Inter-Communal Discord and British Rule 1878–1954

Abstract

Cyprus was first peopled around 1400 BC by Greeks from Asia Minor and the Aegean. By the ninth century BC the island was Greek speaking, though Phoenician and Persian conquests a few centuries later must also have affected to some extent the ethnic make-up of the population. Cyprus came under Roman rule in 58 BC. Since the island later formed part of the East Roman Empire, the Greek Cypriots were, and are to this day, called ‘Rum’ by the Turks. Under Roman rule the Cypriots became Christian. Under the later East Roman, Byzantine, Empire their ‘orthodox’ Christian church was granted independence, being accorded self-governing (autocephalous) status by the Council of Ephesus, AD 431. Church and state became closely combined. For many centuries, it was Greek speaking, Greek Orthodox in belief, and generally under Byzantine rule, though subject to many disastrous Arab raids between the seventh and tenth centuries. The Byzantine connection was rudely destroyed by the advent of the Crusaders. In 1192 the island came under the rule of the Roman Catholic Lusignan dynasty of French lineage, a rule that lasted almost 300 years. The Orthodox Church hardly survived this calamity and the population suffered great hardship under Latin rule. Lusignan rule was followed by brief periods under first the Genoese and then the Venetians. It was not until 1571 that it became Ottoman, when the Ottomans defeated the Venetians, who were then ruling the island.KeywordsColonial GovernmentBritish RuleLegislative CouncilIonian IslandBritish Prime MinisterThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.