Dodecanese

 ( Prefectures Of Greece ) 

By the time the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC, the Dodecanese were mostly removed from the larger Aegean conflicts, and had begun a period of relative quiet and prosperity. In 408 BC, the three cities of Rhodes had united to form one state, which built a new capital on the northern end of the island, also named Rhodes; this united Rhodes dominated the region for the coming millennia. Other islands in the Dodecanese also developed into significant economic and cultural centers; most notably, Kos served as the site of the school of medicine founded by Hippocrates.

The Peloponnesian War had so weakened the entire Greek civilization's military strength that it lay open to invasion. In 357 BC, the islands were conquered by King Mausolus of Caria, then in 340 BC by the Persians. But this second period of Persian rule proved nearly as short as the first, and the islands became part of the rapidly growing Macedon as Alexander the Great swept through and defeated the Persians in 332 BC, to the great relief of the islands' inhabitants.

After Alexander's death, the islands, and even Rhodes itself, were split up among the Diadochi who contended to succeed him. The islands formed strong commercial ties with the Ptolemies in Egypt, and together they formed the Rhodo-Egyptian alliance, which controlled trade throughout the Aegean in the 3rd century BC. Led by Rhodes, the islands developed into maritime, commercial and cultural centers: coins of Rhodes circulated almost everywhere in the Mediterranean, and the islands' schools of philosophy, literature and rhetoric were famous. The Colossus of Rhodes, built in 304 BC, perhaps best symbolized their wealth and power.

In 164 BC, Rhodes signed a treaty with Ancient Rome, and the islands became aligned to greater or lesser extent with the Roman Republic while mostly maintaining their autonomy. Rhodes quickly became a major schooling center for Roman noble families, and, as the islands (and particularly Rhodes) were important allies of Rome, they enjoyed numerous privileges and generally friendly relations. These were eventually lost in 42 BC, in the turmoil following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, after which Cassius invaded and sacked the islands. Thereafter, they became part of the Roman Empire proper. Titus made Rhodes capital of the Provincia Insularum, and eventually the islands were joined with Crete as part of the 18th Province of the Roman Empire.

In the 1st century, Saint Paul visited the islands twice, and Saint John visited numerous times; they succeeded in converting the islands to Christianity, placing them among the first dominantly Christian regions. Saint John eventually came to reside among them, being exiled to Patmos, where he wrote his famous Revelation.

In the 10th and 11th centuries, on behalf the Roman Empire of Constantinople, the area was controlled and secured with trade duty rights by powerful maritime city-state fleets of Genoa (with the clan of Vignolo de'Vignoli) and Venice (with the clan of ); When the Genoese snatched a treaty from the Paleologos Emperors of Constantinople, they began invading portions of the Dodecanese and other eastern isles from Chios to Rhodes that had remained under the nominal power of the Empire of Nicea; Genoa family clans (Moresco, Vignoli, Giustiniani, Spinola and others) each held some islands and were granted rights to rule, trade and to exploit raw materials ( masticha, etc.), in exchange for maritime protection, while Orthodox monks ruled on Patmos and Leros. The Byzantine era came to an end when the islands were rented and sold by Genoeses for the venue of the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of St John): Rhodes was reinforced in 1309, and in the rest of the islands the Knights gradually built castles and fortress over the next few decades, while the Genoese fleet remained in charge of the sea routes and kept its bases and trading stores ( Empori). The Knights made Rhodes their stronghold, transforming its capital into a grandiose medieval city dominated by an impressive fortress, with scattered other fortresses and citadels throughout the rest of the islands.

These massive fortifications proved sufficient to repel invasions by the Sultan of Egypt in 1444 and Mehmed II in 1480. Finally, the citadel at Rhodes fell to the army of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522, and the other islands were overrun within the year. The few remaining Knights fled to Malta.

After the end of the war according to the Treaty of Ouchy, Italy maintained the occupation of the islands as guarantee for the execution of the treaty. The occupation continued after Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire (21 August 1915) during World War I.

During the war, the islands became an important naval base for Britain and France; Italy was allied with both nations. The Dodecanese were used as a staging area for numerous campaigns, most famously the one at Gallipoli. The French and British occupied some of the smaller islands, but Rhodes remained under Italian occupation. In 1915, the French also occupied Kastellorizo.

After the war, the Tommaso Tittoni–Venizelos agreement, signed on 29 July 1919, called for the smaller islands to join with Greece while Italy maintained control of Rhodes. The treaty further outlined an exchange where Italy would receive Antalya for southwest Anatolia. The Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War and the foundation of modern Turkey prevented the exchange. Italy formally annexed the Dodecanese as the Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne. Mussolini embarked on a program of Italianization, hoping to make Rhodes a modern transportation hub that would serve as a focal point for the spread of Italian culture in the Levant. The islands were overwhelmingly Greek language, with a Turkish language minority and a smaller Ladino language-speaking minority. Immigrant Italian language were a marginal language community.

Although the Italian state placed the islands under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their governance was strongly tied to the project for an Italian empire in the Mediterranean and to the Italian colonies in Libya, Somalia, Eritrea, and after 1936, in Ethiopia.

As part of securing sovereignty in the islands, Italy created and applied a form of imperial citizenship for the local population unique to its overseas empire. Called Italian Aegean citizenship (cittadinanza egea italiana), this form of citizenship was inclusive of local political rights and exclusive of military service. After 1934, Dodecanese citizens could complete military service and apply to become full Italian citizens, an option many locals chose while supporting Italian Fascism and seeing the Italian empire as promoting their financial well-being. Italian Aegean citizenship also ensured the islands were exempted from the exchange of Greek and Turkish minority populations in the Aegean, a provision of the Second Lausanne Treaty that ended the Greco-Turkish War. After 1934, it was also possible to acquire Italian Aegean citizenship from abroad and to transmit Italian Aegean citizenship on the principle of patrilineal descent. This reform mirrored the principle of jus sanguinis which provides the basis of Italian citizenship and was especially intended for the large Greek-speaking Dodecanese-origin emigrant community in Egypt.Valerie McGuire, Italy's Sea: Empire and Nation in the Mediterranean , 1895-1945. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020, 142-170.

The Fascist administration sought to modernize the islands, eradicating malaria, constructing hospitals, aqueducts, a power plant to provide Rhodes' capital with electric lighting, and establishing the Dodecanese cadastre. The main castle of the Knights of St. John was also rebuilt. The concrete-dominated Fascist architectural style detracted significantly from the islands' picturesque scenery (and also reminded the inhabitants of Italian rule), and has consequently been largely demolished or remodeled, apart from the famous example of the Leros town of Lakki, which remains a prime example of the architecture.

From 1936 to 1940 Cesare Maria De Vecchi acted as governor of the Italian Islands of the Aegean, promoting the official use of the Italian language and favoring a process of Italianization, interrupted by the beginning of World War II.