4 June 1878
British Occupation Begins
Under the secret Cyprus Convention, the Ottoman Empire hands Britain the running of Cyprus while keeping formal sovereignty. British rule begins that July.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878 left the Ottoman Empire badly weakened and Russia in a commanding position. Britain wanted to contain Russia and prop up the Ottomans, and it wanted a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean from which to do it. Cyprus offered one.
On 4 June 1878 Britain and the Ottoman Empire signed the Cyprus Convention in secret. Britain promised to help defend the Sultan’s Asian territories against Russia, and in return Sultan Abdul Hamid II handed Britain the administration of Cyprus. The island remained Ottoman territory in law. Any surplus of revenue over the cost of government was to be paid to the Sultan as an annual sum, fixed at a little under £93,000. In practice the money went to the Bank of England to service Ottoman loans dating from the Crimean War. The payment drew criticism even in Britain, and after Winston Churchill attacked it in 1907 Parliament added an annual grant to ease the burden.
The convention was agreed before the Congress of Berlin, which met from 13 June to 13 July 1878 to redraw the map after the war. It shaped Britain’s position at the congress, and it was not, as often said, a result of it.
The handover followed quickly. On 12 July 1878 Vice Admiral Lord John Hay raised the British flag in Nicosia, and the flag went up in Larnaca and Famagusta over the following days. Sir Garnet Wolseley, the first High Commissioner, landed at Larnaca on 22 July and the next day issued a proclamation promising prosperity, justice and security.
At the Nicosia ceremony a Greek Cypriot speaker voiced hopes for prosperity and full political liberties, and many Greek Cypriots expected Britain eventually to hand the island to Greece. Turkish Cypriots, until then part of the ruling Muslim community, found themselves a minority under a Christian power. Britain set up its own administration, but Cypriots were given only a limited say in it. The arrangement lasted until 1914, when war between Britain and the Ottoman Empire brought Ottoman sovereignty to an end.