Chios island

Historical elements
The evidence uncovered by the various archaeological expeditions at Agion Gala to the north and the settlement near the Necropolis to the south has revealed that Chios has been inhabited from the Neolithic era.

The island was according to Pherecydes occupied by the Leleges, Greeks subject to the ancient Minoans Greeks on Crete who at the time was the major power of the era. They were driven out by the Ionians who later invaded the island and settled it. Chios was one of the original members of the Ionian League, a military alliance of twelve members affording it the stability to mint its own coins with the symbol of a sphinx which is kept for the best part of 900 years. This period of stability swelled its population to 120.000 strong, three times the population of the island recorded in modern day 2005.

Chios in ancient times was well known for its wine, in fact, it was the ancient Greek world’s largest exporter and amphorae with its symbol, the sphinx, have been found as far away as Upper (southern) Egypt, Gaul to the west and even eastern Russia!

During the roman era Chios became part of the province of Asia and later in 395A.D. after the division of the empire, it was part of the eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium and changed hands several times back and forth between the Turks, Genoese, Venetians the Byzantine empire and finally after the power of the Genovese had waned it was assimilated into the ottoman empire.

The modern period of Chios is marked by several incidents amongst them the struggle for independence that had them sitting on the fence as it were until about 100 armed men from neighboring Samos landed on the island and declared open war on the Turks. The ottoman response was to land a very large force on the island and massacre huge numbers of the population triggering much negative public opinion in Europe. An earthquake that followed in 1881 killed large numbers of the remaining populace.

It was only after the Balkan wars of 1912 that Chios was eventually joined to Greece after the short hard fought naval battle won by the Greek navy that the Turks finally gave up the island as they did other Greek islands with the treaty of London in 1913.

In the Second World War the island was of course occupied by the Germans and like the rest of Greece suffered harsh deprivation. Despite the hardships they faced and the privileged position of the Jews during the Ottoman occupation (they were segregated from the Christian orthodox population and lived with the Turks in the fortress) the local government warned the few remaining Jewish families of the impending raid to be effected by the Gestapo and those that heeded the warnings were smuggled out, the rest were lost.

The locals are amongst the highest per capita income in Greece due to the 50% of the Greek merchant marine belonging to local families. Altogether these families of the island of Chios control about 12% of the worlds shipping.