Three pashas, at Candia, Canea and Retimo, now governed the island. On account of the feuds of these pashas the inhabitants of the western mountains succeeded in forming a gov ernment of their own, under Turkish protec tion. As the compacts made with them by the Turks were not always observed, they were wont in such cases to take up arms, and though they were often defeated they were never en tirely subdued. The pashas having demanded hostages of them in 1821, they joined the Greek insurgents.
Had the mountaineers been armed when the Turks made their first descent on the island, it would probably have been impossible for the invaders to have maintained themselves in Can dia, but as it was the island remained under Turkish rule. In 1868 a formidable insurrec tion, fomented by Greece, was with difficulty suppressed by the Turks, after a tedious con flict. In consequence of this revolt the Turks granted to the Cretans a certain degree of autonomy, but Turkish bad faith produced an other revolt nine years later. At that time a new constitution of a parliamentary character was inaugurated, but many of its provisions were annulled in 1889. In 1896 there was again a rising against the Turks, in which, as before, the Greeks took part, one result being the outbreak of war between Greece and Turkey. The Greek troops landed on the island were withdrawn at the instance of the Great Powers, who undertook to secure an autonomous gov ernment under Turkish suzerainty and to cause the Turkish troops to be withdrawn. On 6 Sept. 1898 the Mohammedans of Candia rose against the Christians, and the fighting resulted in the death of many of the latter, including some British sailors. The leading powers at once demanded the complete withdrawal of the Turkish troops who had abetted the rebels, and ultimately, on 11 October, the Sultan complied with their demand, the troops being soon after withdrawn. Shortly afterward Prince George of Greece was appointed high commissioner or governor of the island. A national assembly met and formed a constitution providing for the creation of a legislature and guaranteeing freedom of religion to all inhabitants. Although order was restored, popular sentiment con tinued to be increasingly in favor of annexation to Greece, and in 1904 the High Commissioner attempted to gain the consent of the Powers to such a step but without success. There were revolts against the high commissioner's arbi trary policy in 1904 and 1905; in the latter year a revolutionary assembly proclaimed the union of the island with Greece, and this was fol lowed by a similar proclamation on the part of the regular Chamber. The Powers inter
vened, and after some desultory fighting the insurgents laid down their arms in November 1905. In 1906 Prince George resigned the high commissionership of Crete and returned to Athens, but the designation of his successor was accorded by the protecting powers to King George of Greece as a satisfaction to Greek national sentiment. This arrangement lasted six years, but by no means satisfied any of the parties directly interested. The over whelming majority of Greeks in the Cretan Assembly persisted in treating their island as an integral part of the Greek kingdom, while the g6vernment at Athens, out of deference to the four protecting Powers, was obliged to re spect Crete as a shadowy vassal of Turkey. The six years were marked by almost constant political unrest on the island. A renewed proclamation of union with Greece in 1908, the exclusion of Mohammedan deputies who refused to take an oath of allegiance to King George in 1910 and the election of delegates to represent Crete in the National Assembly which revised the constitution of the Greek kingdom in 1912 provoked in each case re peated intervention of the Powers. It was a Cretan leader, Eleutherios Venizelos, who in 1910 became Premier of Greece and organized the Balkan League that prepared to wage war against Turkey. A popular uprising in March 1912 put an end to the government that had been forced upon the island by the protecting Powers, and erected in its stead a provisional government, the reception of whose delegates at Athens in October 1912 was one of the ex cuses for the outbreak of the Balkan War. In that war the Cretans fought shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Greeks of the Greek kingdom, and by the Treaty of London (31 May 1913) Turkey renounced all sovereignty over the island. The union of Crete with Greece was formally recognized by the other Balkan states by the Treaty of Bucharest (10 Aug. 1913). Consult Hock, (Creta) (1823-29) ; Pashley, (Travels in Crete) (Cambridge 1837) ; Spratt, (Travels and Researches in Crete) (Lon don 1865) ; Stillman, 'The Cretan Insurrection of 1866-68) (New York 1874) ; Mitchell, 'The Greek, the Cretan, and the Turk> (London 1897) ; Freese, 'Short Popular History of Crete) (ib. 1897) ; Howes, (Crete the Forerunner of Greece' (ib. 1907) ; Nevor-Batteje, (Camping in Crete) (ib. 1914).