Cyprus and Aden: Emergencies at the Edge of Empire

Britain fought small but bitter conflicts to hold strategic bases in the eastern Mediterranean and Arabia. In Cyprus, most Greek Cypriots sought enosis, union with Greece. From 1955 the guerrilla group EOKA, led by George Grivas, attacked British forces, and in 1956 Britain exiled Archbishop Makarios, the Greek Cypriot leader, to the Seychelles. Turkish Cypriots, about a fifth of the population, opposed enosis and some called for partition, so the conflict had three sides.

The 1959 Zurich and London agreements created an independent Republic of Cyprus in 1960, with Britain, Greece and Turkey as guarantors and Britain keeping two sovereign base areas. In Aden, a key port, nationalist groups launched an insurgency from 1963, and rival movements, the NLF and FLOSY, fought both Britain and each other. Britain withdrew in November 1967, leaving the NLF in control of South Yemen. Both cases show strategic value prolonging colonial rule and rival local groups complicating independence.