British imperialism in Cyprus, 1878–1915

The inconsequential possession

Andrekos Varnava

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780719086403
  9780719079030
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526118738
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

This book explores the tensions underlying British imperialism in Cyprus. Much has been written about the British Empire's construction outside Europe, yet there is little on the same themes in Britain's tiny empire in 'Europe'.

This study follows Cyprus' progress from a perceived imperial asset to an expendable backwater by explaining how the Union Jack came to fly over the island and why after thirty-five years the British wanted it lowered. Cyprus' importance was always more imagined than real and was enmeshed within widely held cultural signifiers and myths. British Imperialism in Cyprus fills a gap in the existing literature on the early British period in Cyprus and challenges the received and monolithic view that British imperial policy was based primarily or exclusively on strategic-military considerations.

The combination of archival research, cultural analysis and visual narrative that makes for an enjoyable read for academics and students of Imperial, British and European history.

Table of contents

• Front matter
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of figures
• General editor's introduction
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Historicising the British possession of Cyprus: the contexts
• Cyprus from Richard Coeur de Lion to Disraeli: the imperial imagination
• Justifying the occupation of Cyprus, 1876–78: ‘the key of Western Asia’
• The sublime illusions, 1878–80: the Mediterranean ‘Eldorado’
• Financial policy and the development of Cyprus, 1880–1912: The ‘mill-stone’
• From multiculturalism to multi-nationalism: the ‘European’ possession
• Cyprus’s strategic place in the British imperial structure: the backwater
• ‘Cyprus is of no use to anybody’: the pawn
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Select bibliography
• Index