [[Faisal I of Iraq|King Faisal I]]. He became prime minister during this short-lived period, for [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French occupation]] soon followed under the terms of the [[Sykes-Picot Agreement]] and a [[League of Nations Mandate]] (Also see: [[San Remo conference]]). During his tenure, Atassi appointed the veteran independence activist and statesman [[Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar]], one of the leaders of the [[Syrian nationalist]] movement against the [[Ottoman Empire]] during [[World War I]], as Foreign Minister. He delegated Shahbandar to formulate alliances between [[Syria]] and Europe, in a vain attempt to prevent the implementation of a [[French Mandate of Syria|French Mandate]]. France moved quickly to reverse Syrian independence. 

The French High Commissioner [[Henri Gouraud (soldier)|Henri Gouraud]] presented Faisal with an ultimatum, demanding the surrender of Aleppo to the French Army, the dismantling of the Syrian Army, the adaptation of the [[French franc]] in Syria, and the dissolution of the Atassi Government. Shahbandar's efforts to compromise with Gouraud proved futile, and Atassi's cabinet was dissolved on 24 July 1920, when the French defeated the Syrian Army at the [[Battle of Maysalun]] and imposed their mandate over Syria.{{fact|date=August 2021}}