A Geostrategic and Sociopolitical Analysis of the 1912 Beirut Bombardment at the Domestic and International Levels

Abstract This article aims to elaborate the geostrategic and sociopolitical significance of the Beirut Bombardment executed by the Italian Navy as a phase of the Italo-Ottoman War of 1911–1912. Beirut’s historical and cultural heritage, its ethnoreligious spectrum, and its strategically privileged position, militarily, politically and commercially, reveal that it was more than a coastal city and that the operation was more than a military one. Moreover, its aftermath was characterized by a violation of international law, a shaken provincial administration, a deeply disrupted social peace, and a demographic policy seeking an expulsion of the Italian inhabitants in the Syrian Levant. Despite its traumatic traces in the collective memories of both parties, the subject has received scant attention from scholars. This study aims to address this lacuna by analysing understudied issues such as the violation of the Hague Convention, the declaration of martial law in Beirut, and the repercussions of the incident in the European press.