Portal:Cyprus/Selected article


 * Modern history of Cyprus

In 1878 as the result of the Cyprus Convention, the United Kingdom took over the government of Cyprus as a protectorate from the Ottoman Empire. The first British High Commissioner was Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley (1833-1913).

While the Greek Cypriots had at first welcomed British rule hoping that they would gradually achieve prosperity, democracy and national liberation, they were soon disillusioned. The British imposed heavy taxes to cover the compensation which they were paying to the Sultan for having conceded Cyprus to them. Moreover, the people were not given the right to participate in the administration of the island since all powers were reserved to the High Commissioner and to London. A few years later the system was reformed and some members of the legislative Council were elected by the Cypriots, but in reality their participation was very marginal.

The British faced two major political problems on the island. The first was to contain the desire for union with Greece (enosis), after it became clear to the Greek Cypriots that it was not going to be granted. The second was the consequential problem of keeping the two communities in harmony once the Turkish Cypriots began to respond to enosis by calling for partition (taksim) as a defence against their being Hellenised and assimilation, as they saw it. The Greek Cypriots could easily claim that they had a strong case in history and they constituted between three quarters and four fifths of the population.