Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T05:14:35.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Greeks under European colonial rule: national allegiance and imperial loyalty1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Alexis Rappas
Alexis Rappas*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How to narrate the experience of the Greeks who lived under European colonial rule? Greek nationalist historiography ignores the colonial dimension and links this experience to the grand narrative of the struggle of unredeemed Greeks against foreign domination. By contrast, revisionist accounts challenge the pervasiveness of ‘national sentiment’ among subjected Greeks and stress the coercive nature of nationalism. Based on micro-analyses of cases drawn from Cyprus under British rule and the Dodecanese under Italian rule in the 1930s, an assessment is made of the practical significance, in the daily lives of these colonial subjects, of the conflicting imperatives of national allegiance and imperial loyalty.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , 2010 , pp. 201 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Acknowledgments: I wrote this article as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Program of Hellenic Studies at Princeton University (2009–10). I would like to thank Ted and Elaine Athanassiades for providing my post-doctoral scholarship; Kostis Kornetis, Elsa Amanatidou and Evangelos Calotychos for inviting me to present earlier versions of this article at the Modern Greek Studies Program at Brown University and at the Program in Hellenic Studies at Columbia University. I am very grateful to Mathieu Grenet, Angelos Ntalachanis, Robert Tignor, Katerina Rozakou and Thanassis Nikolentzos who read and commented on earlier drafts of this article. I have also benefited from the reactions and comments of Dimitris Gondicas, Molly Greene, Effie Rentzou, Marinos Pourgouris and Ipek Celik. Finally, I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers and Peter Mackridge for helping me improve the final version of the article. Any remaining flaws and inaccuracies are entirely my own.

References

2 Cyprus State Archive, Ministry of Justice, Archives of the colonial secretariat [henceforth SA1], SA1 738/1939/2 Constitutional Liberties Petitions for the Grant of-, petition signed by 109 inhabitants of the village of Yermasoyia, Nicosia district, 27 May 1939.

3 SA1 738/1939/2, petition signed by 230 inhabitants of the village of Marathovounos, Famagusta district, 11 August 1939.

4 SA1 738/1939/1, petition signed by 71 inhabitants of the village of Limnia, Famagusta district, 31 July 1939.

5 Beaton, R., ‘Introduction’, in Beaton, R. and Ricks, D. (eds), The Making of Modern Greece: Nationalism, Romanticism, and the Uses of the Vast 1796-1896 (London 2009) 3 Google Scholar.

6 ‘The Executive Committee of the Inhabitants of the Dodecanese to His Excellency, Mr. Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States’, London, 26 December 1918, in White Book. The Dodecanese: Resolutions and Documents Concerning the Dodecanese, 1912-1919, compiled by Dr. Skevos Zervos and Paris Roussos (London 1919) 59.

7 Fisch, J., ‘Africa as terra nullius: the Berlin Conference and international law’, in Forster, S., Mommsen, W. and Robinson, R. (eds), Bismarck, Europe and Africa: The Berlin Africa Conference, 1884-1885 and the Onset of Partition (Oxford 1988) 347-75Google Scholar.

8 Wilson, W., ‘Fourteen Points [speech delivered at a joint session of Congress, 8 January 1918]’, in Pestritto, R. J. (ed.), Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings (New York 2005) 263 Google Scholar.

9 Liakos, A., ‘The construction of national time: the making of the modern Greek historical imagination’, Mediterranean Historical Review 16 (2001) 30 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Kitromilides, P., ‘“Imagined communities” and the origins of the national question in the Balkans’, in Blinkhorn, M. and Veremis, T. (eds), Modern Greece: Nationalism and Nationality (Athens 1990), 23–66 Google Scholar.

11 Stephanopoli, J., Les îles de l’Egée: leurs privilèges (Athens 1912) 25 Google Scholar.

12 Holland, R. and Markides, D., The British and the Hellenes: Struggles for Mastery in the Eastern Mediterranean 1850-1960 (Oxford 2006) 14, 34, 45Google Scholar.

13 Gallant, T., Experiencing Dominion: Culture, Identity, and Power in the British Mediterranean (Notre Dame 2002) 15–55 Google Scholar. For the ‘rule of colonial difference’, see Chatterjee, P., The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-Colonial Histories (Princeton 1993) 17–18 Google Scholar.

14 Varnava, A., British Imperialism in Cyprus 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession (Manchester 2009) 159 Google Scholar.

15 Holland and Markides, The British and the Hellenes, 13-161.

16 Carabott, P., ‘Pawns that never became queens: the Dodecanese islands, 1912-1924’’, Kampos: Cambridge Papers in Modern Greek 4 (1996) 11 Google Scholar; Carabott, P., ‘The temporary Italian occupation of the Dodecanese: a prelude to permanency’, Diplomacy and Statecraft 4 (1993) 305 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Marongiu-Buonaiuti, C., La politica religiosa del Fascismo nel Dodecaneso (Napoli 1979) 19–20 Google Scholar.

17 Bosworth, R., ‘Britain and Italy’s Acquisition of the Dodecanese, 1912-1915’, The Historical Journal 13 (1970) 686 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Rogers, A., Churchill’s Folly: heros and the Aegean. The Last Great British Defeat of World War Two (London 2003)Google Scholar.

19 Varnava, British Imperialism in Cyprus, 3.

20 Ibid., 261-4.

21 Ibid., 265.

22 Carabott, ‘The Temporary Italian Occupation’, 289.

23 Rappas, A., ‘The Elusive Polity: Social Engineering and the Reinvention of Politics in Colonial Cyprus’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, European University Institute, 2008) 92-8Google Scholar.

24 Kelling, G., Countdown to Rebellion: British Policy in Cyprus 1939-1955 (London 1990) 13 Google Scholar.

25 Dodecanese-October 1941, Naval Intelligence Division (London 1941) 39 and Marongiu-Buonaiuti, La politica religiosa del Fascismo, 95-108.

26 Mussolini, B., ‘Discorso alla “Sciesa” di Milano, 4 Ottobre 1922’, in Orano, P. (ed.), L’Espansione coloniale (Roma 1936) 37 Google Scholar.

27 Dodecanese-October 1941, op.cit., 113-14.

28 ‘H Κύπρος θα μετατραπή εις μεγάλην Βρετταν. βάσιν;’, Νέος Κυπριακός Φύλαξ [Nicosia-based Greek-Cypriot daily newspaper], 20 June 1936; ‘H Κύπρος ως βόσις εις την Μεσόγειον’, Πάφος [Greek-Cypriot weekly newspaper published in the district of Paphos], 1 Oct. 1936. National Archives, London, Foreign Office: Political Departments: General Correspondence, FO 371/22367 Political. Southern. Greece 1938. ‘Secret. Committee of Imperial Defence. Cyprus. Strategical Importance and Potentialities as Naval, Military, and Air Base’. Extract from the minutes of the 318th meeting held on 7 Apr. 1938, enclosure to secretary of the Committee on Imperial Defence’s secret dispatch to the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 21 Apr. 1938.

29 National Archives, London, Colonial Office: Cyprus, Original Correspondence, CO 67/267/9 Cyprus Archiepiscopal Question 1935-1937. A. J. Dawe, minute, 30 July 1936.

30 Markides and Holland, The British and the Hellenes, 189.

31 For the Italianization of the names of the islands of the Dodecanese, see Tsirpanles, Z., Ιταλοκρατία erra Δωδεκάνησα, 1912–1943: αλλοτρίωση του ανθρώπου και του περιβάλλοντος (Rhodes 1998) 25 Google Scholar (map originally published by the Dodecanesian League of America in The Dodecanesians Are Not Enemy Aliens (New York 1942) 3).

32 Γενικά Αρχεία του Κράτους-Υπηρεσία N. Δωδεκανήσου (henceforth GAK), 237/1938 Delegato del Governo di Simi, 13 Settembre 1938 al Governo delle Isole Italiane Dell’Egeo.

33 CO 67/277/15 Cyprus. Administrative and Political Reports for Various Districts 1937. R. C. S. Stanley, district commissioner of Larnaca, bi-monthly administrative report, enclosure to governor’s dispatch, 2 Dec. 1937.

34 CO 67/251/7 Cyprus. Setting Up of an Advisory Council 1933. Governor Stubbs, semi-private letter to the secretary of state for the colonies, 18 Aug. 1933.

35 CO 67/254/3 Cyprus: Political Situation, 1934. ‘Memorandum by Sir R. E. Stubbs’, 16 Oct. 1933.

36 Bodleian Rhodes House Library, University of Oxford, Brit.Emp.s.332 Papers of Arthur Creech-Jones 1936-1939, box 43, Education X, Europe, file 1: Cyprus 1936-1937. Governor’s official dispatch, 5 Feb. 1937; see also Brit.Emp.s.347 Reminiscences of Sir Charles F. Belcher, former Colonial judge, unpublished typewritten manuscript, p. 279.

37 Labanca, N., Oltremare. Storia dell’espansione coloniale italiana (Bologna 2002) 180 Google Scholar.

38 See for example CO 967/54A Semi-official Correspondence from Governors: 1) Sir William Battershill and 2) Sir Charles Woolley on Military and Political Situations. Secretary of State for the Colonies’ private and personal dispatch to Governor Battershill, 12 Aug. 1940.

39 GAK 639/1936 Celebrazione Matrimoni Misti, Servizio Stato Civile Carteggio General f.to Lago, 21 Settembre, 1936.

40 Bhabha, H. K., ‘Of mimicry and man: the ambivalence of colonial discourse’, October 28 (1984) 126 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Patrick, R. A., Political Geography and the Cyprus Conflict: 1963-1971 (Waterloo, Ont. 1976) 12 Google Scholar.

42 Δνπλωματικό και Ιστορικό Αρχείο του Υπουργείου Εξωτερνκών (hereafter ΥΡΕΧ), 1935/Α/108Ρ Δωδεκάνησος. Εκκλησιαστικά Ζητήματα Δωδεκανήσου. N. G. Tserekes, Consul-General of Greece, 15 Feb. 1935, dispatch No. 223 to the Political Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

43 Bryant, R., Imagining the Modern: the Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus (London 2004) 146 Google Scholar.

44 Katsiaounis, R., Labour, Society and Politics in Cyprus during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century (Nicosia 1996)Google Scholar.

45 Doumanis, N., Myth and Memory in the Mediterranean: Remembering Fascism’s Empire (London 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Santarelli, L., ‘Muted violence: Italian war crimes in occupied Greece’, Journal of Modern italian Studies 9 (2004) 281-2Google Scholar.

47 Goody, J., The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (Cambridge 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Bryant, R., ‘Signatures for the “simple ones”: constituting a public sphere in Cyprus, circa 1900’, in Faustmann, H. and Peristianis, N. (eds), Britain in Cyprus: Colonialism and Post-Colonialism 1878-2006 (Mannheim und Möhnesee 2006) 79–97 Google Scholar.

49 Treaty of Peace with Turkey and Other Instruments. Signed at Lausanne on July 24, 1923, Together with Agreements between Greece and Turkey Signed on January 30, 1923, and Subsidiary Documents Forming Part of the Turkish Peace Settlement, article 30, section 2 (London 1923) 30. For the Cypriot case, see also Dendias, M., The Cypriot Question Considered from the Points of History and International Law (Athens 1937) 190 Google Scholar. For the Dodecanesian case see Marongiu-Buonaiuti, La politica religiosa del Fascismo, 55.

50 Oakley, R., ‘The control of Cypriot migration to Britain between the Wars’, Immigrants and Minorities 6 (1987) 33 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 ‘Πώς θα ερμηνεύεται εφεξής о όρος «Ιθαγενής της Κύπρου»‘, Ελενθερία (Nicosia-based Greek-Cypriot daily newspaper), 29 July 1939.

52 ‘Νομοσχέδιο περί εποικισμού. Ποιοι δεν θα γίνωντοι δεκτοί εν Κύπρω’, Ελευθερία, 18 Apr. 1936.

53 SAI 447/1932 Personal Police Records Instructions to CCP as to-, Colonial Secretary’s confidential dispatch to chief commandant of police, 25 Jan. 1932.

54 CO 67/276/2 Cyprus. Archbishopric of Cyprus 1937. Part 2. Arthur Dawe, Colonial Office, head of the Pacific and Mediterranean Department, ‘Memorandum on the Church Question’, Dec. 1937.

55 GAK 649 1/13 1939 Identity card of Regina Faglieri.

56 Marongiu-Buonaiuti, La politica religiosa del Fascismo, 86 and 101. See for example GAK 237/1938 Certificato di Stato Libero, issued for Israel Teodoro, 25 May 1938.

57 YPEX 1937/59/1 Δωδεκάνησος. Report of informer of the Service of Foreigners, Secretariat of Public Safety, 24 June 1937.

58 GAK 725/1938 Provvedimenti per la difesa della razza.

59 On the impact of colonialism on pre-colonial social ties see Cohn, B. and Dirks, N., ‘Issues and agendas. Beyond the fringe: the nation state, colonialism, and the technologies of power’, Journal of Historical Sociology 1 (1988) 224-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 CO 67/299/2 Cyprus. Political Situation 1939. Governor’s secret dispatch, 30 Nov. 1939, §6.

61 CO 67/299/2, ‘Record of incidents connected with the local Greek nationalist movement’, §14, enclosure to acting governor’s secret dispatch (2), 23 June 1939.

62 CO 67/299/2, §14, 5 and 2 respectively, enclosure to acting governor’s secret dispatch (2), 23 June 1939.

63 Marongiu-Buonaiuti, La politica religiosa del Fascismo, passim; Barros, J., Britain, Greece and the Politics of Sanctions: Ethiopia, 1935-1936 (London 1982) 7, 22-23Google Scholar; ‘H αντεθνική πολιτική του Μητροπολίτου Ρόδου Αποστόλου και της μαφίας του’, Δωδεκανησιακή [fortnightly Athens-based newspaper of the Dodecanesian Youth of Athens], 1 August 1934.

64 YPEX 1931/A22α Δωδεκάνησος. D. I. Pappas, Greek Consul in Rhodes, confidential letter No. 782, 10 July 1931, to the Political Division of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

65 YPEX 1935/A/10/8α/1 Εκπαιδευτικά Ζητήματα Δωδεκανήσου. B. Mostras, director of the division of Europe of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, letter of 6 Aug. 1935, protocol number 90666, to the prefecture of Attica-Boeotia.

66 CO 323/1135/3 Cyprus: S. Sawa, assistant chief warder at the Central Prison. 1931-1933. All quotations in this section are taken from the official dispatches, memoranda, minutes and official statements included in the above file.

67 GAK 237/1938 Inosservanza del D.G. 323 del 15/11-938. Fernando Mittino, maggiore comandante del gruppo dei Carabinieri Reali delle Isole Egee, Ufficio Servizio, 2 dicembre 1938, a S.E. il Governatore delle Isole Italiane dell’Egeo.

68 Ibid. Disposizione Governatoriale, 26 novembre 1938, §4.

69 YPEX 1935/A/108ß Δωδεκάνησος. Εκκλησιαστικά Ζητήματα Δωδεκανήσου. The president, Michalis Papamanolis, and the secretary general, Christos Andriotakis, of the Dodecanesian Youth in Athens, 16 Jan. 1935, to the direction of the Aliens and Passports Department, Greek Ministry of the Interior.

70 Ibid., G. G. Argyropoulos, Greek consul-general in Rhodes, dispatch No. 760 Δ/7, 3 July 1935, to the political affairs division, European section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

71 Ibid., B. Mostras, director of the political affairs division, Ministry of the Interior, dispatch to the Aliens and Passport Department, 18 July 1935.

72 Ibid., Colonel Xenophon Zezas, director of the division of special security in Athens, secret dispatch No. 50/187/2, 7 Sept. 1935, to the aliens and passports department, ministry of foreign affairs.

73 ‘H αντεθνική πολιτική του Μητροπολίτου Ρόδου Αποστόλου και της μαφίας του’.

74 I am freely adapting Hannah Arendt’s expression ‘conscience of the nation’, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York 2004 [first edn 1951]) 178.

75 Mazower, M., Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century (New York 1999) 14–16 Google Scholar.