The Syrian Uprising and the Origins of Violence This paper focuses on the period in which Syria’s largely peaceful uprising mutated into a sustained armed insurgency by identifying the origins of violence during the first 9 months following the onset of mass mobilization in March 2011. It finds common and contending arguments explaining early protestors’ violence wanting, and it seeks to develop an alternative perspective drawing on social movement theory and theorical insights into the use of violence in civil wars. While carefully steering away from primordialist and essentialist pitfalls, the paper finds that the changing context of hardened sectarianism and, to a lesser extent, tribal / clan-based solidarity, combined with fierce regime repression, were key to the creation of opportunities, resources and framing practices relevant to contenders’ use of force against regime targets.