What would it have taken for Lebanon to have a more solid Christian majority (Maronite and otherwise; at least up until the 1930s-1940s), and hence its citizens having a stronger sense of Lebanese nationality, other than having just Mount Lebanon as an independent state (something that wasn't seen by the Maronite Christian leaders themselves as viable even as early as 1919-20)? (But of course having significant Sunni, Shia, and Druze minorities as well.) Perhaps...
a) a Crusader victory in the Levant as a whole in the Middle Ages (though that would have massive implications both in the entire Levant and elsewhere in the known world)
b) heavier Western missionary activity in the Levant in general or Lebanon specifically (probably accompanied by higher French settlement, perhaps sort of in the style of Algeria)
c) a different National Pact in 1943 from OTL
d) being a firm ally of Israel
e) somehow beating all the odds that Lebanon already had against it even in the 1920s-1950s, sort of like how the emergence (and sustainability) of the State of Israel in 1948 was an upset victory that required many multiple PODs?
f) have the legacy of Fouad Chehab, who - as president from 1958 to 1964 - promoted a strong sense of Lebanese nationality as such and encouraged unity among all Lebanese of different faiths, continue (Though my take on that is that having immediate successors continue his legacy might just have pushed off the inevitable - first and foremost the long and bloody civil war - for 5-10 years if not sooner.)
In short, what would it take for Lebanon to evolve in a different, and better, direction than it has iOTL? For Lebanon to have more stability, less corruption, a GDP per capita on the same level as Greece, Cyprus, or even Israel, no 1975-90 civil war, no ongoing and catastrophic economic crisis since 2019, and on it goes? As well as probably less overall conflict as well - more on the level of either Israel/the Palestinians or Cyprus?
a) a Crusader victory in the Levant as a whole in the Middle Ages (though that would have massive implications both in the entire Levant and elsewhere in the known world)
b) heavier Western missionary activity in the Levant in general or Lebanon specifically (probably accompanied by higher French settlement, perhaps sort of in the style of Algeria)
c) a different National Pact in 1943 from OTL
d) being a firm ally of Israel
e) somehow beating all the odds that Lebanon already had against it even in the 1920s-1950s, sort of like how the emergence (and sustainability) of the State of Israel in 1948 was an upset victory that required many multiple PODs?
f) have the legacy of Fouad Chehab, who - as president from 1958 to 1964 - promoted a strong sense of Lebanese nationality as such and encouraged unity among all Lebanese of different faiths, continue (Though my take on that is that having immediate successors continue his legacy might just have pushed off the inevitable - first and foremost the long and bloody civil war - for 5-10 years if not sooner.)
In short, what would it take for Lebanon to evolve in a different, and better, direction than it has iOTL? For Lebanon to have more stability, less corruption, a GDP per capita on the same level as Greece, Cyprus, or even Israel, no 1975-90 civil war, no ongoing and catastrophic economic crisis since 2019, and on it goes? As well as probably less overall conflict as well - more on the level of either Israel/the Palestinians or Cyprus?
