in the year 1943, the ba’ath arab socialist party was founded in syria by michel aflaq and salah al-din al-bitar. the two met when they were studying in paris from 1928 to 1934. the two were already nationalists before they went to study in france. however, it is during their stay in france that they learned about and adopted the ideas of socialism. they returned to syria to work as teachers and in 1943 started the ba’ath arab socialist party. syria became independent from france in 1946 and continued as a democracy. however, syria still had problems within but also problematic relationships with the surrounding countries. the country was still in chaos and figuring itself out when the army decided to take matters into its own hands in 1949 by overthrowing the government. after this, a series of coups followed in quick succession. in 1958, egypt and syria formed a union to become the united arab republic. however, syria decided to separate after 3 years in 1961, because egypt was too dominant in the union. throughout the years, ba'athist ideas had been spreading in syria and also within parts of the syrian army. this resulted in a ba'athist coup in 1963 by army officers. among these officers was hafez al-assad who later in 1970 seized power in syria.