Cretan State

The Cretan State was an autonomous state that governed the island of Crete from 1898 to 1913. It remained under the de jure suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, but the European Great Powers secured its de facto independence after intervening in the Cretan Revolt and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. A high commissioner provided by Greece, Prince George, arrived in December 1898, and an international military force garrisoned the island. The new state had to build institutions while managing the rivalry between supporters of union with Greece and those who accepted autonomy, a conflict that produced the Theriso revolt and the rise of Eleftherios Venizelos. Its institutions were built under the supervision of the four protecting powers. Cretan deputies declared union with Greece in 1908, and the island was formally annexed after the First Balkan War in 1913. The Cretan State thus served as the transition between Ottoman rule and full incorporation into the Greek kingdom.