What Has Been Happening in Lebanon?

We all know about the explosion that rocked Beirut yesterday, but how did it all start?

For the last 15 years, citizens of Lebanon have been denied basic services, cut from electricity, running water, and have been threatened by an increasingly militarized state because of unthinkable government corruption that has shattered the political landscape of the country.

Politicians in Lebanon have spent the past 15 years ignoring the dying pleas of their people and arguing over who gets the largest cut of the budget after imposing outrageous taxes that have made the cost of living in Lebanon practically unsustainable. 

Lebanon's national security is growing massively unstable and its consumer economy is about to collapse, all while the country becomes overrun by militant groups that are also searching for profits (well, at least the most powerful ones) fighting amongst themselves. 

Lebanon is divided into four major religious sects. There are the Sunni Muslim, Christian, Shia Muslim, and the Druze. The Lebanese government has barely functioned whatsoever for years because of these major divides (and the corruption, duh). 

Lebanon was leaderless for two years due to major infighting, but in 2016, the people elected a man named Michel Aoun to lead the country. However, his impact hasn't been too great. 

You see, the power brokers in Lebanon have all hired their own militias to protect their greedy assets. Specifically, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has quickly become more powerful than the government itself and now practically owns the country. 

Protesting has been widespread all over Lebanon, in which the people of the country have been demanding equal human rights for the general public, and demand the redistribution of wealth from the capitalist leeches that hold the lower class down.

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Post originally appeared on History Obsessed.