THE ÆGEAN ISLANDS or the ARCHIPELAGO - ancient age and 1905

Every single island in the Aegean (Ægean) Sea has history dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. Shared between today's Greece and Turkey, this region has seen an era of ancient Mediterranean civilizations, majorly Greek, centuries before formation of the sovereign states of Greece and Turkey. Small in size but rich with history, culture and stories that has set major milestones in changing the world, this map discusses some of the most interesting facts of the Aegean Islands.

The word 'archipelago' is used to describe a bunch of islands clustered together close to a mainland to which they belong to. Interestingly, the Aegean Islands are also labelled as simply 'Archipelago' since the word originated from this region itself. Talking about its history, many civilizations originated from these islands. In the Bronze Age, the Minoan Civilization (3000-1100 BC) originated from the island of Crete, the Cycladic Culture (3200-1050 BC) from the Cyclades group of islands, the formation of the Delian League - an association of Greek City-States between 478-404 BC and lastly the Athenian Allies wherein the entire archipelago was divided into 4 divisions of tribute paying groups to Athens - Insular, Carian and Ionian (the islands of Chios, Samos and Lesbos didn't pay any tribute). Thereafter the islands remained parts of every other larger empire - the Macedonian, the Roman, the Byzantine, the Venetian, the Republic of Genoa and lastly the Ottomans. Another key event that took place in these islands was the Ionian Revolt of 5th century BC which was a series of conflicts between Greek city-states and the Persians and islands like Thasos, Lesbos, Chios, Naxos, Samos etc. saw various expeditions and sieges.

With the independence of Greece (only the region of Morea to this point) from the Ottomans in 1830, the Cyclades were the first island group to incorporate into this independent nation. As Greece grew on the mainland, island groups such as Ionians (1864), Crete (1913) and majority of Aegean Islands in 1914 were annexed to Greece. The two islands of Rhodes and Dodecanese joined in 1948.

Greek Mythology has important relevance of these islands. Compositions such as Odyssey, some of the Socratic dialogues, references by Herodotus etc. have mentioned some of these islands, particularly the island of Naxos since it was the most prosperous one. The islands is also home to many popular Greek personalities such as Hippocrates (born at Kos), Pythagoras (born at Samos), Homer (claimed to be born at Chios), Agatharcus (born at Samos), Apelles (born at Kos), Theon (born at Samos) etc.

The below map here is of the region in 1905 when the islands were still being annexed to the newly independent nation of modern Greece. The map also has ancient names (highlighted) both for cities and water bodies. Have a look at certain neighboring towns such as Metropolis, Magnesia, Troy, Philadelphia, Lesbos, etc. These names are also familiar to today's world. Interestingly, although certain names might be having a slight alternate way of pronouncing (in modern Greek), but mostly all the places still retain the ancient names.