History
Core concepts
The syllabus covers modern and contemporary world history (Enlightenment, French Revolution, industrialization, world wars, decolonization, Cold War) and Lebanese history (Ottoman rule, Mutasarrifiyya, French Mandate, independence 1943, civil war 1975–1990, Taif Agreement 1989, postwar reconstruction).
Traps
- Confusing causes, triggers, and consequences - questions often ask specifically for immediate causes.
- Date slippage: 1943 (independence), 1975 (civil war start), 1989 (Taif), 1990 (end of war) are frequent distractors.
- Attributing a treaty to the wrong conflict (e.g., Versailles to WWI, not WWII).
- Treating the Mandate as independence - Lebanon was under French Mandate until 1943.
- In document questions, quoting the source without contextualizing it.
Rule of thumb
For any event, build a three-column grid: long-term causes / immediate trigger / consequences. For document analysis, state nature, author, date, context, then message before interpreting.
Worked example
Lebanese independence: long-term causes include Arab nationalist sentiment and the 1936 Franco-Lebanese treaty; the immediate context is the 1943 parliamentary abolition of the Mandate; consequences include the National Pact and the 1943 constitutional order.