Syria in its fifth year of civil war: Overview, analysis and thoughts on resolving the conflict. Bertelsmann Studies

After the First World War, the then colonial powers Great Britain and France created a number of countries from what remained of the Ottoman Empire. One of those countries was Syria, a nation of artificial borders. In 1946, Syria gained its independence. The government promoted secularization and saw to it that the benefits of modernization accrued to many, which meant that the country’s 12 different ethnic and religious groups lived together in peace until the 1980s. During the Assad dynasty, however, problems and conflicts arose, culminating in open revolt in 2011