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Italian occupied Islands of the Aegean (1912–1923) Isole occupate italiane dell'Egeo Τα ιταλικά κατεχόμενα νησιά του Αιγαίου Italian Islands of the Aegean (1923–1945) Isole italiane dell'Egeo Ἰταλικαὶ Νῆσοι Αἰγαίου Πελάγους
1912–1945
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Per l'onore d'Italia "For the honour of Italy"
Anthem: Giovinezza[1]
Status	Intermediate status between colony and integral part of Italy
Capital	Rhodes
Common languages	Greek, Italian, Turkish
Religion	Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Islam
Military Commander (until 1922) Governor (1922–43)
• 1912–13	Giovanni Battista Ameglio (first commander)
• 1922–36	Mario Lago (first governor)
• 1936-40	Cesare Maria De Vecchi
• 1940–41	Ettore Bastico
• 1941–43	Inigo Campioni
Historical era	Interwar / WWII
• Italo-Turkish War	27 April 1912
• Annexation by the Kingdom of Italy	1923
• Dodecanese campaign	8 September 1943 - 22 November 1943
• Transferred admistration to the Italian Social Republic	18 September 1943
• German Instrument of Surrender	8 May 1945
Area
1936	2,668 km2 (1,030 sq mi)
Population
• 1936	132289
Currency	Italian lira
Preceded by Succeeded by Sanjak of Rhodes Sanjak of Sakız British Islands of the Aegean

The Italian Islands of the Aegean (Italian: Isole italiane dell'Egeo; Greek: Ἰταλικαὶ Νῆσοι Αἰγαίου Πελάγους) were a group of twelve major islands (the Dodecanese) in the southeastern Aegean Sea, which — together with the surrounding islets — were ruled by the Kingdom of Italy from 1912 to 1943 and the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945.

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;^[2] 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.^[3]

The provisional Italian regime on the islands, titled "Rhodes and the Dodecanese" (Rodi e Dodecaneso), was originally in the hands of military governors, until the appointment on 7 August 1920 of Count Carlo Senni as the Viceroy of the Dodecanese (Reggente del Dodecaneso).^[4] Following the end of World War I, Italy agreed twice, in the Venizelos–Tittoni agreement of 1919 and the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, to cede the islands to Greece except for Rhodes, which would enjoy extensive autonomy.^[4] Due to the Greek embroilment and defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22, these agreements were never implemented.

Kastellorizo was temporarily occupied by France in 1915 and came under Italian control in 1921.^[4] The Dodecanese islands were formally annexed by Fascist Italy, as the Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo in 1923.^[5]

Italian interest in the Dodecanese was rooted in strategic purposes, and the islands were intended to further the Empire's long range imperial policy.^[6] The islands of Leros and Patmos were used as bases for the Royal Italian Navy.^[6]

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, a 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.^[5] In 1929, scholarships at the University of Pisa for Dodecanesian students were promoted to disseminate Italian culture and language among the local professional class.^[7]

The only sector where Lago was unaccommodating was religion: The Italian authorities also tried to limit the power of the Greek Orthodox Church without success by trying to set up an autonomous Dodecanesian church.^[7] Fascist youth organizations such as Opera Nazionale Balilla were introduced on the islands, and the Italianization of names was encouraged by the Italian authorities.^[7] 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 did not receive full citizenship and were not required to serve in the Italian armed forces.^[5]

Under the governorship of De Vecchi (1936–40), a staunch and dull Fascist, the Italianization efforts became brutal.^[7] The Italian language became compulsory in education and the public life, with Greek being only an optional subject in schools.^[5][7] 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).^[7] in 1938, Italian Racial Laws were introduced to the islands along with a series of decrees equalizing local legislation with Italian law.^[7]

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.^[7] 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).^[7]

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.^[8] New roads, monumental buildings in accordance with fascist architecture and waterworks were constructed, sometimes using forced Greek labor.^[8]

Many examples of Italian architecture can still be found on the islands:^[9] 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.^[8] However, the smaller islands were mostly neglected by the improvement efforts and were left underdeveloped.^[8]

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.^[6] Major Italian archaeological efforts from the 1930s onward were intended to discover Roman antiquities and thus strengthen the Italian claim on the islands.^[6][8]

Administrative division

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.^[10] As the Cyclades were already under Italian occupation, the preparation for outright annexation was continued despite German opposition.^[10]

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).^[11] 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.^[11] 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.^[12] 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.^[11]

List of governors of the Italian Islands of the Aegean

See also

• Italian colonists in the Dodecanese

References

Sources

Italian

• Calace, Francesca (a cura di), «Restituiamo la Storia» – dagli archivi ai territori. Architetture e modelli urbani nel Mediterraneo orientale. Gangemi, Roma, 2012 (collana PRIN 2006 «Restituiamo la Storia»)


• Tuccimei, Ercole. La Banca d'Italia in Africa, Foreword by Arnaldo Mauri, Laterza, Bari, 1999.


• Pignataro, Luca. Le Isole Italiane dell'Egeo dall'8 settembre 1943 al termine della seconda guerra mondiale in "Clio. Rivista internazionale di studi storici", 3(2001).


• Pignataro, Luca. Il tramonto del Dodecaneso italiano 1945-1950 in "Clio. Rivista internazionale di studi storici", 4(2001)


• Pignataro, Luca. Ombre sul Dodecaneso italiano, in "Nuova Storia Contemporanea", XII, 3(2008), pp. 61–94


• Pignataro, Luca. Il Dodecaneso italiano, con appendice fotografica, in "Nuova Storia Contemporanea" 2(2010)


• Pignataro, Luca. La presenza cattolica in Dodecaneso tra 1924 e 1937, in "Nova Historica" 32(2010)


• Pignataro, Luca. Il collegio rabbinico di Rodi, in "Nuova Storia Contemporanea", 6(2011)


• Pignataro, Luca. I naufraghi del Pentcho, in "Nuova Storia Contemporanea", 1(2012)


• Pignataro, Luca. Il Dodecaneso italiano 1912-1947, vol. I: L’occupazione iniziale 1912-1922, Chieti, Solfanelli, 2011