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The 1963 Syrian revolution has its foundations in decades of struggle against European imperialism. In 1920 the newly created United Arab Kingdom of Syria under King Faisal surrendered to French forces thus making way for the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon in 1923.
The French mandate finally ended in 1943, but the colonizing troops were not expeled until 1946 when Syria finally declared its independence. During the years of feudalism, peasants were dispossessed of their land, wealth distribution was deeply unequal while arbitrary borders were imposed without consideration of the region’s ethnic diversity and reality.
After the independence, the privileged classes continued to rule Syria with successive military dictatorships being installed between 1946 and 1963. In this context, the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party emerged in 1947, with factions in Syria and Iraq, with the aim of unifying the Arab world under the slogan “Unity, Freedom, Socialism”.
Founded by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, the Ba’ath movement was ruled by the middle class, but it managed to incorporate the peasant population, thus opening the path for the successful Revolution of March 8, 1963. This process was also inspired by the military coup of its Iraqui branch against Abdul Karim Qasim a month earlier.
The coup was planned by the military committee led by Muhammad Umran, Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad who later expelled the civilian leadership, culminating in the 1966 coup d’état, which ousted Aflaq and his supporters. This also meant the split between the Syrian and Iraqi regional factions.
Ba’athism focused on Syria’s economic progress through the implementation of an agrarian reform that secured food sovereignty. It also took control of strategic industrial sectors, nationalized banks and oil resources. In foreign policy, it supported Palestine and built closer ties to the USSR.
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Text: Andreína Chávez. Illustration: Valentina Aguirre.