Faisal Was Crowned King of Syria — Then France Erased It | THE KING BRITAIN MADE Part 2 of 3

History Onion · Part 2 The Kingdom That Lasted a Season · 2:58

In March 1920, an Arab congress in Damascus crowned Faisal bin Hussein king of an independent Arab kingdom — the dream Britain had promised, finally real. It lasted barely four months. At San Remo, Britain and France handed Syria to France; that July, a French army marched on Damascus, and one Syrian minister, Yusuf al-Azma, rode out to a battle he knew he would lose so it could never be said the city fell without a fight. Part 2 of 3. Follow for Part 3 — The Consolation Throne. A note on names: the Arabic is Fayṣal ibn Ḥusayn (فيصل بن الحسين). We use the familiar English spelling "Faisal" so the story reaches more people — with full respect for the original form. A note on the flag: the black-green-white banner with the red triangle is the flag of the Arab Revolt — the 1916 uprising against the Ottomans that Faisal helped lead. His forces carried it through to the Damascus throne in 1920, and it's the original from which the modern Palestinian, Jordanian, Iraqi, Syrian and other Arab flags all descend. Accurate to the period, not a stylized stand-in.