| Conventional Long Name: | Italian Islands of the Aegean |
| Native Name: | |
| Common Name: | Aegean Islands |
| Status: | Possedimento |
| Status Text: | Italian colony |
| P1: | Sanjak of Rhodes |
| Flag P1: | Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg |
| P2: | Sanjak of Sakız |
| Flag P2: | Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg |
| S1: | Kingdom of Greece |
| Flag S1: | State Flag of Greece (1863-1924 and 1935-1973).svg |
| Flag: | Flag of Italy |
| National Motto: | Per l'onore d'Italia |
| National Anthem: | Giovinezza[1] |
| Capital: | Rhodes |
| Official Languages: | Italian |
| Common Languages: | Greek (Aegean Greek), Turkish (Aegean Turkish) |
| Religion: | Catholic (State) Greek Orthodox, Islam |
| Title Leader: | King |
| Leader1: | Victor Emmanuel III |
| Year Leader1: | 1912–1945 |
| Title Representative: | Governor |
| Representative1: | Giovanni Ameglio |
| Year Representative1: | 1912–1913 |
| Year Representative2: | 1943–1945 |
| Deputy1: | Mario Lago |
| Deputy2: | Inigo Campioni |
| Era: | Interwar / WWII |
| Event Start: | Italian occupation |
| Date Start: | 27 April |
| Year Start: | 1912 |
| Event1: | Italian annexation |
| Date Event1: | 24 July 1923 |
| Date Event2: | 8 September 1943 |
| Event3: | German occupation |
| Date Event3: | 11 September 1943 |
| Event End: | German surrender |
| Year End: | 1945 |
| Date End: | 8 May |
| Event Post: | Ceded to Greece |
| Date Post: | 10 February 1947 |
| Currency: | Italian lira |
The Italian Islands of the Aegean (Italian: Isole italiane dell'Egeo; Greek, Modern (1453-);: Ἰταλικαὶ Νῆσοι Αἰγαίου Πελάγους; Turkish: Ege'deki İtalyan Adaları) were an archipelago of fourteen islands (the Dodecanese, except Kastellorizo) in the southeastern Aegean Sea, that—together with the surrounding islets—were ruled by the Kingdom of Italy from 1912 to 1943 and the Italian Social Republic (under German occupation) from 1943 to 1945. When the Kingdom of Italy was restored, they remained under formal Italian possession (under British occupation) until they were ceded to Greece in 1947 under the Treaty of Paris.
The Dodecanese, except Kastellorizo, were occupied by Italy during the Italo-Turkish War of 1912. Italy had agreed to return the islands to the Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of Ouchy in 1912;[2] however the vagueness of the text allowed a provisional Italian administration of the islands, and Turkey eventually renounced all claims on the Dodecanese with Article 15 of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.[3]
The provisional Italian regime on the islands, titled "Rhodes and the Dodecanese" (Rodi e Dodecaneso), was originally in the hands of military governors, until the appointment on 7 August 1920 of Count Carlo Senni as the Viceroy of the Dodecanese (Reggente del Dodecaneso).[4] Following the end of World War I, Italy agreed twice, in the Venizelos–Tittoni agreement of 1919 and the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, to cede the islands to Greece except for Rhodes, which would enjoy extensive autonomy.[4] Due to the Greek embroilment and defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22, these agreements were never implemented.
Kastellorizo was temporarily occupied by France in 1915 and came under Italian control in 1921.[4] The Dodecanese islands were formally annexed by Fascist Italy, as the Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo in 1923.[5]
Italian interest in the Dodecanese was rooted in strategic purposes, and the islands were intended to further the Empire's long range imperial policy.[6] The islands of Leros and Patmos were used as bases for the Royal Italian Navy.[6]
In 1932 the Convention between Italy and Turkey was signed for some smaller islets around Kastellorizo.
Starting in 1923, civil governors replaced the military commanders. The Italian politics towards the native population had two phases: while governor Mario Lago, a liberal diplomat, favoured peaceful coexistence among the different ethnic groups and the Italians, choosing a soft strategy of integration, his successor, Cesare Maria De Vecchi, embarked on a forced Italianization campaign of the islands. Lago delegated land for Italian settlers and encouraged intermarriage with local Greeks.[5] In 1929, scholarships at the University of Pisa for Dodecanesian students were promoted to disseminate Italian culture and language among the local professional class.[7]
The only sector where Lago was unaccommodating was religion: The Italian authorities also tried to limit the power of the Greek Orthodox Church without success by trying to set up an autocephalous Dodecanesian church.[7] Fascist youth organizations such as Opera Nazionale Balilla were introduced on the islands, and the Italianization of names was encouraged by the Italian authorities.[7] The juridic state of the islands was an intermediate one (possedimento) between a colony and a part of the motherland: due to that, local islanders did not receive full citizenship and were not required to serve in the Italian armed forces.[5]
Under the governorship of De Vecchi (1936–40), a staunch and hard line Fascist, the Italianization efforts became very strong.[7] The Italian language became compulsory in education and public life, with Greek being only an optional subject in schools.[5] [7] While under Lago the inhabitants were allowed to elect their own mayors, in 1937 the fascist system was set up to the islands, with a newly appointed podestà for each municipality (comune)[7] in 1938, Italian Racial Laws were introduced to the islands along with a series of decrees equalizing local legislation with Italian law.[7]
De Vecchi also linked Rhodes to Italy with a regular air service from the late 1930s.[8] The "Aero Espresso Italiana" (AEI) had flights from Brindisi to Athens and Rhodes with flying boats (AEI used mainly the "Savoia 55", but also the "Macchi 24bis".)[9]
Efforts to bring Italian settlers to the islands were not notably successful. By 1936, Italians in the Dodecanese numbered 16,711, most of them living on Rhodes and Leros.[7] Italians of Rhodes and Kos were farmers involved in setting up new agricultural settlements, while Italians of Leros were generally employed by the army and lived at its facilities in the new Italian-built model town of Portolago (modern Lakki).[7]
Mussolini wanted to transform the islands into showcases of the Italian colonial empire, and undertook a series of massive public works in the archipelago.[10] New roads, monumental buildings in accordance with fascist architecture and waterworks were constructed, sometimes using forced Greek labor.[10]
Many examples of Italian architecture can still be found on the islands:[11] A few among them are:
The Italians also surveyed the islands for the first time in history, and began to introduce mass-scale tourism to Rhodes and Kos.[10] The smaller islands were mostly neglected by the improvement efforts and were left underdeveloped.[10]
Mussolini stated that Rhodes had merely returned to its ancestral home after being annexed by Italy, as the Dodecanese had been an important part of the Roman Empire.[6] Major Italian archaeological efforts from the 1930s onward were intended to discover Roman antiquities and thus strengthen the Italian claim on the islands.[6] [10]
| Island (Italian name in parentheses) | class=unsortable | Area ! | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rhodes (Rodi) and dependent islets | 1412km2 | 61,886 | |
| Patmos (Patmo), Agathonisi (Gaidaro) and dependent islets | 57.1km2 | 3,184 | |
| Leros (Lero) | 52.9km2 | 13,657 | |
| Leipsoi (Lisso) | 17.4km2 | 977 | |
| Kalymnos (Calino) and dependent islets | 128.2km2 | 15,247 | |
| Kos (Coo) | 296km2 | 19,731 | |
| Astypalaia (Stampalia) and dependent islets | 113.6km2 | 2,006 | |
| Nisyros (Nisiro) and dependent islets | 48km2 | 3,391 | |
| Symi (Simi) and dependent islets | 63.6km2 | 6,195 | |
| Tilos (Piscopi) and dependent islets | 64.3km2 | 1,215 | |
| Halki (Calchi) and dependent islets | 30.3km2 | 1,461 | |
| Karpathos (Scarpanto) and dependent islets | 306km2 | 7,770 | |
| Kasos (Caso) and dependent islets | 69.4km2 | 1,890 | |
| Megisti (Castelrosso) and dependent islets | 11.5km2 | 2,238 | |
| Totals for Italian Aegean Islands | 2721.2km2 | 140,848 |
Sources: Census of 1936; Annuario Generale, Consociazione Turistica Italiana, Roma, 1938
After the Battle of Greece, Fascist authorities pushed for the incorporation of the Cyclades and Sporades into Italy's Aegean possessions, but the Germans were opposed to any territorial reduction of the puppet Hellenic State.[12] As the Cyclades were already under Italian occupation, the preparation for outright annexation was continued despite German opposition.[12]
| Conventional Long Name: | Military Administration in the Aegean |
| Common Name: | Aegean Islands |
| Largest Settlement: | Rhodes |
| Life Span: | 1945–1947 |
| Title Leader: | Chief Administrator |
| Year Leader2: | 1946–1947 |
| Leader1: | Charles Henry Gormley |
| Year Leader1: | 1945–1946 |
| Leader2: | Arthur Stanley Parker |
| P1: | Italian Islands of the Aegean |
| S1: | Kingdom of Greece |
| Flag P1: | Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg |
| Flag S1: | State Flag of Greece (1863-1924 and 1935-1973).svg |
After the Italian capitulation of September 1943, the islands briefly became a battleground between the Germans, the British and the Italians (the Dodecanese campaign).[13] The Germans prevailed, and although they were driven out of mainland Greece in 1944, the Dodecanese remained occupied until the end of the war in 1945.[13] During the German occupation, the Dodecanese remained under the nominal sovereignty of the Italian Social Republic, but were de facto subject to the German military command.[14] After the end of World War II, the islands came under provisional British administration.
In the Treaty of Paris in 1947, the islands were ceded to Greece.[13]
See main article: List of governors of the Italian Islands of the Aegean.
Italian
