The nameDōdekanēsos first appears inByzantine-period sources in the 8th century, as a naval command under adroungarios, encompassing the southern Aegean Sea, which eventually evolved into theTheme of Samos.[4] It was not applied to the current island group, but to the 12Cyclades islands clustered aroundDelos. The name may indeed be of a far earlier date, and modern historians suggest that the 12 islandsStrabo mentions (Geographica Χ.485)[5] were the origin of the term. The term remained in use throughout the medieval period and was still used for the Cyclades in both colloquial usage and scholarly Greek-language literature until the 18th century.[6]
Satellite image from NASA Visible Earth
The transfer of the name to the present-day Dodecanese has its roots in theOttoman period. Upon theOttoman conquest of the islands held by theKnights Hospitaller in 1522, the two larger islands, Rhodes and Kos, came underdirect Ottoman rule, while the others, of which the 12 main islands were usually named, enjoyed extensive privileges pertaining to taxation and self-government. Concerted attempts to abolish these privileges were made after 1869, as the Ottoman Empire attempted tomodernize and centralize its administrative structure, and the last vestiges of the old privileges were finally abolished after theYoung Turkstook power in 1908.[7] It was at that time that the press in the independentKingdom of Greece began referring to the 12 privileged islands (Astypalaia, Chalki,Ikaria, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kastellorizo, Leros, Nisyros, Patmos, Symi and Tilos), in the context of their attempts to preserve their privileges, collectively as the "Dodecanese". Shortly afterward, in 1912, most of the Southern Sporades were captured by the Italians in theItalo-Turkish War, except for Ikaria, which joined Greece in 1912 during theFirst Balkan War, and Kastellorizo, which came under Italian rule only in 1921. The place of the latter two was taken by Kos and Rhodes, bringing the number of the major islands under Italian rule back to 12. Thus, when the Greek press began agitating for the cession of the islands to Greece in 1913, the term used was still the "Dodecanese". The Italian occupation authorities helped establish the term when they named the islands under their control "Rhodes and the Dodecanese" (Rodi e Dodecaneso), addingLeipsoi to the list of the major islands to make up for considering Rhodes separately.[8]
By 1920, the name had become firmly established for the entire island group, as acknowledged by the Italian government when it appointed the islands' first civilian governor, CountCarlo Senni [it], as "Viceroy of the Dodecanese". As the name was associated with Greek irredentism, from 1924Mussolini'sFascist regime tried to abolish its use by calling them the "Italian Islands of the Aegean", but this name never acquired any currency outside Italian administrative usage.[9] The islandsjoined Greece in 1947 following as the "Governorate-General of the Dodecanese" (Γενική Διοίκησις Δωδεκανήσου), after 1955 the "Dodecanese Prefecture" (Νομός Δωδεκανήσου).[10]
The Dodecanese have been inhabited since prehistoric times. In theNeopalatial period on Crete, the islands were heavilyMinoanized (contact beginning in the second millennium BC). Following the downfall of the Minoans, the islands were ruled by theMycenaean Greeks from circa 1400 BC, until the arrival of theDorians circa 1100 BC. It is in the Dorian period that they began to prosper as an independent entity, developing a thriving economy and culture through the following centuries. By the earlyArchaic period Rhodes and Kos emerged as the major islands in the group, and in the 6th century BC the Dorians founded three major cities on Rhodes (Lindos,Kameiros andIalyssos). Together with the island of Kos and the cities ofKnidos andHalicarnassos on the mainland ofAsia Minor, these made up theDorian Hexapolis.
This development was interrupted around 499 BC by thePersian Wars, during which the islands were captured by the Persians for a brief period. After theAthenians defeated the Persians in 478 BC, the cities joined the Athenian-dominatedDelian League. When thePeloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, they remained largely neutral, though they were still members of the League.
By the time the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC, the Dodecanese were mostly removed from the larger Aegean conflicts, and had begun a period of relative quiet and prosperity. In 408 BC, the three cities of Rhodes had united to form one state, which built a new capital on the northern end of the island, also namedRhodes; this united Rhodes dominated the region for the coming millennia. Other islands in the Dodecanese also developed into significant economic and cultural centers; most notably, Kos served as the site of the school ofmedicine founded byHippocrates.
The Peloponnesian War had so weakened the entire Greek civilization's military strength that it lay open to invasion. In 357 BC, the islands were conquered by KingMausolus ofCaria, then in 340 BC by the Persians. But this second period of Persian rule proved nearly as short as the first, and the islands became part of the rapidly growingMacedonian Empire asAlexander the Great swept through and defeated the Persians in 332 BC, to the great relief of the islands' inhabitants.
After Alexander's death, the islands, and even Rhodes itself, were split up among themany generals whocontended to succeed him. The islands formed strong commercial ties with thePtolemies inEgypt, and together they formed the Rhodo-Egyptian alliance, which controlled trade throughout the Aegean in the 3rd century BC. Led by Rhodes, the islands developed into maritime, commercial and cultural centers: coins of Rhodes circulated almost everywhere in the Mediterranean, and the islands' schools of philosophy, literature and rhetoric were famous. TheColossus of Rhodes, built in 304 BC, perhaps best symbolized their wealth and power.
In 164 BC, Rhodes signed a treaty withRome, and the islands became aligned to greater or lesser extent with theRoman Republic while mostly maintaining their autonomy. Rhodes quickly became a major schooling center for Roman noble families, and, as the islands (and particularly Rhodes) were important allies of Rome, they enjoyed numerous privileges and generally friendly relations. These were eventually lost in 42 BC, in theturmoil following the assassination ofJulius Caesar in 44 BC, after whichCassius invaded and sacked the islands. Thereafter, they became part of the Roman Empire proper.Titus made Rhodes capital of theProvincia Insularum, and eventually the islands were joined withCrete as part of the 18th Province of the Roman Empire.
In the 1st century,Saint Paul visited the islands twice, andSaint John visited numerous times; they succeeded in converting the islands to Christianity, placing them among the first dominantly Christian regions. Saint John eventually came to reside among them, being exiled to Patmos, where he wrote his famousRevelation.
As the Roman Empire split in AD 395 into Eastern and Western halves, the islands became part of the Eastern part, which later evolved into theByzantine Empire. They would remain there for nearly a thousand years, though these were punctuated by numerous invasions. It was during this period that they began to reemerge as an independent entity, and the termDodecanese itself dates to around the 8th century. Copious evidence of the Eastern Roman period remains on the islands today, most notably in hundreds of churches from the period in various states of preservation.
In the 10th and 11th centuries, on behalf the Roman Empire of Constantinople, the area was controlled and secured with trade duty rights by powerful maritime city-state fleets of Genoa (with the clan of Vignolo de'Vignoli) andVenice (with the clan ofCornaros); When the Genoese snatched a treaty from the Paleologos Emperors of Constantinople, they began invading portions of the Dodecanese and other eastern isles from Chios to Rhodes that had remained under the nominal power of theEmpire of Nicea;Genoese family clans (Moresco, Vignoli, Giustiniani, Spinola and others) each held some islands and were granted rights to rule, trade and to exploit raw materials (masticha, etc.), in exchange for maritime protection, while Orthodox monks ruled on Patmos and Leros. The Byzantine era came to an end when the islands were rented and sold by Genoeses for the venue of theKnights Hospitaller (Knights of St John):Rhodes was reinforced in 1309, and in the rest of the islands the Knights gradually built castles and fortress over the next few decades, while the Genoese fleet remained in charge of the sea routes and kept its bases and trading stores (Empori). The Knights made Rhodes their stronghold, transforming its capital into a grandiose medieval city dominated by an impressive fortress, with scattered other fortresses and citadels throughout the rest of the islands.
These massive fortifications proved sufficient to repel invasions by the Sultan of Egypt in 1444 andMehmed II in1480. Finally, the citadel at Rhodes fell to the army ofSuleiman the Magnificent in1522, and the other islands were overrun within the year. The few remaining Knights fled toMalta.
Thus began a period of several hundred years in theOttoman Empire. The Dodecanese formed aseparate province within theEyalet of the Archipelago. The population was allowed to retain a number of privileges provided it submitted to Ottoman rule. By Suleiman's edict, they paid a special tax in return for a special autonomous status that prohibited Ottoman generals from interfering in their civil affairs or mistreating the population. These guarantees, combined with a strategic location at the crossroads of Mediterranean shipping, allowed the islands to prosper. The overwhelmingly Greek population (only Rhodes and Kos had Turkish communities) leaned heavily toward Greece following its declaration of independence in 1822, and many of the islanders joined theGreek War of Independence, with the result that the northern portion of the Dodecanese (includingSamos) became briefly the Greek provinces of theEastern Sporades andSouthern Sporades.Kasos in particular played a prominent role due to its skilled mariners, until itsdestruction by the Egyptians in 1824. Most of the islands were slated to become part of the new Greek state in theLondon Protocol of 1828, but when Greek independence was recognized in theLondon Protocol of 1830, the islands were left outside the newKingdom of Greece. The 19th century turned out to be one of the islands' most prosperous, and a number of mansions date from this era.
ATurkish Muslim minority lives inRhodes andKos. Sources have variously estimated the Turkish population of Kos and Rhodes to be 5,000,[36] 6,000,[37] or 7,000.[38]
Palazzo del Governo inRhodes, now the Prefecture of the Dodecanese
After the outbreak of theItalian-Turkish war overLibya in early 1912,Italy, in order to apply pressure on the Ottoman government closer to its metropolitan territories, occupied all the present-day Dodecanese except forKastellorizo.[39]
After the end of the war according to theTreaty of Ouchy, Italy maintained the occupation of the islands as guarantee for the execution of the treaty. The occupation continued after Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire (21 August 1915) duringWorld War I.
During the war, the islands became an importantnaval base for Britain and France; Italy was allied with both nations. The Dodecanese were used as astaging area for numerous campaigns, most famously the one atGallipoli. The French and British occupied some of the smaller islands, but Rhodes remained under Italian occupation. In 1915, the French also occupied Kastellorizo.
After the war, theTittoni–Venizelos agreement, signed on 29 July 1919, called for the smaller islands to join with Greece while Italy maintained control of Rhodes. The treaty further outlined an exchange where Italy would receiveAntalya for southwestAnatolia. The Greek defeat in theGreco-Turkish War and the foundation of modern Turkey prevented the exchange. Italy formally annexed the Dodecanese as thePossedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo under the terms of theTreaty of Lausanne. Mussolini embarked on a program ofItalianization, hoping to make Rhodes a modern transportation hub that would serve as a focal point for the spread of Italian culture in the Levant. The islands were overwhelminglyGreek-speaking, with aTurkish-speaking minority and a smallerLadino-speakingJewish minority. ImmigrantItalian speakers were a marginal language community.
Although the Italian state placed the islands under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their governance was strongly tied to the project for an Italian empire in the Mediterranean and to the Italian colonies in Libya, Somalia, Eritrea, and after 1936, in Ethiopia.
As part of securing sovereignty in the islands, Italy created and applied a form of imperial citizenship for the local population unique to its overseas empire. Called Italian Aegean citizenship (cittadinanza egea italiana), this form of citizenship was inclusive of local political rights and exclusive of military service. After 1934, Dodecanese citizens could complete military service and apply to become full Italian citizens, an option many locals chose while supporting Italian Fascism and seeing the Italian empire as promoting their financial well-being. Italian Aegean citizenship also ensured the islands were exempted from the exchange of Greek and Turkish minority populations in the Aegean, a provision of the Second Lausanne Treaty that ended the Greco-Turkish War. After 1934, it was also possible to acquire Italian Aegean citizenship from abroad and to transmit Italian Aegean citizenship on the principle of patrilineal descent. This reform mirrored the principle of jus sanguinis which provides the basis of Italian citizenship and was especially intended for the large Greek-speaking Dodecanese-origin emigrant community in Egypt.[40]
The Fascist administration sought to modernize the islands, eradicatingmalaria, constructing hospitals, aqueducts, a power plant to provide Rhodes' capital with electric lighting, and establishing the Dodecanesecadastre. The main castle of the Knights of St. John was also rebuilt. The concrete-dominated Fascist architectural style detracted significantly from the islands' picturesque scenery (and also reminded the inhabitants of Italian rule), and has consequently been largely demolished or remodeled, apart from the famous example of theLeros town ofLakki, which remains a prime example of the architecture.
From 1936 to 1940Cesare Maria De Vecchi acted as governor of theItalian Islands of the Aegean, promoting the official use of the Italian language and favoring a process ofItalianization, interrupted by the beginning ofWorld War II.[41] In the 1936 Italian census of the Dodecanese islands, the total population was 129,135, of whom 7,015 were Italians.
During World War II, Italy joined theAxis powers, which used the Dodecanese as a naval staging area for theirinvasion of Crete in 1941. AfterItaly surrendered in September 1943, the islands briefly became a battleground between theGermans andAllied forces, including the Italians. The Germans prevailed in theDodecanese Campaign, and although they were driven out of mainland Greece in 1944, the Dodecanese remained occupied until the end of the war in 1945, during which time nearly the entire Jewish population of 6,000 wasdeported and killed. Only 1,200 of theseLadino-speaking Jews survived by escaping to the nearby coast ofTurkey.[citation needed] On 8 May 1945 the German garrison commanderOtto Wagener surrendered the islands to the British on Rhodes, handing over 5,000 German and 600 Italian military personnel.[42]
After the war, the islands became a British military protectorate and were almost immediately allowed to run their own civil affairs, whereupon they became informally united with Greece, though under separate sovereignty and military control. Despite objections from Turkey, which desired the islands as well, they were formally united with Greece by the1947 Peace Treaty with Italy.
As a legacy of its former status as a jurisdiction separate from Greece, it is still considered a separate "entity" foramateur radio purposes, essentially maintaining its status as an independent country "on the air." Amateur radio call signs in the Dodecanese begin with theprefix SV5 instead of SV for Greece.[43]
The 70th anniversary of the Dodecaneseenosis was marked in 2017,[44][45] with the Greek Parliament holding a special celebratory session for the event.[46]
Today, Rhodes[47] and the Dodecanese are popular travel destinations.
Carabott, P. J. (1993). "The Temporary Italian Occupation of the Dodecanese: A Prelude to Permanency".Diplomacy and Statecraft.4 (2):285–312.doi:10.1080/09592299308405886.
Doumanis, Nicholas (2005). "Italians as Good Colonizers: Speaking Subalterns and the Politics of Memory in the Dodecanese". In Ben-Ghiat, Ruth; Fuller, Mia (eds.).Italian Colonialism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN0-312-23649-2.
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