A wonderful development began with the liberation from Turkish oppression.

Macadamized roads were built all over the province, agriculture was improved, and there was complete safety for life and property.

There is a proverb now in Palestine and Syria which says, "In the Lebanon a virgin may travel alone at midnight and be safe, and a purse of gold dropped in the road at midday will never be stolen." And the proverb told the literal truth.
When one crossed the boundary from Turkish Palestine into the Lebanon province, what a change met his eyes!--peaceful and prosperous villages, schools filled with children, immense plantations of mulberry trees and olives, the slopes of the mountains terraced with beautiful vineyards, a handsome and sturdy population, police on every road to help the stranger, and young girls and women with happy laugh and chatter working in the fields.

With a population of about six hundred thousand this province exported annually two million dollars' worth of raw silk, silkworm-raising being a specialty of the Lebanon.
When autonomy was granted the Lebanon, French influence became predominant among the Maronites and other Christians of the province.
French is spoken by almost all of them, and love for France is a deep-rooted sentiment of the people.

On the other hand, the Druses feel the English influence.