Republic of Lebanon

This was another submission that I did around not too long ago for my flag-oriented allohistorical history exercise.

My Lebanese flag was inspired by the various threads in AH.com, a more or less decent website that I visit daily for AH content, that had been posted over the years, discussing whether it was possible for Lebanon to remain a Christian-majority country right up to this day, given the right point of divergence. Many members - particularly Abdul Hadi Pasha and Nicole mentioned that Lebanon did used to have a large Christian majority but that came to an end when the French annexed Muslim-majority lands in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa valley in the east.

The point of divergence is France not annexing those lands to the Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon, an autonomous province set aside as a homeland for the Maronite Christians by the Ottoman Empire under diplomatic pressure from Europe in the aftermath of the 1860 Lebanon conflict between Maronite and Druze. Lebanon here would be smaller but at the same time, it would be a much more stable country without the sectarian divisions that had been exacerbated during the Mandate period and afterwards by outside forces when Lebanon had been granted its independence.

Now that I have the AH background out of the way, I'll briefly mention how hard it was to do this. It was pretty difficult, I would say, to think of a radically different flag for the Lebanese nation given that all the other possibilities just didn't seem to work due to the timeframe that I was working with.

I knew that the Cedar of Lebanon was one element that HAD to stay in my allohistorical flag - given its significance as the national symbol of the Lebanese people and the importance it had to the ancient civilizations that ruled or came in contact with Lebanon throughout the ages. I ended up creating a stylized Lebanese cedar, inspired by the symbol of the Lebanese Phalanges.

If you had not already noticed, the flag is based off the French tricolor, if it was turned ninety degrees to the right. Given that the people of these two countries have had close ties that date back to the Crusades when Crusader and Maronite provided each other with mutual assistance; ties which remain to this day. The blue represents the Lebanon's dedication to truth and justice; the white stands for peace and the white snow that covers the mountains of Lebanon; the red symbolizes the blood shed during the Lebanese people's long struggle for freedom.

I hope to hear your thoughts on this. I like to think I did a decent job with this.