CYPRUS

CYPRUS

           

Capital:  Nicosia   (and largest city)  

Official Languages:  Greek, Turkish and English

Independence: From the UK,  August 16, 1960.

 

Currency: Euro

History: Cyprus has been colonized by various cultures throughout history. The Mycenaean civilization had come about 1600 BC C.,and subsequently established Phoenician and Greek colonies. 

 

Pharaoh Thutmose III of Egypt submitted the island in 1500 a. C.and forced to pay taxes, which was maintained until the Egyptian rule was replaced by the Hittites (who esxtablished Alasiya Cyprus as language) in the thirteenth century BC.

 

After the invasion of the Sea Peoples (approx. 1200 BC), Greek Achaeans settled on the island (ca. 1100 BC), acting decisively in shaping their cultural identity. The Hebrews called Kittim island.

 

The Assyrians invaded the island in 800 BC C., until PharaohAmasis recaptured the island in 600 BC C., before beingreplaced by the Persians after the conquest of Egypt by them.Salamis, the most powerful of the various city-kingdom of Cyprusat that time, rebelled against Persian rule in 499 a. C., under King Onisilos. Both this rebellion, as the subsequent attempts to free Greek Cyprus have failed, including the King Evagoras of Salamis in 345 BC.
  
However, in 331 BC., Alexander the Great conquered Cyprus, removing it from the Persians to re-include it in the Hellenic world. The Cypriot fleet helped him conquer Phoenicia.
 

After the death of Alexander the Great, Cyprus was the subject of rivalries among the generals who succeeded because of its wealth and strategic position, eventually falling under the rule of the Ptolemies of Egypt. The Roman Empire finally seized the island in 57 BC.