Maps, Fields, and Boundary Cairns: Demarcation and Resistance in Colonial Cyprus

Abstract

An important component of the administration and control of a colony by an external power is the demarcation and classification of the land and its people. This was certainly the case in Cyprus under British colonial rule (1878–1960), as three case studies demonstrate: the topographical survey of the island by H. H. Kitchener in 1878–83; the cadastral survey of 1909–29; and the work of the Forest Delimitation Commission from 1881 to 1896. This was not achieved without resistance on a variety of levels. Ironically, part of the opposition came from the structure of the colonial demarcation and classification project itself.