Editing History of Crete (section)

==Ottoman Crete (1669–1898)==
[[File:Girit'in Fethi.jpg|thumb|Ottoman siege of Candia]]
[[Image:Crete-Johnston-1861.png|thumb|right|300px|{{center|Crete or Candia in 1861}}]]
{{Main|Ottoman Crete}}
During the [[Cretan War (1645–1669)]], Venice was pushed out of Crete by the [[Ottoman Empire]], with most of the island lost after the [[siege of Candia]] (1648–1669), possibly the longest siege in history. The last Venetian outpost on the island, [[Spinalonga]], fell in 1718, and Crete was a part of the Ottoman Empire for the next two centuries. There were significant rebellions against Ottoman rule, particularly in [[Sfakia]]. [[Daskalogiannis]] was a famous rebel leader. One result of the Ottoman conquest was that a sizeable proportion of the population gradually converted to Islam, with its tax and other civic advantages in the Ottoman system. Contemporary estimates vary, but on the eve of the Greek War of Independence as much as 45% of the population of the island may have been Muslim.<ref>Excerpts <!--what does "excerpts" mean?  If they are direct quotations, they should be in quotation marks-->from William Yale, ''The Near East: A modern history'' by  (Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1958)</ref>

Some Muslim converts were [[crypto-Christian]]s, who converted back to Christianity; others fled Crete because of the unrest. By the last Ottoman census in 1881, Christians were 76% of the population, and [[Cretan Turks]] only 24%. Christians were over 90% of the population in 19 out of 23 of the districts of Crete, but Muslims were over 60% in the three large towns on the north coast, and in Monofatsi.<ref>A. Lily Macrakis, ''Cretan Rebel: Eleftherios Venizelos in Ottoman Crete'', Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1983.</ref>

=== Greek War of Independence (1821) ===
The [[Greek War of Independence]] began in 1821, with extensive Cretan participation. An uprising by Christians met with a fierce response from the Ottoman authorities and the execution of several bishops, regarded as ringleaders. Sultan [[Mahmud II]] granted rule over Crete to Egypt's ruler [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali Pasha]] in exchange for his military support. Between 1821 and 1828, the island was the scene of repeated hostilities. The Muslims were driven into the large fortified towns on the north coast and it would appear that as many as 60% of them died from plague or famine while there. The Cretan Christians also suffered severely, losing around 21% of their population in the 1830s.<ref>Panagiotis Krokidas, and Athanasios Gekas, "Public Health in Crete under the rule of Mehmed Ali in the 1830's." ''Égypte/Monde arabe'' 4 (2007): 35-54 [https://journals.openedition.org/ema/1751 online].</ref>

Crete was subsequently left out of the new Greek state established under the [[London Protocol of 1830]]. Its administration by Muhammad Ali was confirmed in the [[Convention of Kütahya]] of 1833, but direct Ottoman rule was re-established by the [[Convention of London (1840)|Convention of London]] of 3 July 1840.

The island's Christians revolted [[Cretan Revolt (disambiguation)#Under Ottoman rule|several times against Ottoman rule]]. Revolts in [[Cretan Revolt (1841)|1841]] and [[Cretan Revolt (1858)|1858]] secured some privileges, such as the right to bear arms, equality of Christian and Muslim worship, and the establishment of Christian councils of elders with jurisdiction over education and [[customary law]]. Despite these concessions, the Christian Cretans maintained their ultimate aim of union with Greece, and tensions between the Christian and [[Cretan Muslims|Muslim]] communities ran high. Thus, in 1866 the great [[Cretan Revolt (1866–1869)|Cretan Revolt]] began.

The uprising, which lasted for three years, involved volunteers from Greece and other European countries, where it was viewed with considerable sympathy, particularly after the [[Cretan revolt (1866–1869)#Arkadi|Arkadi Holocaust]]. Despite early successes of the rebels, who quickly confined the Ottomans to the northern towns, the uprising failed. The Ottoman [[Grand Vizier]] [[Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha|A'ali Pasha]] personally assumed control of the Ottoman forces and launched a methodical campaign to retake the rural districts, which was combined with promises of [[concession (politics)|political concessions]], notably by the introduction of an Organic Law, which gave the Cretan Christians equal (in practice, because of their superior numbers, majority) control of local administration. His approach bore fruits, as the rebel leaders gradually submitted. By early 1869, the island was again under Ottoman control.

During the [[Congress of Berlin]] in the summer of 1878, there was a further rebellion, which was halted quickly by the intervention of the British and the adaptation of the 1867-8 Organic Law into a constitutional settlement known as the [[Pact of Halepa]]. Crete became a semi-independent parliamentary state within the Ottoman Empire under an Ottoman Governor who had to be a Christian. A number of the senior "Christian Pashas" including Photiades Pasha and [[Kostis Adosidis Pasha]] ruled the island in the 1880s, presiding over a parliament in which liberals and conservatives contended for power.

Disputes between the two powers led to a further insurgency in 1889 and the collapse of the Pact of Halepa arrangements. The international powers, disgusted at what seemed to be factional politics, allowed the Ottoman authorities to send troops to the island and restore order but did not anticipate that Ottoman Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II]] would use this as a pretext to end the Halepa Pact Constitution and instead rule the island by martial law. This action led to international sympathy for the Cretan Christians and to a loss of any remaining acquiescence among them to continued Ottoman rule. When a small insurgency began in September 1895, it spread quickly, and by the summer of 1896 the Ottoman forces had lost military control of most of the island.

A new [[Cretan Revolt (1897–1898)|Cretan insurrection]] in 1897 led to the Ottoman Empire declaring war on Greece. However, the [[Great Power]]s ([[Austria-Hungary]], [[France]], the [[German Empire]], the [[Kingdom of Italy]], the [[Russian Empire]] and Great Britain) decided that the Ottoman Empire could no longer maintain control and intervened, dispatching a multinational naval force, the [[International Squadron (Crete intervention, 1897-1898)|International Squadron]], to Cretan waters in February 1897. The squadron's senior admirals formed an "Admirals Council" which temporarily governed the island. The International Squadron bombarded Cretan insurgents, placed sailors and marines ashore, and instituted a blockade of Crete and key ports in Greece, bringing organized combat on the island to an end by late March 1897. Soldiers from the armies of five of the powers (Germany refused to participate) then occupied key cities in Crete during late March and April 1897.<ref>McTiernan, pp. 13–23.</ref> Eventually, the Admirals Council decided to establish an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire on Crete.<ref>McTiernan, p. 28.</ref> After a violent riot by Cretan Turks on 6 September 1898 (25 August according to the [[Julian calendar]] then in use on Crete, which was 12 days behind the modern [[Gregorian calendar]] during the 19th century), the admirals also decided to expel all Ottoman troops from Crete, which was accomplished on 6 November 1898. When [[Prince George of Greece and Denmark|Prince George of Greece]] arrived in Crete on 21 December 1898 (9 December according to the Julian calendar) as the first [[High Commissioner]] of the autonomous [[Cretan State]], Crete effectively was detached from the Ottoman Empire, although it remained under the Sultan's [[suzerainty]].<ref>McTiernan, pp. 35–39.</ref>