a brief History
Prehistoric man in Asia Minor (now modern Turkey) or Greece
could look out across the Aegean toward the horizon and see the faint
silhouette of land. Their curiosity pushed them to build vessels that
were strong enough to ford the open seas and reach these islands,
marking the start of the long legacy of Mediterranean seafaring.
Around 7000 b.c. , the Phoenicians set out from what is now
Iran to explore their surroundings. They eventually reached the
islands, and founded colonies on the islands in the northernmost part
of the Aegean Sea. An important early material, obsidian, was
discovered on the island of Milos. Obsidian is a hard, vitreous
volcanic rock, which could be fashioned into tools for cutting and
stabbing. The high quality of the seam on Milos ensured that the area
remained popular with early travelers.
The basic elements of life in the Aegean began to come
together as early as 5000 b.c. , and were already in place by the late
Bronze Age (c. 2700 b.c. ). The major changes were not to daily tasks
and routines, but to the political power base, which changed regularly
and not necessarily peacefully throughout the ages.
Cycladic Culture
At around 3500 b.c. , a sophisticated culture evolved in the
Cyclades islands. The distinctive, sculpted marble figures of the era
are now being reproduced in vast quantities as souvenirs. You will find
original examples in the archaeological museums throughout the
Cyclades, although one of the earliest examples is in the museum on
Paros. The people farmed and fished; on the dawning of the Bronze Age
in 2700 b.c. , they began to work with metals. The Cycladic culture was
influenced by societies in the east, importing the pottery wheel from
Mesopotamia. They also continued to trade in obsidian and the local
marble.
The Minoans and the Myceneans
Farther south in Crete, the Minoan culture developed after
2000 b.c. into the most significant of its age, spreading its influence
throughout the region by trade and diplomacy. Santorini (Thira), the
next major island north, was heavily influenced by Crete, and the
settlements of Thira and Akrotiri thrived at this time. The magnificent
frescoes and mosaics found at Akrotiri are in Athens at present, but
the remains of the buildings at the site provide ample evidence of the
sophistication of the culture here.
Around 1500 b.c. , a massive volcanic eruption at Santorini
destroyed not only Akrotiri — under feet of ash and pumice — but the
whole Minoan civilization. Massive tidal waves swept over Crete, and
other parts of the Mediterranean, smashing buildings and drowning many
thousands of people.
In the wake of this tremendous natural upheaval, the Aegean
Islands next came under the influence of the Mycenaeans (at around 1300
b.c. ), who had a base in the Peloponnese region of the Greek mainland.
The Mycenaeans were an acquisitive race who came to conquer, not to
trade. Their extensive military campaigns were later chronicled by
Homer in his epic poems The Odyssey and The Iliad.
The Rise of Athens
The Dorians, who came overland from northern Europe,
conquered the Mycenaeans. They were a barbaric race, and their custody
of the area brought about a dark period during which the written word
was forgotten and art disappeared. They held sway over islands off the
northern Greek coast, but the Phoenicians kept control of the main sea
routes; south of the area, trade continued as usual. At the same time,
city-states began to grow in influence on the southern Greek mainland.
Athens became the most powerful, heralding the start of the classical
Greek period. However, Greece was not yet a country; each city-state
was self-governing and autonomous.
The new culture spread throughout the Mediterranean, helped
by a huge increase in migration from the mainland to new settlements
such as Carthage, a Greek city on the African coast of the
Mediterranean. Culture and the arts flourished once again. Athletic
prowess was admired and the Olympic games were constituted in 776 b.c.
, to promote friendly competition. Homer wrote his epic works on Chios;
and lyrical poetry was much admired, particularly the work of the poets
Archilochos on Paros and Sappho on Lesvos.
The preeminent islands of this era were Delos, a sacred
island and center of religion ruled by Athens; Samos, ruled by the
tyrant Polycrates; and Naxos, whose ruler Lygdamis undertook some major
building projects. Archaeology shows that, during this time, societies
lived mainly in coastal trading towns with little settlement
inland.
The Persian Wars
As Athens rose in influence and power in the West, it was
matched in the East by the rise of the Persian Empire. From a power
base in Anatolia, the Persians overran the eastern Aegean Islands and
set their sights on the Cyclades. In 490 b.c. , they captured sacred
Delos and razed the settlements on Naxos. The island communities were
undecided about which side to back for a time. Paros and Andros
contributed to the Persian armory, while others supported Athens. The
two superpowers finally clashed at the epic battles of Marathon and
Salamis in 480 b.c. The Persians were defeated, and Athens duly
punished the islands that had turned against it.
Following its victory, Athens introduced the concept of a
mutual protection alliance (a kind of NATO of the ancient world).
Several islands and Greek city-states agreed to work together, and
created a treasury to fund their plans, which was held on the island of
Delos. The alliance became known as the Delian League. Although there
were minor internal wrangles, the league controlled the Aegean and the
greater Athenian Empire for most of the fifth century b.c. Later, in
454 b.c. , the treasury was transferred to Athens and its deposits were
used to finance the construction of many of the major buildings and
temples of the Classical Age.
In 431 b.c. , Athens began a war with its neighbor and
league member Sparta. Although the islands saw little action, as the
war went on they could see that Athens was slowly losing its power.
Before the end of the war in 401 b.c. , many islands had already
transferred their allegiance to the victors, who were led by Philip II
of Macedon. He was followed in 336 b.c. by his son Alexander the Great,
one of the most remarkable leaders in history. His rise to power
ushered in the Hellenistic period.
Hellenistic and Roman Periods
When Alexander went on to conquer lands as far to the east
as India, the Aegean became a crossroads for the long trading routes.
Delos became one of the largest marketplaces in the empire. Following
Alexander’s death, his lands were divided among his generals. Much of
the Aegean came under the rule of the Ptolemies, along with Egypt.
Cleopatra was a member of this famous ruling clan.
Although in 88 b.c. , Mithradates made a swift and
successful raid from the East across Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands,
the next major power change brought influence from the West. The Greek
Hellenistic Empire was gradually, and peacefully, absorbed into the
Roman Empire.
The Byzantine Empire and the Coming of Christianity
The Romans ruled a pagan empire, but the Aegean had an
important influence on the early development of Christianity. In a.d.
95, St. John arrived on Patmos, a small rocky island in the Dodecanese,
as a political prisoner. It was here that he wrote what was to become
the final book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. It wasn’t
until a.d. 330, however, when the newly converted Emperor Constantine
made Byzantium, renamed Constantinople, capital of his Eastern Empire
that Christianity was assured of its dominant role in future Greek
life.
The Byzantine Empire had powerful and well-fortified
cities, but the countryside and the outlying islands were ravaged by
waves of invaders. In an attempt to counter a threat from the Saracen
Muslims, a new potent religious force from the East, the Byzantine army
forcefully enlisted the men of the islands. Disease took a further
toll. By the time of the Crusades, many of the Aegean islands had been
practically depopulated.
As the Byzantine Empire weakened at the end of the first
millennium, Crusader forces were sent from Western Europe to counter
the Muslim forces and retake Jerusalem for the Christian faith.
Unfortunately, their zeal was not matched by their discrimination. The
crusaders swept through the l;and of Byzantium slaughtering Christians
as well as Muslims, civilians as well as soldiers. Constantinople was
taken by Crusader forces in 1204, and they stripped the city of manyof
its finest treasures — which now grace the public buildings of
Venice — although a large consignment of books and manuscripts was
transferred to the monastery at Patmos before the city fell.
While Byzantine land was being divided, there was no one in
control of the seas, so pirates raided towns on many of the islands. To
counter this, the populations moved from their homes on the coast and
built settlements inland, out of sight of the raiding parties. This
created a pattern seen today throughout the Aegean of a small port
(skala) which serves an inland settlement or chora, making it easier to
protect the island from attack.
The minor Aegean Islands were taken by various powerful
European noblemen, many of whom were Genoese or Venetian, such as Marco
Sanudo on Naxos. The noblemen had free rein to create their own
fiefdoms. The Venetians fortified their main towns — Naxos Town and
Antiparos Town are wonderful examples of this — creating labyrinths of
narrow alleys and cul-de-sacs that were designed to confuse and to
demoralize invaders. The Genoese took control of the eastern Aegean
Islands, which were considered the most valuable for agriculture and
trade.
After a final bloody defeat by the Muslims in 1309,
Christian forces were forced from the Holy Land. The Knights of St.
John, a holy military force, made their way to Rhodes and Kos in the
Dodecanese. They began the process of building their strong citadels,
and reinforcing the Christian faith on the islands. However, they had
not seen the last of their Muslim foe. A force was gaining strength in
the east to threaten their new bases.
The Coming of the Ottoman Turks
The Ottomans were roving invaders who came from the east,
taking land in what is now Turkey. By the end of the 13th century, they
began their first raids on the Aegean Islands. In 1453, they took
Constantinople, and immediately made it their capital, renaming it
Istanbul.
They then set their sights on the islands of the Knights of
St. John and, after an unsuccessful siege in 1480, they finally ejected
the knights from the Dodecanese in 1522. In 1566, they wrested Chios
from the Genoese, bolstering their hold on the eastern Aegean Islands,
but the Cyclades remained in Venetian hands for another generation or
more — Tinos was the last to fall in 1715. The Ottomans brought new
influences to the islands that they controlled, forming a large empire
that stretched around the eastern Mediterranean.
Toward Greek Independence
However, a movement was growing on the Greek peninsula
against Ottoman rule and for an independent Greek state. In 1770,
Russia came to aid the Greeks (defined by their Orthodox religion
rather than by historical geographical boundaries), declaring war on
the Ottoman Empire and occupying several Aegean islands until 1774.
Graffiti written by Russian soldiers can be seen in the caves of
Antiparos.
Although this attempt was unsuccessful, the campaign for a
Greek state continued into the 19th century and began to grow in
strength. The Aegean Islands played their part. Lesvos, Chios, and
Samos lay in the important shipping lanes, and patriots began
disrupting Ottoman cargo traffic. In return, the Turks violently put
down every insurrection, including the massacre on Chios, when 22,000
people were slaughtered.
The Ottoman Empire was weakening, however, and in 1821, the
peoples of the Greek mainland achieved nationhood for the first time.
The Cyclades and the Sporades island chains were also included in this
new state. A new sense of identity enveloped Greek peoples throughout
the Aegean, thus commencing a movement to expand Greece and unify the
disparate Orthodox populations.
The Twentieth Century
A series of disastrous decisions at the beginning of the
20th century began to sound a death knell for the Ottoman Empire. The
Turks lost a short war with Italy, and were forced to relinquish the
Dodecanese islands to the Italians. Greece took this opportunity to
absorb the islands of the northern and eastern Aegean and to add
Macedonia to its mainland territories.
Following this debacle, the Ottomans then allied themselves
to Germany in the World War I, losing more territory with the defeat of
the Germans in that war. Greece was handed a strip of land along the
western coast of Asia Minor, which for over 2,000 years had had a
substantial Greek population. Greece moved in to administer the land,
but a new influence upset any grand dreams of making this region a part
of greater Greece.
In 1923, Turkey broke away from the tired Ottoman rulers,
and Kemal Ataturk rose to power on a wave of popular support. He
promised a modern state for his people, but as the situation became
volatile, civil strife broke out in Turkish cities, and those
considered Greek were victims of threats and violence. Many had to
leave their birthplaces, fleeing to Lesvos, Chios, and Samos, the
Greek-ruled islands just offshore. Thousands of people arrived with
little more than the clothes they wore, putting great strain on the
resources of the islands. Finally, Greece was ousted from its new
territory in Asia Minor, which became part of the new Turkish
state.
Greece attempted to stay out of World War II, but Mussolini
saw Greece as an ideal addition to his Italian empire. His forces made
a series of attacks from their bases in the Dodecanese islands,
including sinking a Greek naval vessel in the harbor of Tinos Town, but
they only succeeded in strengthening the resolve of the population
against them. Later the Germans came in force and occupied many of the
islands.
After the war, in 1949, the Dodecanese islands finally
became part of the Greek nation. But the country was politically
fragmented, with arguments between monarchists and republicans, right
and left, and tension escalated into civil war. The struggle bypassed
most of the islands, although there was fierce fighting on Samos. Even
after the fighting stopped more than a decade later, the country was
not stable.
At the same time, the massive growth in air and road
transport saw shipping decline in importance. The Aegean Islands, which
for centuries had been important ports on the trading routes, became
the backwaters of this new transport network and the economies of
several islands came close to collapse.
In 1967, the military took the reins of power in Athens,
and until 1974, the “Colonels” held sway with a repressive and brutal
regime. Many Greek islanders chose to leave rather than live in poverty
and terror, and many made new homes in the United States and Australia.
The expansion of air travel began the age of mass tourism, and Greece
along with the Aegean Islands became exciting destinations for northern
Europeans escaping their damp, cool summers.
In 1982, Greece joined the European Common Market (now the
European Union). Since this time, membership has been of great monetary
benefit to the country. The EU has given large subsidies to develop
Greece’s infrastructure and grants to excavate and protect its ancient
monuments.
Airfields have been constructed on a number of the islands,
and road systems have been expanded and im proved. Private investment
has even made an increasingly modern ferry fleet possible.
Politically, the 1990s have been relatively quite times for
the islands, although the divorce of Greek prime minister Andreas
Papandreou and his subsequent marriage to a much younger woman caused
consternation within conservative Greek society.
As the Balkans flared to war once again, Greek nationalism
has stirred, and there have been discussions in the kafeneion about the
land of Macedonia returning to the fold of its forefathers. Whether
this will ever happen remains to be seen, but perhaps the aid offered
by Greece to Turkey after 1999’s devastating earthquake is a sign that
the animosity between these two traditional enemies is beginning to
diminish.
