ONE LAND · 12 ATLASES
History of Cyprus in maps
Cyprus as it appears in 12 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Cyprus, Cyprus — Byzantine, then a crusader kingdom. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
WW2 is free — every chapter. Try chapters 1–2 of any 2 other atlases (3 with a free account). Opening a new atlas uses one of them. Membership opens all 21 — Join.
Free printable Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution study guide, sent by email ↓
What was Cyprus before it was Cyprus? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History atlases — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.
Cyprus · Ancient Rome
Ptolemaic Cyprus, annexed in 58 BC by simple senatorial decree — its king’s treasury was needed to fund Roman grain doles, so philosophy-quoting Cato was sent to collect it; the king took poison, and Cato shipped home 7,000 talents. Empire as accounting: not every conquest on this map required a battle. The island’s copper (its name and the metal’s share a root) and shipbuilding timber kept it valuable; briefly returned to Cleopatra by Antony as a gift, it settled into quiet provincial prosperity and stayed with the East to the end of this atlas and far beyond.
| 264 BC | Hellenistic kingdoms — the opening position |
| 50 BC | Roman territory |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus — Byzantine, then a crusader kingdom · Crusades
Byzantine until Richard the Lionheart seized it in 1191, Cyprus became — after a brief Templar interlude — a Lusignan crusader kingdom that lasted nearly four centuries. It was the crusades’ most durable territorial gain and the last Latin foothold after the mainland fell in 1291, surviving under its own kings and then Venice until the Ottoman conquest of 1571.
| Byzantium (and Latin Constantinople 1204–61) — the opening position | |
| Latin Christendom |
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · Industrial Revolution
| Opened by force or treaty — the opening position | |
| Opened by force or treaty |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Non-aligned or stateless — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · WWI
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position | |
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories |
Cyprus · Stalin’s Soviet Union
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · Road to WW2
| Colonial empires & possessions — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · WW2
| Western Allies — the opening position |
Cyprus · Cold War
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position | |
| Non-aligned & neutral | |
| Non-aligned & neutral |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Authoritarian, one-party or colonial rule — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Cyprus · Refugee crises
In 1946–49 the British colony of Cyprus held about 52,000 Jewish refugees intercepted on their way to Palestine, in camps near Famagusta where about 2,000 children were born. The detainees ran schools and training farms behind the wire, and the last of them left for Israel in early 1949, a footnote of displacement on an island that would later know its own.
| Western bloc or democracy — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Related
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Join the Dispatch — a short welcome series, then a letter when a new atlas opens — and a printable atlas study guide of your choice is yours now, free.
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME