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
Geology of Lebanon deposits, often housed in Oligocene and Miocene deposits. Deposition has continued since the Cretaceous, with periods of tectonic contraction, including one that is still slowly ongoing, resulting in the erosion of the Palmyride fold belt in Syria. The oldest exposed rocks in Lebanon date to the early Jurassic. Although the basement geology of the area remains poorly studied, geologically similar locations are known from deep drilling in Syria, Israel and Jordan. In those areas (inferred to be nearly the same in Lebanon), the Paleozoic is marked by thick siliclastic deposits, while Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks are typically carbonates or evaporates.