This thesis examines the political discourses and practices of the various Christian communities in Aleppo during the first part of the French occupation of Syria. In particular, it explores the often-tortured relationship between Aleppo’s Christians and the Syrian Arab nationalist movement, which was working to unite the territories occupied by France into a novel nation-state defined by Arab national identity. Using sources in Arabic, Armenian, and French, the thesis pursues this question through the lenses of collective memory, the settlement of tens of thousands of Christian refugees in Aleppo in 1915-1930, the issue of Aleppo’s autonomous status, the petitions sent from Aleppo to the League of Nations and the French authorities, the elections held in Aleppo during this period, and the paramilitary movements created to contest the political status of the city in 1936. The thesis concludes that the political choices of Aleppine Christians in this period were mediated by their religious identity, and that despite the prominence of several Aleppine Christians in the nationalist movement, Aleppo’s Christians a whole formed a locus of resistance to that movement which had no parallel in the other cities of Syria. This resistance continued from the beginning of the French occupation until 1936, when the French authorities elected to form an alliance with Syria’s nationalists, and worked together with them to crush Christian dissent in Aleppo. This thesis adds to the understanding of the origins of the Middle East’s current nation-state system, and especially, the role that religious identity and religious solidarity played in its creation.