The History of Cyprus

EARLY HISTORY
The island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean lies 40 miles south of Turkey, 60 miles west of Syria, and some 1,500 miles by sea from Venice. Why then was Venice so anxious to maintain control over it?

Throughout its long history Cyprus has always had an importance all out of proportion to its size (a little larger than San Diego County) because of both its location and its resources. For example, in days when sailing ships could not travel extensive distances away from land, it was an important port-of-call, and in Medieval times, it was a stopping place for crusaders going to the Holy Land. Its resources included deposits of copper, so important that the island's name is taken from cyprium, the Latin for copper. It gave its name in turn to one of its other early exports, the cypress tree.

There is evidence of sporadic occupation from 7000 BC on, but when copper was discovered about 3000 BC, Cyprus became an important center of commerce. Artifacts from Crete, Anatolia, Syria and Egypt have been found there, and Cypriot pottery has been found throughout the Mediterranean area. Thutmose III of Egypt claimed Cyprus as a conquest about 1500 BC, and from then, on Egypt was an important factor in the history of Cyprus. As early as the eleventh century there was a Phoenician merchant colony on Cyprus, and evidence shows they mined copper there.

Cyprus was an important religious site for the Greeks. Aphrodite was born there, rising from the foam and coming ashore at Paphos. There one can still see the remains of her shrine; in its time it had one hundred rooms. Euripedes, c. 480-406 BC would write of Aphrodite's Cyprus:

Love hath an island
And I would be there;
Love hath an island
And nurthureth there
For men the Delights,
the beguilers of care,
Cyprus, Love's island;
And I would be there.

Apollo was also important to Cyprus, and human victims were thrown from its cliffs to satiate him. Pygmalian may have been the husband of a Cypriot priestess. In the Galatea story he is a Cypriot king who is so in love with Aphrodite that he makes a statue of her. It comes to life as Galatea, and she and Pygmalian have two sons.The Cypriots traded with Homer's Troy. In the Odyssey, Menelaus describes visiting Cyprus and tells of Aphrodite's shrine. Odysseus describes being taken to Cyprus after losing a battle in Egypt. One attack on Cyprus may have been made by Atreus, the father of Homer's Agamemnon. About 1280 BC, after the Trojan War, many Greeks moved to the island and the predominant culture on Cyprus today is Greek .

For the next 2,000 years, the history of Cyprus becomes very complicated. In spite of its small size, it was divided into a number of kingdoms, sometimes as many as ten. The Kings were both civil and religious leaders. Over time, different conquerors controlled different ones of these kingdoms. Among the conquering people were the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Persians, the mainland Greeks (including the Ptolomys), and the Romans. Julius Caesar returned the island to the Ptolemy, Cleopatra, and this gift was confirmed by Marc Antony. When he was defeated by Octavian it went back to Rome. The copper mines were owned by the Roman state and worked by slaves. The cypress trees were used to build Roman ships.

Christianity was introduced during the reign of Claudius. Tradition says Paul landed there in AD 45 accompanied by Barnabas, a native of Cyprus. (The tomb of St. Barnabas has been discovered there containing a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew allegedly placed there by the apostle Mark.) By the time of Constantine, Christians may have constituted a majority of the population. In AD 155-116, the Jews of Cyprus rose against Rome. Christians killed Jews and Jews killed Christians; 24,000 Cypriots died. About AD 285, Cyprus became subject to Byzantium and remained so for hundreds of years. During much of this time, it was under constant attack by the Muslims and much of its treasure vanished.

THE CRUSADES
On his way to the Holy Land during the Third Crusade (1191), the fleet of Richard the Lionheart was scattered off the coast of Cyprus. The ship carrying his bride-to-be, Berengaria, sought shelter in Limassol, a town on the southern coast. The ships were plundered by followers of the self-proclaimed Emperor of Cyprus, Comneus. and Berengaria was mistreated. When Richard arrived, he first married Berengaria then. in retribution and aided by the Knights Templar, attacked and conquered the island. He extracted a huge bounty from the people, then left the garrison to be led by two Englishmen while he went to the Holy Land. The Cypriots rebelled, were put down, and the island was sold to the Templars to help relieve some of Richard's financial problems. The Knights proved to be even more tyrannical than Comneus. When they could not finish paying for the island. Richard bought it back, the Templars departed, and the control of Cyprus passed to the Frenchman, Guy de Lusignan, the dispossessed king of Jerusalem. The conquest of Cyprus was one of the most enduring of Richard's accomplishments. For the next hundred years it became a strategically important base and Venice entered the picture. The crusaders were dependent on the Venetian fleet for transport.

Joinville wrote of the Seventh Crusade (1248): "By the time we got to [Cyprus] the king [Saint Louis] was already there. We found abundant supples laid in for his Majesty's use: as for instance, a good store of money in his treasury, and plentiful stocks of wine and grain.... They had stacked an enormous number of huge barrels of wine which they had begun to buy two years before his arrival, and which they had piled up so high, one on top of the other, that any one approaching them from the front night have taken them for barns. The wheat and barley had been heaped in great mounds. Rain caused the outside seeds to sprout, and they looked like hillocks. But the wheat and barley underneath were in good condition. While the king was there, the Tartars sent envoys offering to help him against the Saracens." After the loss of Acre, Cyprus became the only outpost of Christendom in the eastern Mediterranean, and it served as a place of refuge for those who fled the mainland.

LUSIGNAN RULE
The Lusignan regime lasted two and one half centuries. As Kings of Cyprus, they were also bore the meaningless title of the Kings of Jerusalem. There were extensive sugar plantations, and European demand for the sweetener was insatiable — a copper kettle for making sugar was found which weighed four-fifths of a ton. The plantations and refineries were mostly worked by Christian slaves from the Caucasus. Cyprus was also a producer of salt which was used as ballast under cargoes of cotton (called the 'plant of gold'), another island product.

All was not peaceful. Venice and Genoa continually vied for control of the trade on the surrounding sea. Some of their arguments were laughable and sometimes led to riots; at one time the ambassadors quarreled over who would take precedence in holding the King's stirrup as he mounted his horse. Genoa seized and held the port city of Famagusta for 100 years, and island's prosperity declined.

King John II had only a daughter as an heir. A bastard son, Zacco, ousted her and became the last king, James II. He married a Venetian noblewoman, Catherine Corner then, amid the usual tales of poisoning, died eight months later. Catherine became last Queen of Cyprus mostly as a figure-head under Venetian influence. She abdicated in 1489, returned to Venice, and lived the rest of her life in luxury. Venice formally annexed Cyprus, desiring it as an arsenal against the Turks.

VENICE
The Venetians made Famagusta the military headquarters for the cavalry and the fleet, under the command of a Venetian Captain. Othello and Otello are usually considered to take place there. The fortifications seen today date from 1500 to 1550. One of the still-standing towers is, of course, called Othello's Tower. According to legend, when Famagusta was bombarded by the Turks, the rich Venetian merchants buried their fortunes at the base of Othello's Tower, but they have never been found. Cyprus was governed by a Venetian governor with the title of Lieutenant. In imitation of the Venetian Republic, there was a Great Council composed of all of the nobility of the island. But Cyprus was subject to maladministration and corruption by Venetians rulers. The Republic enriched itself at the island's expense.

After the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, Venice became less important to eastern trade. Ships from Mediterranean ports went west through the Straits of Gibralter and the importance of Lisbon grew. Turkish privateers roamed the eastern reaches of the sea. The Turks raided at will, took captives to sell into slavery, and killed or captured the foreign elite. Raiding parties penetrated as far as Vicenza, a city near Venice itself. There was an uneasy peace in 1503, but in 1539, a Turkish fleet attacked and destroyed Limassol, the port where Richard the Lionheart had landed during the Crusades. By 1568 there was Turkish action all around Cyrus and its harbors, but the Venetian Senate remained indecisive.

Then, in 1570, there was an ultimatum:

Selim, Ottoman Sultan, Emperor of the Turks, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Shadow of God, Lord of the Earthly Paradise and of Jerusalem, to the Signory of Venice:
We demand of you Cyprus, which you shall give us willingly or perforce; and to not awake our horrible sword, for we shall wage most cruel war against you everywhere; neither put you trust in your treasure, for we shall cause it suddenly to run from you like a torrent.

Venice brought her navy up to strength and resolved to fight. Cyprus could not defend itself but had to rely on help from Venice, 1500 miles away, while the Ottoman coast was only 50 miles away. Both Nicosia, the inland capital, and Famagusta were besieged. Nicosia was ravaged and 20,000 Nicosians were put to death. News of this inflamed the fleet of the Holy League before the battle of Lepanto. This is the battle that so interested James I of England, for whom Othello was first performed. The Turks were defeated there, but it was too late to save Cyprus.

THE OTTOMANS
By 1571, Cyprus was in Ottoman hands and remained there for three centuries. There was no more feudal tenure so the Greek peasants, who had been little more than serfs on the island, acquired rights to their own land. The Latin church was suppressed and the Orthodox heirarchy was restored. Taxes were heavy. Church and State worked together; the Bishop was responsible for tax collection! Land was also given to Turkish soldiers. The island fell into decline. The Greek Cypriots united against the Turks and developed a national identity. When the Greek mainland was freed from the Turks, the idea of unity of the island with Greece (enosis) was born. It became firmly rooted and led to years of strife.

BRITISH RULE AND RECENT HISTORY
The British were offered Cyprus three times (1833, 1841, 1845) before finally accepting it in 1878. The sultan offered it to them in return for protection against possible Russian invasion (Russia was trying to fill the vacuum left by the collapsing Ottoman empire). Cyprus was still nominally under Turkish sovereignty but the British were to occupy and administer it. The British had to pay an annual fee to Turks — of course the Cypriots paid for this as well as covering the cost of supporting the British. The money was never paid to the Turks but was banked and eventually used to pay Turkish Crimean War debts. In 1907, Winston Churchill declared Britain had no right to take the money for herself.

Britain formally annexed Cyprus in 1914, then offered it to Greece as an inducement to enter World War I. However, King Constantine preferred neutrality, and in 1925, Cyprus became a British crown colony. When Britain proposed to raise taxes there were riots. Britain sent military forces, suspended the constitution, censored the press, did away with political parties, curtailed the teaching of Greek and Turkish history, and prohibited the flying of flags. On the plus side, the infrastructure was vastly improved under the British.

After World War II, enosis was again demanded but rejected by the Turkish Cypriots. In turn, they asked for the return of the island to Turkey. Appeals to the United Nations brought no solution. Finally Greece and Turkey took matters into their own hands. In 1960 Cyprus became an independent republic, with Britain maintaining two military bases. The new republic agreed not join any other country and not to partition the island between the Greeks and the Turks. A specified proportion of ethnic Turks were to participate in the government. But it did not work. In 1964 Turkey bombed western Cyprus in retaliation for Greek Cypriot persecution of the Turkish minority. Then in 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus. The island was split in two. A Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was formed but was declared illegal in 1983.

From 1964-1990 there were UN Peacekeeping forces on Cyprus; their efforts to unseal the border between the two peoples were rejected by the Turkish Republic. And there matters stand. As of January 2003 the island is still not united; Turkey is the only country to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

In 1998 the European Union agreed to consider Cyprus as a member. The decision is pending*.
As of early March this year, the EU was waiting to see if Cyprus could agree on an unification scheme so the island could be admitted as one country. Then Cyprus will become a member of the EU in 2004.

Update, April 2004: On April 24, a vote on the reunification was held. The Turkish section voted strongly in support but the Greek section defeated it. Ironically, as a result, all of Cyprus will join the EU but the benefits of membership will apply only to the Greek south which is internationally recognized.