The Lebanese Civil War is a multifaceted civil war, the antecedents of which trace back to the conflicts and political compromises reached after the end of Lebanon's administration by the Ottoman Empire.

The conflict becomes greatly exacerbated by Lebanon's changing demographic trends, the Palestinian refugee influx between 1948 and 1982, Christian and Muslim inter-religious strife, and the involvement of Syria, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

After a short break in the fighting in 1976 due to Arab League mediation and Syrian intervention, Palestinian-Lebanese strife continues, with fighting primarily focused in south Lebanon, occupied first by the PLO, then occupied by Israel.During the course of the fighting, alliances shift rapidly and unpredictably.

By the end of the war, nearly every party has allied with and subsequently betrayed every other party at least once.

The 1980s are especially bleak: much of Beirut lies in ruins as a result of the 1976 Karantina massacre carried out by Lebanese Christian militias, the Syrian Army shelling of Christian neighborhoods in 1978 and 1981, and the Israeli invasion that evicts the PLO from the country.

A number of atrocities and terrorist acts are committed by the Palestinian and Lebanese factions participating in the war, including the Damour massacre in which Palestinians kill Christian inhabitants (from 25 to almost 600 according to different sources) of the coastal town 20 miles south of Beirut.

The war deteriorates ever further into sectarian carnage, and in the end Lebanon's effective independence counts among the casualties.By the time of the Taif Agreement in 1989, Israel holds on to a security zone in southern Lebanon as a buffer to prevent attacks on northern Israel.

The Israeli Army eventually withdraws in 2000.

Syria itself, which had heretofore controlled the rest of the country, will not withdraw its troops until 2005, when it will be forced out by the joint pressure created by Lebanese protest and powerful diplomatic intervention from the United States and the United Nations in the aftermath of the assassination of Rafik Hariri.