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Cyprus History

Cyprus History

Humans were in Cyprus In the Stone Age along with dwarf elephants, pygmy hippos, dogs, sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, foxes, and deer. By 6,000 BC cattle had disappeared, deer were still hunted, but the economy was based on sheep, goats and pigs. 10,000 years old water wells have been discovered. In 2004, a cat was discovered buried with its human owner and was estimated to be 9,500 years old - older than Egyptian civilization. The first cities were built in the Bronze Age when copper was mined and traded. Buildings were used to process and store olive oil, a product the island is still famous for today. Copper ingots recovered from shipwrecks show widespread metal trade.

Cyprus was part of the Hittite empire governed from Northern Syria. Achaean Greeks settled from the 1400 BC and Dorian Greeks arrived around 1100 BC. Pottery indicates early trade with Crete. In the 8th century BC the number of settlements increased significantly and monumental tombs, like the 'Royal' tombs of Salamis appear for the first time. This is likely the start of what is known as the Cypriot kingdoms.

10 kingdoms are listed in an inscription from 673 BC - Salamis, Kition, Amathus, Kourion, Paphos and Soli on the coast and Tamassos, Ledra, Idalium and Chytri in the interior. Cyprus gained independence around 669 BC but was conquered by Egypt and then by Persians around 545 BC. At the beginning of the 4th century BC, the King of Salamis, took control of the whole island and tried to gain independence from Persia, but was crushed by Artaxerxes in 344 BC. During the siege of Tyre, Cypriot Kings sided with Alexander the Great, then in 321 sided with Ptolemy I. Ptolemy lost Cyprus briefly, but it remained under Ptolemaic rule till 58 BC and was ruled by a governor from Egypt.

Strong commercial relationships developed with Athens and Alexandria. Full Hellenisation took place under Ptolemaic rule, as Phoenician and native Cypriot traits disappeared, as well as the old Cypriot syllabic script. Cyprus became a Roman province in 58 BC. Mark Antony gave the island to Cleopatra of Egypt but it became a Roman province again after his defeat at the Battle of Actium, in 30 BC. A Jewish uprising of 115/116 AD led to great losses and it was placed under the control of and governed by a proconsul. Several earthquakes led to the destruction of Salamis at the beginning of the 4th century, at the same time drought and famine hit the island. After the Roman Empire, Cyprus came under the rule of Constantinople. The Arabs and Muslims invaded in the 650s, but in 688, Emperor Justinian II and the caliph Abd al-Malik reached a remarkable agreement where, for 300 years, Cyprus was ruled jointly by both the Arabs and the Byzantines as a condominium, despite almost constant war between the two parties on the mainland.

In 965, Cyprus was conquered by a resurgent Byzantium. In the 12th century Cyprus was targeted by crusaders. Richard the Lionheart landed in Limassol on 1 June 1191 in search of his sister and his bride Berengaria, whose ship had become separated from the fleet in a storm. Richard married Berengaria in Limassol on 12 May 1192 and continued to occupy Cyprus and raise taxes until he sold it to the Knights Templar.

Soon after, the French arrived, establishing the Kingdom of Cyprus. Latin, then French, become the official language, with Greek as a second official language. In 1196, the Latin Church was established, resulting in the Orthodox Cypriot Church being persecuted. Maronites from Syria settled on Cyprus during the Crusades and still maintain some villages in the North. A small Roman Catholic population was mainly confined to coastal cities such as Famagusta as well as Nicosia, the traditional capital. The independent Eastern Orthodox Church of Cyprus, with its own archbishop and subject to no patriarch, was allowed to remain on the island, but the Latin Church largely displaced it in stature and holding property.

The Cathedral of Saint Nicholas was consecrated in 1328, and is the largest medieval building in Famagusta, where the Kings of Cyprus were crowned also as Kings of Jerusalem. In 1571 having fallen to the Ottoman Empire, it became the Mosque of Mağusa, and remains a mosque today.

In 1268, Hugh III of Cyprus claimed Cyprus and its territory of Acre as well as Jerusalem thus uniting the kingdoms. Like Jerusalem, Cyprus had a High Court. The island was richer and more feudal than Jerusalem, so the king had more personal wealth and could afford to ignore the court. Cyprus became the centre of European trade with Africa and Asia after the fall of Acre in 1291 and became dominated in the 14th century by Genoese merchants. In 1489 the last Queen, Catherine Cornaro, was forced to sell the island to Venice. Ottomans started raiding Cyprus immediately afterwards, and captured it in 1571. This is the historical setting to Shakespeare's Othello, the play's title character being the commander of the Venetian garrison defending Cyprus against the Ottomans.

Turks and Cypriots coexisted harmoniously on the island which was rich in salt, sugar, cotton, grains, and other export goods. It was also a centre of Syria-Venice trade and served as the eastern Mediterranean's main emporium for Venice's maritime trade. The Ottoman Empire was predominantly Muslim, so there was a cultural and religious clash when it conquered Cyprus. More Muslims came to Cyprus, mixing in with the Orthodox Christian Greek population of the island and led to the Millet System, which allowed authorities to rule over their religious minorities to keep peace in the Country.

The 1878 Russo-Turkish War ended Ottoman control with Britain taking over who annexed the island unilaterally in 1914, after it declared war against the Ottomans during the First World War. Under British rule, the island enjoyed increased freedom of speech, something which allowed development of Greek Cypriots' ideas of enosis (unification with Greece). In the 1920s, representatives were repeatedly sent to England to request union with Greece but to no avail. In 1925, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared the island a Crown Colony, and made it clear that unification was out of the question.

In October 1931 the October riots resulted in autocratic rule known as Palmerokratia ("Palmerocracy"), named after governor Richmond Palmer, which until the start of World War II. In 1950, the Orthodox Church of Cyprus organized a referendum on union with Greece, but the international community showed no desire to support their request. In 1960, a new constitution createdpower-sharing, where the vice-president and at least 30% of members of parliament would be Turkish Cypriots. Archbishop Makarios III would be the President and Dr. Fazıl Küçük would become vice president. The constitution also created separate local municipalities so that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could manage their own municipalities in large towns.

In 1964, the United Nations were forced to send peacekeeping forces to protect the vastly outnumbered Turkish Cypriots from Greek Cypriot attacks and they remain on the island today. In 1974, the Makarios Government was planning to eradicate Turkish Cypriots completely, but a military coup with the support of the junta in Greece led to Turkey intervening in the north of the island to protect Turkish Cypriots. In 1975 the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus was created. The name was changed to The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, on 15 November 1983.

In 2002 the UN started negotiations for unification. In 2004 a plan for unification emerged, supported by the UN, the EU and the USA. Turkish Cypriots accepted the plan, but Greek Cypriots rejected it. After Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, the euro replaced the Cypriot pound in 2008 while Northern Cyprus continued to use the Turkish lira.

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