French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon that local leaders had could easily be overruled by French officials. The French did everything in their power to prevent people in the Levant from developing self-sufficient governing bodies. In 1930, France extended their constitution on to Syria. On August 3, 1920, 299 of the "Haut-commissariat de la République française en Syrie et au Liban" linked the cazas of Hasbaya, Rachaya, Maallaka and Baalbeck to what was then known as the Autonomous Territory of Lebanon. Then on 31 August 1920, General Gouraud signed Arrêté 318 delimiting the State of Greater Lebanon, with explanatory notes stating that Lebanon would be treated
Wildlife of Syria species of flowering plant have been recorded in Syria as well as about 112 gymnosperms. The country can be considered to be at a crossroads between various vegetation zones and the flora shows influences from three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. The ice ages pushed palaeoarctic species further south, and when the climate ameliorated, some species clung on in mountainous regions of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. The prevailing westerly winds bring greater precipitation near the coast and the vegetation on the western side of the coastal mountain ranges differs from that on the eastern side, which differs again from inland