Free State of Ikaria (Greece, 1912)

In the VIth century BC, Ikaria was absorbed by the neighbouring city of Samos and was incorporated into Polycrates' maritime empire. In 490 BC, the Persian army touched upon Ikarian shore. After the Greek victory, Ikaria joined the Delian League and became renowned for the Pramnian wine. Ikaria paid a tribute to Athens, who set up a military colony on the island in order to watch Samos, which was prone to rebellion. The two main cities of the island, the rich, wine-producing Oenoe and the poor Therma did not seem to have had much contact. The island had then c. 13,000 inhabitants. Its decline started during the Peloponesus War, when the fleet from Sparta landed twice on Ikaria. The island was later threatened by pirates, until the two cities of Oenoe and Therma joined the Second Athenian League in 387.

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323, Ikaria became a military base; the Drakano tower and the adjacent fortress are among the best preserved military remains from the Hellenistic period in the Aegean. The Romans took the control of Ikaria, which was probably incorporated in 129 BC with Samos into the Asian province; however, the Romans neglected the area and all coastal settlements in Ikaria were trashed by pirates. Emperor Augustus pacified the Aegean and ordered Samos to develop Ikaria. Strabon and later Pliny the Younger went to Ikaria and did not notice any significant development.

During the Byzantine period, Samos maintained a local fleet, which protected Ikaria. In 1081, Emperor Alexis Comnenus founded the St. John's monastery in the neighbouring island of Patmos. At the end of the XIIth century, the Byzantine navy collapsed and the islands had to defend themselves against the pirates; the fortresses of Paliokastro and Koskino were built on Ikaria.

In the XIVth century, Ikaria was incorporated into the Genoese Aegean empire, along with Chios. The Genoese were expelled by the Ottomans; the Knights of St. John, based in Rhodes, exerted some control on Ikaria until its incorporation to the Ottoman Empire in 1521.
Ikaria was then the poorest island of the Aegean, inhabited by c. 1,000 and without any permanent Ottoman administration. In 1827, the island broke away from the Ottoman Empire for a short period. On 17 July 1912, the small Turkish garrison was expelled and the independence of the island was proclaimed. Ikaria could not join Greece, which was involved into the Balkanic Wars. The independence lasted five months, with shortage of food, transportation and postage service. The two sections of the islands almost went to a civil war to determine the site of the capital.

Ikaria remained for a long time among the most backwards regions in Greece. The islanders were mostly helped by natives who had started to emigrate to America in the 1890s. The island suffered great loss in property and lives because of the Italian and German occupation during the Second World War. After the War, the island was used as a place of exile for 13,000 Communists from 1945 to 1949. In the 1960s, the situation of Ikaria improved when the Greek government started to develop local infrastructures and promoted tourism.