From the mythological birth of Aphrodite on its shores to the stark reality of its modern division, this sweeping history charts the epic, millennia-long journey of Cyprus. Positioned as a strategic crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa, the island has been a coveted prize for countless civilizations. This narrative delves into its deepest origins, exploring the island's first Neolithic settlements, the dawn of the Copper Age that gave Cyprus its name and its wealth, and its emergence as a major hub in the Bronze Age world. It chronicles the arrival of the Greeks, an event that would embed a Hellenic identity for centuries to come, and the subsequent succession of empires-Assyrian, Egyptian, and Persian-that left their indelible marks on the island's complex cultural tapestry.
The story continues through the classical and medieval eras, tracing the island's absorption into the Hellenistic world of Alexander the Great's successors and its long, prosperous era of peace as a Roman province, which saw the arrival of Christianity with the Apostles Paul and Barnabas. As part of the Byzantine Empire, Cyprus became a bastion of Orthodox faith, dotted with magnificent churches while enduring centuries of Arab raids. The narrative then vividly recounts the island's dramatic capture by Richard the Lionheart during the Crusades, the establishment of a French Gothic kingdom under the Lusignans, and its transformation into a formidable fortress under the Venetians, the last Christian stronghold in an advancing Ottoman sea.
A new chapter began with the Ottoman conquest in 1571, an event that initiated four centuries of Turkish rule and fundamentally reshaped the island's demographic and social fabric, establishing the foundations of the modern Turkish Cypriot community. The book then transitions to the British colonial era, beginning in 1878, a period that brought modern administration and infrastructure but also sowed the seeds of future conflict. It meticulously traces the rise of two competing nationalisms: the fervent Greek Cypriot desire for enosis (union with Greece) and the growing Turkish Cypriot call for taksim (partition).
The final part of this history navigates the turbulent waters of the 20th and 21st centuries. It provides a gripping account of the anti-colonial EOKA uprising, the fragile birth of an independent republic in 1960, and the tragic breakdown of intercommunal relations that culminated in the 1974 Turkish invasion and the division of the island. The narrative explores the divergent paths of the two communities since the split: the economic and political development of the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and its entry into the European Union, alongside the isolation and dependency of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It covers the repeated, and thus far failed, efforts at reunification, offering a comprehensive look at an unresolved conflict that continues to define the future of this historic and contested island.
