“Union or Death”

In May 1866 the representatives of the Cretan people protested over the state of affairs on the island, issuing a memorandum in which they sought the union of Crete with Greece. Ottoman refusal to grant concessions eventually led to an armed rebellion that rapidly spread all over the island. Greece provided assistance from behind the scenes, sending supplies, money and volunteers. Yet international circumstances did not favour the Cretans' aspirations and so, despite the struggles and sacrifices which shook European public opinion to the core, the rebellion ended in early 1869 with the surrender or departure of the last revolutionaries. The only thing the island's Christian population gained from the Ottomans was the new administrative system granted under the Organic Act.