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Cretan State | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1898–1913 | |||||||||
| Anthem: Cretan Anthem | |||||||||
.svg) Map of Crete as an autonomous state of the Ottoman Empire (1900) | |||||||||
| Status | Autonomous state of theOttoman Empire | ||||||||
| Capital | Chania | ||||||||
| Largest city | Heraklion | ||||||||
| Common languages | Greek (official),Ottoman Turkish (recognised) | ||||||||
| Religion | Greek Orthodox (prevailing religion), Sunni Islam (recognised), Judaism | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Cretan | ||||||||
| High Commissioner | |||||||||
• 1898–1906 | Prince George | ||||||||
• 1906–1911 | Alexandros Zaimis | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1910 | Eleftherios Venizelos | ||||||||
| Legislature | Assembly | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 9 December 1898 | |||||||||
| 23 March 1905 | |||||||||
• Unilateral union with Greece | 7 October 1908[1] | ||||||||
| 30 May 1913 | |||||||||
| 1 December 1913 | |||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1911 estimate | 336,151 | ||||||||
| Currency | Cretan drachma | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Greece | ||||||||
TheCretan State (Greek:Κρητική Πολιτεία,romanized: Kritiki Politeia;Ottoman Turkish:كرید دولتی,romanized: Girid Devleti) was established in 1898, following the intervention by theGreat Powers (United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia) on the island ofCrete. In 1897, theCretan Revolt led theOttoman Empire todeclare war onGreece, which led theUnited Kingdom,France,Italy andRussia to intervene on the grounds that the Ottoman Empire could no longer maintain control. It was the prelude to the island's final annexation to theKingdom of Greece, which occurredde facto in 1908 andde jure in 1913 after theFirst Balkan War.
The island of Crete, an Ottoman possession since the end of theCretan War (1645–1669), was inhabited by a mostly Greek-speaking population, whose majority was Christian. During and after theGreek War of Independence, the Christians of the island rebelled several times against external Ottoman rule, pursuing union with Greece. These were brutally subdued, but secured some concessions from the Ottoman government under the pressure of European public opinion. In 1878, thePact of Halepa established the island as an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty, until the Ottomans reneged on that agreement in 1889.
The collapse of the Pact heightened tensions in the island, leading to another rebellion in 1895, which greatly expanded in 1896–1897 to cover most of the island. SixGreat Powers (Austria-Hungary,France, theGerman Empire, theKingdom of Italy, theRussian Empire, and theUnited Kingdom) sent warships to Crete in February 1897, and their naval forces combined to form an "International Squadron" charged with intervening to bring fighting on Crete to a halt.[2] In Greece, nationalist secret societies and a ferventlyirredentist public opinion forced the Greek government to send military forces to the island. Although the International Squadron quickly halted their activities,[2] the presence of Greek forces on Crete provoked awar with the Ottoman Empire. Although most of Crete came under the control of Cretan insurgent and Greek forces, the unpreparedGreek Army was crushed bythe Ottomans, who occupiedThessaly. The war was ended by the intervention of theGreat Powers (the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Russia), who forced the Greek contingent to withdraw from Crete and the Ottoman Army to stop its advance. In theTreaty of Constantinople theOttoman Government promised to implement the provisions of the Halepa Pact.
In February 1897, the Great Powers decided to restore order by governing the island temporarily through an "Admirals Council" consisting of admirals from the six powers making up the International Squadron. Through naval bombardments of Cretan insurgent forces, by placing sailors andmarines ashore to occupy key cities, and by establishing ablockade of Crete and key ports in Greece, the International Squadron brought organized fighting on Crete to an end by the end of March 1897, although the insurrection continued.[3] Soldiers from the armies of five of the powers (Germany declined to send any) arrived to occupy key Cretan cities in late March and April 1897.[4] Thereafter, the Admirals Council focused on a negotiated settlement that would bring the insurrection to an end without bringing Ottoman governance of Crete to an end, but this proved impossible. They then decided that Crete would become an autonomous state under thesuzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Germany strongly opposed this idea and withdrew from Crete and the International Squadron in November 1897 and Austria-Hungary followed in March 1898, but the remaining four powers carried on with their plans.[5]
On 6 September 1898 (25 August 1898 according to theJulian calendar then in use on Crete, which was 12 days behind the modernGregorian calendar during the 19th century), a Cretan Muslim mobmassacred hundreds of Cretan Greeks and murdered the Britishvice-consul, his family, and 14 British soldiers and sailors, in the city ofCandia (modern Heraklion). As a result, the International Squadron and the occupying forces ashore expelled all Ottoman forces from Crete in November 1898.[6] The autonomous Cretan State, under Ottoman suzerainty, garrisoned by an international military force, and with itshigh commissioner provided by Greece, was founded whenPrince George of Greece and Denmark arrived to take office as the first high commissioner (Greek:Ὕπατος Ἁρμοστής,Hýpatos Harmostēs), effectively detaching Crete from the Ottoman Empire, on 21 December 1898 (9 December according to the Julian calendar).[7][8] The Admirals Council was dissolved on 26 December 1898.[9]
TheNational Bank of Greece established a bank, theBank of Crete, which had a 40-year monopoly on note issuance. The Cretan State also established a paramilitary force, theCretan Gendarmerie, modeled on the ItalianCarabinieri, to maintain public order. The Cretan Gendarmerie incorporated the four small gendarmerie units the four remaining occupying powers had created before the arrival of Prince George.
On 13 December 1898,Prince George of Greece and Denmark arrived as high commissioner for a three-year tenure. On 27 April 1899, an Executive Committee was created, in which a young, Athens-trained lawyer fromChania,Eleftherios Venizelos, participated as minister of justice. By 1900, Venizelos and Prince George had developed differences over domestic policies, as well as the issue ofEnosis, the union with Greece.
Venizelos resigned in early 1901, and for the next three years, he and his supporters waged a bitter political struggle with the Prince's faction, leading to a political and administrative deadlock on the island. Eventually, in March 1905, Venizelos and his supporters gathered in the village ofTherisos, in the hills near Chania, constituted a "Revolutionary Assembly", demanded political reforms and declared the "political union of Crete with Greece as a single free constitutional state" in a manifesto delivered to the consuls of theGreat Powers. TheCretan Gendarmerie remained loyal to the Prince, but numerous deputies joined the revolt, and despite the Powers' declaration ofmartial law on 18 July, their military forces did not move against the rebels.
On 15 August, the Cretan Assembly voted for the proposals of Venizelos, and the Great Powers brokered an agreement, whereby Prince George would resign and a new constitution created. In the 1906 elections the pro-Prince parties took 38,127 votes while pro-Venizelos parties took 33,279 votes, but in September 1906 Prince George was replaced by former Greekprime ministerAlexandros Zaimis and left the island. In addition, Greek officers came to replace the Italians in the organization of the Gendarmerie, and the withdrawal of the foreign troops began, leaving Cretede facto under Greek control.
AConstitution was promulgated in February 1907, but in 1908, taking advantage ofdomestic turmoil in Turkey as well as the timing of Zaimis' vacation away from the island, the Cretan deputies declared unilateralunion with Greece.[10] The flag of the Cretan State was replaced by the Greek flag, all public servants took an oath to King George I of Greece, and the Greek constitution and laws were enacted on the island. This act was not recognized internationally, including by Greece, where Eleftherios Venizelos was elected prime minister in 1910. In May 1912, the Cretan deputies travelled to Athens and tried to enter theGreek Parliament, but were forcibly prevented from doing so by the police.
Upon the outbreak of theFirst Balkan War, Greece finally recognized the union and sentStephanos Dragoumis as the island'sgovernor-general. The Great Powers tacitly recognized thefait accompli by the act of lowering their flags from the Souda fortress on 14 February 1913, and by theTreaty of London in May 1913, SultanMehmed V relinquished his formal rights to the island.
On 1 December, the formal ceremony of union took place: theGreek flag was raised at the Firka Fortress inChania, with Eleftherios Venizelos andKing Constantine I in attendance. TheMuslim minority of Crete initially remained on the island but was later relocated to Turkey under the generalpopulation exchange agreed to in the 1923Treaty of Lausanne between Turkey and Greece.
The total population in 1911 was 336,151.[11]
| Religion | Followers in Population |
|---|---|
| Christians | 307,812[11] |
| Muslims | 27,852[11] |
| Jewish | 487[11] |
• Emmanouil G. Chalkiadakis, The political status of the Cretan State (1898-1913): Autonomy under dispute. Political, social and ecclesiastical life through the apparent Autonomy, Foreword by Sir Michael Llewellyn - Smith, Herodotos, Athens 2022.
