British Cyprus

An island Britain rented from the Ottomans and kept, acquiring a problem it never solved. The Cyprus Convention of 1878 transferred administration to Britain while leaving nominal Ottoman sovereignty and an annual payment - the point was a base from which to watch Russia, and the payment was quietly diverted to service Ottoman debt to British bondholders rather than reaching Constantinople. Britain annexed the island outright in 1914 when the Ottomans entered the war. The Greek Cypriot majority's demand was not independence but enosis, union with Greece, and Britain's refusal produced riots in 1931 and the EOKA armed campaign from 1955 under Georgios Grivas. Turkish Cypriots, about a fifth of the population, opposed union and increasingly favoured partition, and the administration's handling of the two communities hardened the division. Independence in 1960 came with a constitution allocating offices by community and treaties giving Britain, Greece and Turkey rights of intervention. Britain retained two sovereign base areas, which it still holds. The settlement collapsed within three years and the island was divided in 1974. Nicosia was the capital throughout and remains divided. The island covers about 9,250 square kilometres, the third largest in the Mediterranean. Copper mining, which gave the island its name, revived under British rule. Britain deported around fifty thousand Jewish refugees to camps on the island between 1946 and 1949 for attempting to reach Palestine. Akrotiri and Dhekelia remain British territory and cover about three per cent of the island. The convention was signed in secret at the Congress of Berlin.

• Type: Polity
• Government: Colonial administration