Italian Islands of the Aegean

Italian Islands of the Aegean
Isole italiane dell'Egeo Ιταλικά νησιά του Αιγαίου
Intermediate status between colony and integral part of Italy
1912–1943
Flag Coat of arms
Motto Foedere et Religione Tenemur "We are held together by Pact and Religion"
Anthem Marcia Reale d'Ordinanza "Royal March of Ordinance"a
Capital		Rhodes
Languages		Greek, Italian, Turkish
Religion		Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic
Political structure		Possedimento
Military Commander (until 1922) Governor (1922-1943)
•	1912–1913	Giovanni Ameglio (first)
•	1922–1936	Mario Lago (first governor)
•	1936-1940	Cesare Maria De Vecchi
•	1940–1941	Ettore Bastico
•	1941–1943	Inigo Campioni
Historical era		Interwar / WWII
•	Italo-Turkish War	27 April 1912
•	Armistice of Cassibile & Dodecanese Campaign	September–November 1943
Area
•	1936
Population
•	1936 est.	132,289
Density
Currency		Italian lira
Preceded by Succeeded by Sanjak of Rhodes Sanjak of Sakız Dodecanese Campaign
a: Unofficial anthem was Giovinezza ("Youth").

The Italian Islands of the Aegean (Italian: Isole italiane dell'Egeocode: it is deprecated , Greek: Ιταλικά νησιά του Αιγαίου), were a group of twelve major islands (the Dodecanese) in the southeastern Aegean Sea, which –– together with the surrounding islets – belonged to the Kingdom of Italy from 1912 to 1943.

Background

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; 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. Kastellorizo was temporarily occupied by France in World War I and was annexed to Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1919. The Dodecanese were formally annexed by Fascist Italy, as the Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo.

Italian interest in the Dodecanese was rooted in strategic purposes, and the islands were intended to further the Empire's long range imperial policy. The islands of Leros and Patmos were used as bases for the Royal Italian Navy.

Administrative policies

Starting in 1923, civil governors replaced the military commanders. The Italian politics towards the native population had two phases: while governor Mario Lago, 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. In 1929, scholarships at the University of Pisa for Dodecanesian students were promoted to disseminate Italian culture and language among the local professional class.

The only sector where Lago was unaccommodating was religion: Orthodox rite was suppressed and only Catholic ceremonies were recognized. The Italian authorities also tried to limit the power of the Orthodox Church without success by trying to set up an autonomous Dodecanesian church. Fascist youth organizations such as Opera Nazionale Balilla were introduced on the islands, and the Italianization of names was encouraged by the Italian authorities. 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, although formally Italian citizens, did not receive full citizenship and were not required to serve in the Italian armed forces.

Under the governorship of De Vecchi (1936 to 1940), a staunch and dull fascist, the Italianization efforts became brutal. The Italian language became compulsory in education and the public life, with Greek being only an optional subject in schools. While under Lago the inhabitants were allowed to elect their own mayors, in 1937 the fascist system was set up to the islands, with newly appointed podestàs for each municipality (comune). in 1938, Italian Racial Laws were introduced to the islands along with a series of decrees equalizing local legislation with Italian law.

Italian settlement efforts

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. 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).

Public works

Mussolini wanted to transform the islands into showcases of the Italian colonial empire, and undertook a series of massive public works in the archipelago. New roads, monumental buildings in accordance with fascist architecture and waterworks were constructed, sometimes using forced Greek labor.

Many examples of Italian architecture can still be found on the islands: A few among them are:

• The Grande Albergo delle Rose (now "Casino Rodos") built by Florestano Di Fausto and Michele Platania in 1927, with a mix of Arab, Byzantine and Venetian styles.
• The Casa del Fascio of Rhodes, built in 1939 in typical fascist style. It serves now as the City Hall.
• The Catholic church of San Giovanni, built in 1925 by Di Fausto, as a reconstruction of the medieval cathedral church of the Knights of St. John.
• The Teatro Puccini of the city of Rhodes, now called "National Theater", built in 1937 with 1,200 seats.
• The Palazzo del Governatore in downtown Rhodes, built in 1927 in Venetian style by Di Fausto. It now houses the offices of the Prefecture of the Dodecanese.
• The Villaggio rurale San Benedetto, now Kolymbia village, built in 1938 as a planned model village with all modern services.
• The Town of Portolago (now Lakki) in the island of Leros, built in 1938 in typical Italian Rationalist style.

The Italians also surveyed the islands for the first time in history, and began to introduce mass-scale tourism to Rhodes and Kos. However, the smaller islands were mostly neglected by the improvement efforts and were left underdeveloped.

Archeology

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. Major Italian archaeological efforts from the 1930s onward were intended to discover Roman antiquities and thus strengthen the Italian claim on the islands.

Administrative division

Island (Italian name in parentheses)	Area	Population
Rhodes (Rodi) and dependent islets	1,412 km2 (545 sq mi)	60,244
Patmos (Patmo) and dependent islets	57.1 km2 (22.0 sq mi)	3214
Leipsoi (Lisso)	174 km2 (67 sq mi)	993
Kalymnos (Calino) and dependent islets	128.2 km2 (49.5 sq mi)	15,338
Kos (Coo)	296 km2 (114 sq mi)	20,003
Astypalaia (Stampalia) and dependent islets	113.6 km2 (43.9 sq mi)	1767
Nisyros (Nisiro) and dependent islets	48 km2 (19 sq mi)	2375
Symi (Simi) and dependent islets	63.6 km2 (24.6 sq mi)	6176
Tilos (Piscopi) and dependent islets	64.3 km2 (24.8 sq mi)	1227
Halki (Calchi) and dependent islets	30.3 km2 (11.7 sq mi)	1476
Karpathos (Scarpanto) and dependent islets	306 km2 (118 sq mi)	7893
Kasos (Caso) and dependent islets	69.4 km2 (26.8 sq mi)	1913
Megisti (Castelrosso) and dependent islets	11.5 km2 (4.4 sq mi)	2267
Italian Aegean Islands	2,668.3 km2 (1,030.2 sq mi)	132,289

Source: Census of 1936

Source: Annuario Generale, Consociazione Turistica Italiana, Roma, 1938

Planned expansion

After the Battle of Greece, Fascist authorities pushed for the incorporation of the Cyclades and Sporades into Italy's Aegean possession, but the Germans were opposed to any territorial reduction of the puppet Hellenic State. As the Cyclades were already under Italian occupation, the preparation for outright annexation was continued despite German opposition.

End of Italian influence

After the Italian capitulation of September 1943, the islands briefly became a battleground between the Germans, British and the Italians (the Dodecanese Campaign). 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. 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. After the end of World War II, the islands came under provisional British administration.

In the Treaty of Peace in 1947, the islands were ceded to Greece.

List of colonial heads of the Italian Islands of the Aegean (1912–47)

See also: List of colonial heads of the Italian Islands of the Aegean

See also

• Italian colonists in the Dodecanese