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Bonds and Bridgeheads: The Geopolitical and Financial Context of the British Acquisition of Cyprus, 1875–1878

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Book cover The Cyprus Tribute and Geopolitics in the Levant, 1875–1960

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Abstract

The European crisis created in April 1877 by the Russian advance towards Constantinople underlined the precarious future of the Ottoman Empire. Acquiring some territorial compensation in the Eastern Mediterranean to offset Russian gains became a matter of urgency for Britain, as Russian influence flooded through the Balkans and the Caucasus. The subsequent secret treaty, which legalised the British occupation of Cyprus, was a defensive alliance with respect to protecting the Asiatic provinces of Turkey from Russian encroachment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Hill (1952, 300–301).

  2. 2.

    Salisbury to Layard 30 May 1878, C.36, Turkey.

  3. 3.

    I have chosen not to put the word “tribute” in inverted commas in the main text, as is often done in order to indicate that it was not a tribute in the classic sense. The British considered it a complimentary part of the genuine Egyptian tribute whose collection they also controlled. By any other name, the tribute would not have been more or less legitimate. I have therefore refrained from splattering the text with inverted commas around the ubiquitous word.

  4. 4.

    Cain and Hopkins (1993, 362–369).

  5. 5.

    Darwin (1997, 69).

  6. 6.

    Anderson (1964, 55). See also Appendix II, Declaration exchanged between the British and French Governments relative to the Turkish Loan, July 27, 1855.13A484/7/4 (BEA).

  7. 7.

    The Times, 24 and 28 July 1855.

  8. 8.

    Anderson, 60–63.

  9. 9.

    Anderson, 57.

  10. 10.

    Christopher Clay (2000, 1).

  11. 11.

    Paul Strathern (2008).

  12. 12.

    Tel. Lyons to Salisbury, 11 July 1878, HHM/3M/1.

  13. 13.

    Parsons (1977, 84–85).

  14. 14.

    Hunter (1999, 184).

  15. 15.

    See Appendix I for text of Convention between His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, His Britannic Majesty and His Majesty, the Emperor of the French, 27 June 1855. See also Lord Tenterton to the Secretary of the Treasury, 13 July 1877, FO424/36 (NA).

  16. 16.

    Parsons, 80.

  17. 17.

    Lee (1934, 186).

  18. 18.

    Waterfield (1963, 356).

  19. 19.

    Baruh and Apostolides (2015).

  20. 20.

    The British Museum, 2017.

  21. 21.

    Zarifi (n.d., 236).

  22. 22.

    Private Letters from Col. Home and Others: Part III, Papers of Sir John Lintorn Simmons , FO358/1, NA.

  23. 23.

    For the full text of the Cyprus Convention , see Appendix IV. See also Hill (Vol. 4, 2010, 301).

  24. 24.

    Holland and Markides (2006, 92–93).

  25. 25.

    Robinson and Gallagher (1961, 77–94) for a clear analysis of the Anglo-French relationship in the Levant.

  26. 26.

    I have chosen not to put the word “tribute” in inverted commas in the main text, as is often done in order to indicate that it was not a tribute in the classic sense. I have refrained from splattering the text with inverted commas around the ubiquitous word.

  27. 27.

    Yiangou et al. (2016, 91).

  28. 28.

    Robinson and Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians, pp. 77–94.

  29. 29.

    Waddington to Dufaure, 8 July 1878, MAE M &D Turquie 129, cited in Parsons (1977, 83).

  30. 30.

    Disraeli to Lady Bradford, 1879 in Marquis of Zetland (1921, 213).

  31. 31.

    Kynaston (2016, 224).

  32. 32.

    Salisbury to Northcote, 8 April 1878, Add.Ms.50019/3844, BL.

  33. 33.

    Article I, The Cyprus Convention (Hill 1952, 300).

  34. 34.

    Lord Tenterton to Secretary of the Treasury, 13 July 1877, FO424/36, NA, Kew.

  35. 35.

    Monypenny and Buckle (London, 1929, 1226).

  36. 36.

    Steel (1999, 133).

  37. 37.

    Headlam Morley (1920, 193–291).

  38. 38.

    Salisbury to Northcote, 22 August 1878, Add.Mss., 19/ 93/4, BL.

  39. 39.

    Salisbury to Northcote, 20 June 1878, Add.Mss., 19/38/4, BL.

  40. 40.

    Parsons (1977, 80).

  41. 41.

    Salisbury to Lyon, 10 April 1879, cited in Robinson and Gallagher (1961, 84).

  42. 42.

    Lee (1934, 77).

  43. 43.

    Gwendolen Cecil (1921, 214–215).

  44. 44.

    Lee (1934, 238).

  45. 45.

    Lee (1934, 236).

  46. 46.

    Lee’s explanation of the late date is that it is a copy or a record of information given orally by Home at an earlier date. Andrecos Varnavas in a recent publication opines that Home’s report must have been written after the event. See Lee (1934, 236; 2009, 86).

  47. 47.

    Salisbury to Northcote, 10 October 1878, Add.Ms.500 19/398/4, Iddesleigh Papers, BL.

  48. 48.

    See, for example, Varanava (2005, 167–186, 182).

  49. 49.

    Varnava (2005, 179).

  50. 50.

    Memo signed by J. L. A. Simmons 10.? 1879 Private Letters from Col. Home and Others: Part III, Papers of Sir John Lintorn Simmons , FO358/1, NA.

  51. 51.

    Simmons Memorandum, 7 March 1878, Simmons Papers, NA.

  52. 52.

    Simmons Memorandum. Andrew Roberts also records these conversations and sees them as ‘Beaconsfield actively setting up his Foreign secretary for a fall.’ See Andrew Roberts, Salisbury 184.

  53. 53.

    Layard to Salisbury, 28 May 1878, Arranged papers of the Third Marquess of Salisbury, Box3M, Vol3/1 Hatfield House Library.

  54. 54.

    Layard to Salisbury, Therapia, 22 May 1878, Add.Ms.391322, BL.

  55. 55.

    Layard to Salisbury, 11 July 1878, Add.Ms.391322, BL.

  56. 56.

    Beaconsfield to Layard, 22 November 1877, cited in Lee (1934, 185).

  57. 57.

    Layard to Beaconsfield, 12 December 1877, Layard’s letter book, Add.Ms.39/130, cited in Lee (1934).

  58. 58.

    Kovic, Disraeli and, the Eastern Question (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 454.

  59. 59.

    Layard to Lord Tenterton, 16 July 1878 (Lee 1934, 121).

  60. 60.

    Roberts (1999, 204–206).

  61. 61.

    Salisbury to Northcote, 10 October 1878, Add.Ms.550 19/398/4, IP, BL.

  62. 62.

    Salisbury to Northcote, 10 October 1878, ADDMs550 19/398/4, British Library (BL).

  63. 63.

    Baruh and Apostolides, ‘The First Bank in Cyprus: The Imperial Ottoman Bank ’, May 2014, https://www.academia.edu/12442854.

  64. 64.

    Clay (2000, 563).

  65. 65.

    John Thelwall ed., The Lang Family Notes and Diaries, 123–125.

  66. 66.

    John Thelwall, The Lang Family, 124–125.

  67. 67.

    Robert Hamilton Lang , Cyprus: Its History, Present Resources and Future Prospects (London: Macmillan, 1878), 192–302.

  68. 68.

    Roberts (1999), 175).

  69. 69.

    Minute signed by Robert Meade , permanent undersecretary at the Colonial Office, “Turkish Loan of 1855” CO,67/96, NA.

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    Diana Markides

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Markides, D. (2019). Bonds and Bridgeheads: The Geopolitical and Financial Context of the British Acquisition of Cyprus, 1875–1878. In: The Cyprus Tribute and Geopolitics in the Levant, 1875–1960. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13777-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13777-9_1

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