CRETE – HISTORICAL PERIODS
Crete, one of the biggest islands of
the Mediterranean Sea, is the crossroads of three continents, Europe, Asia and
Africa.
Even Europe’s name emanated from the Cretan History. (The
myth has it that Jupiter was transformed into a bull, abducted the virgin
Europe from Tyros, put her on his back and flying over the sea brought her to
the coastline of Crete, to Knossos. The result of this union was her son Minos,
king of Crete and founder of the Minoan Civilization).
Because of Crete’s position and climate, there were
developed great civilizations, like the Minoan Civilization, during which there
existed in Crete one hundred (100) cities, ruins of which are still in
existence today.
Most of those ruins have been found, based on information
of ancient texts, namely the Homeric epics, as well as the descriptions of
other authors.
However, it was subjected to territorial claims by
numerous conquerors.
The most important reason for those conquests was the
natural harbour of Souda, which is considered strategic even today, as well as
the production and the crops, which were always of excellent quality and big
quantities.
Crete consists of four Prefectures, Chania, Rethymnon,
Heraclion and Lassithi, with their respective capitols, Chania, Rethymnon,
Heraklion and Saint Nikolaos.
Chania was known for the Revolts, Rethymnon for the
Letters, Heraklion for the Commerce and Lassithi for the Feasts and Merriment.
Needless to say, that the city of Heraklion (Candia),
in the Middle Ages was well known for its famous fortifications. The Turks, in
order to take it from the Venetians, laid siege to Heraklion from 1625 until
1645 and lost 100.000 men.
The very high mountains are Crete’s characteristic and
they were used as places of retreat for the rebels during the times of enemy
attacks and conquests.
Thus there are the White Mountains in Chania (2.452
m.), Psiloritis (2.454 m.) in the areas of Rethymnon and Heraklion and the
Dikti Mountain (2.148 m.) in Lassithi.
The White Mountains in the prefecture of Chania, were
the shelter and the base of operations for the rebels, due to their great
extend as well as the existence of the Omalos plateau and the great Samaria
gorge, which connected the Chania regions through inaccessible passes and were
easy to be guarded and defended by only a few men. At the entrance of the
Samaria Gorge, the Iron Gates as they are called, the width is only 6 meters
and the height is 300 meters.
The Prefecture of Chania consists of five regions,
those of Kydonia, Apokoronou, Sfakia, Selinos and Kissamos.
The homes of the rebels were at the villages which
were at the foot of the White Mountains (Lakki, Therissos, Zourfa, Sfakia
e.t.c.).
These villages had never been enslaved by any
conqueror. On the contrary, the various conquerors were granting them
privileges, so that they would not be bothered by the rebels.
However, many times, either because the conquerors
violated the granted privileges or because the national pride was awaken within
their Cretan soul, there were revolts.
As the historians mention, most of the revolutions
around the world, have happened in Crete. More than forty great revolutions,
Pan Cretan as they are called, had happened during the Venetian (1212-1645) and
the Turkish domination (1645-1898) Most of these revolutions had originated
from Lakki and Sfakia.
Our forefathers were living in Lakki and as a result
of that they had participated in all the struggles for freedom and had to make
great sacrifices.
Our ancestors, coming from Lakki, were the Mavrogeni
and Mandakas families and coming from Azogyre of Selinos were the Kriaris
family.
From the above, I only managed to gather information
about the Mavrogeni family, which I mention below.
HISTORICAL PERIODS OF CRETE
After the decline of the Greek cities, Crete was
occupied by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Venetians and the
Turk-Egyptians.
Chronologically, the facts are as follows:
2600 B.C. NEOLITHIC AGE
2600 – 1100 B.C. PREHISTORIC (MINOAN) TIMES
1100 - 69
B.C. HISTORIC TIMES
69 B.C. -330 A.D. ROMAN DOMINATION
330 - 823 A.D. FIRST BYZANTINE PERIOD
823 - 961 A.D. ARAB DOMINATION (SARACENS)
961 – 1204 SECOND BYZANTINE PERIOD
[Noblemen: Fokas (were renamed Kalergis by the
Venetians), Varouchas, Scordilis, Moussouros, Cavallas, Melissinos, Archolekos,
Vlastos, Chortatzis, Argyropoulos,
Kalaphatis and Lithinos.]
1204 -1212 GENOATES
1212 - 1645 VENETIAN DOMINATION
1645 - 1830 FIRST PERIOD OF OTTOMAN DOMINATION
1830 - 1841 EGYPTIANS
1841 - 1878 SECOND PERIOD OF OTTOMAN DOMINATION
1878 – 1889 THIRD PERIOD OF OTTOMAN DOMINATION
(Semi-autonomy)
1889 – 1898 FORTH PERIOD OF OTTOMAN DOMINATION
1897
and after the slaughter, the Great Powers divided Crete (The Italians-Chania,
the Russians-Rethymnon, the British-Heraklion and the
French-Lassithi).
1898 (9. 12) PRINCE GEORGES – High
Commissioner (Autonomy-Cretan State)
1913 (1.12) Exaltation of the flag of the Union with
Greece, at the entrance of the
harbour in the castle-prison of Phirka, by
Hatzimichali Giannari and Anagnosti
(Charalambo) Mandaka, who was my great grandfather’s
brother and uncle to my
grandmother Katherine Mandaka, wife of Vassilios
Mavrogenis.
During the Venetian domination there were 26 revolts,
the principles of which
were the following:
1205 Skordilon
1212 Agiostefaniton
1217 Skordilon and Melissinon
1230, 1234, 1261 on the suggestion of Byzantium
1265, 1271-1272 Hortatzidon
1276-1292 Kalergidon
1303, 1330, 1332, 1337 Kalergidon, Psaromilingon
1341 Smyriliou
1347 Psaromilingon
1456-1467, 1570 Kantanoleontos
1608 Sfakion
During the Ottoman domination (1645-1898), there were
15 revolts, the most
important of which, were the following:
1660 Morozini
1692 Mantsenigou-Morozini
1770 Daskalogianni
1821 National Revolution
1833 Mouries
1841 Hereti
1858 Mavrogeni
1866 National Revolution
1878 National Revolution
1889 National Revolution
1895 Political Changeover Committee
1897 Landing of the Greek Forces
Then there is:
1898 Arrival of the Greek Commissioner and
1913 (13/12) Union with Greece