Kythira and Antikythira in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Read the speech by Georgios Leontsinis, Professor Emeritus at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (keynote opening address) at the ”19th Scientific Event,” organized in Kythira (September 13–16, 2018) by the Hellenic College of Metabolic Diseases (E.K.O.M.E.N.)

In this study, the professor refers to specific historical milestones in the history of Kythira and Antikythira, roughly from the 19th century to the present, focusing primarily on their geostrategically significant geographical location.

He notes that during this period, our islands were, for the most part, under foreign sovereignty and administration, and only from 1864 to the present have they enjoyed their political freedom and independence, as an integral part of the independent Greek state.

19th and 20th centuries

The 19th century was marked by the emergence of new institutions and bore the burden of the political, social, and economic changes demanded by the local population. These structural and institutional changes took place amid pressure from revolutionary activity by the urban and rural populations—which was of decisive importance at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century— specifically from urban and rural movements of the years 1780, 1800–1802, and 1812, as well as from the Ionian Radical Movement of the inhabitants (1848–1864), which aimed to unite the Ionian Islands with the main body of the independent Greek state.

During this period, the geostrategically significant geographical location of Kythira varied depending on the political and economic circumstances of the wider region. As a result, the geoeconomic objectives and policies of foreign authorities and administrations— which were successively imposed on the island during the period of successive Western European dominations and influences, which lasted from the year 1207 until the union of the Ionian Islands with the independent Greek state in 1864. The Transition to the Modern Era—Everything Changes: Place, Time, People. During the twentieth century, everything changed more and at a faster pace: place, time, and people.