Editing Andros (section)

==History==
===Antiquity===
[[File:Hermes 090579.jpg|thumb|180px|left|[[Hermes of Andros|Statue of Hermes Chthonios]] (Roman copy of 1st AD), [[Archaeological Museum of Andros]]]]

In ancient times, the island contained an [[Ionia]]n population, perhaps with an admixture of [[Thrace|Thracian]] ancestry.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=March 2014}} Though it has been proposed that Andros was originally dependent on [[Eretria]], {{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source as the evidence is highly debatable|date=January 2018}} by the 7th century BC it had become sufficiently prosperous to send out several colonies, to [[Chalcidice]] ([[Acanthus (Greece)|Acanthus]], [[Stageira]], [[Argilus]], [[Sane (Acte)|Sane]]). The ruins of [[Paleopolis, Andros|Palaeopolis]], the ancient capital, are on the west coast; the town possessed a famous temple, dedicated to [[Dionysus]]. In 480 BC, it supplied ships to [[Xerxes I|Xerxes]] and was subsequently harried by the Greek fleet. Though enrolled in the [[Delian League]], it remained disaffected towards [[Classical Athens|Athens]], and in 477 had to be coerced by the establishment of a [[cleruchy]] on the island; nevertheless, in 411 Andros proclaimed its freedom, and in 408 withstood an Athenian attack. As a member of the second Delian League, it was again controlled by a garrison and an [[archon]]. In the [[Hellenistic]] period, Andros was contended for as a frontier-post by the two naval powers of the [[Aegean Sea]], [[Macedon]] and [[Ptolemaic Egypt]]. In 333, it received a Macedonian garrison from [[Antipater]]; in 308 it was freed by [[Ptolemy I of Egypt]]. In the [[Chremonidean War]] (266–263) it passed again to Macedon after a [[Battle of Andros (246 BC)|battle]] off its shores.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The Ptolemaic empire was at its height, with a considerable fleet stationed at Andros.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hughs|first1=Benjamin Acousta|title=Callimachus in Context|date=2012|publisher=United Kingdom University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1107470644}}</ref>

In 200, it was captured by a combined [[Roman Republic|Roman]], [[Pergamum|Pergamene]] and [[Rhodes|Rhodian]] fleet, and remained a possession of the [[Attalid kingdom]] until its dissolution in 133 BC, when it was granted to Rome.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name="Archipelago"/>

===Middle Ages===
During the long centuries of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] rule, Andros was relatively obscure. First part of the [[Roman province]] of the Islands, it later became part of the [[theme (Byzantine district)]] of the [[Aegean Sea (theme)|Aegean Sea]].<ref name="Archipelago"/> Like other Aegean islands, it suffered [[Saracen]] raids,<ref name="Archipelago"/> but during the [[Komnenian period]] the island flourished due to its [[Byzantine silk|silk production]], exporting [[Gossamer (fabric)|gossamer]] and [[velvet]] fabrics to Western Europe.<ref name="Archipelago"/>{{sfn|Freely|2006|p=83}}

Andros was captured by the [[Fourth Crusade]] on its way to [[Constantinople]] in 1203.{{sfn|Setton|1976|p=9}} After the [[Siege of Constantinople (1204)|fall of Constantinople]] in 1204, the island was slated to come under control of the [[Republic of Venice]] according to the ''[[Partitio Romaniae]]'';{{sfn|Setton|1976|p=18}}{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=29, 579}} in 1207 it became part of the [[Duchy of the Archipelago]] under [[Marco I Sanudo]], who in turn gave it to [[Marino Dandolo]] as a sub-fief.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=44, 579}}{{sfn|Setton|1976|p=19 (note 78), 428}} Probably sometime around 1239, Dandolo was expelled from the island by [[Geremia Ghisi]], ruler of [[Skiathos]], [[Skopelos]], and [[Skyros]]. Dandolo died soon after and a case was brought before the Venetian courts against Ghisi by Dandolo's widow Felisa and his sister Maria Doro. Felisa was soon aided by the Venetian [[Jacopo Querini]], who became her second husband. Although the Venetian court found in their favour in August 1243 and ordered the Ghisi brothers to give up Andros, this did not happen. The case dragged on until after Geremia's death, when Duke [[Angelo Sanudo]] took over the island. He eventually gave half of it, according to the [[Assizes of Romania|feudal law current]] in [[Latin Greece]], to Felisa.{{sfn|Setton|1976|pp=429–431}}{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=578–579}} The case took on new life after Felisa died and no claimant made appearance. Duke [[Marco II Sanudo]] then reverted the entire island to the ducal domain, but just two days before the legal deadline of two years and two days had passed, Marino's grandson Nicholas Querini appeared in Naxos to claim his inheritance. The case was again brought before the courts of Venice, but Sanudo disputed the Republic's authority over his domain. The case was eventually settled through the mediation of Nicolò Giustinian, the Venetian [[Bailo of Negroponte|''bailo'' of Negroponte]] in 1291–93, whereby Querini renounced his claims in exchange for a cash payment of 5,000 pounds.{{sfn|Setton|1976|pp=431–432}}{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=579–580}} Thus Andros remained in the hands of the Sanudo dukes, who henceforth styled themselves "Lords of the duchy of Naxos and Andros" and occasionally chose the castle of Andros as their residence.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=580}} In 1292, Andros, along with other of the Cyclades, was raided by the [[Crown of Aragon|Aragonese]] fleet under [[Roger de Lluria]].{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=581}}

[[File:Andros Island-1844.jpg|thumb|1844 [[British Admiralty]] chart of Andros island and Cape Doro strait (today Kafireus strait)]]
In December 1371, the island was granted as a fief to [[Maria Sanudo]], half-sister of the last Sanudo duke, [[Nicholas III dalle Carceri]].{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=592}} In 1383, Nicholas III was murdered and [[Francesco I Crispo]] became the new duke, giving Andros with [[Syros]] to his daughter and her husband, [[Pietro Zeno]], the son of the Venetian ''bailo'' of Negroponte.{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=593–595}} Zeno was a very able diplomat,{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=596, 604}} but even he found it difficult to manoeuvre among the various competing powers of the era. Unlike Syros, [[Paros]], and other islands, which had been left destitute and almost depopulated by the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] raids, Andros managed to escape relatively unscathed, but in return Zeno was forced to pay tribute and provide harbour and shelter for the Turkish ships. Nevertheless, in 1416, the island was raided and almost the entire population carried off by the Ottomans.{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=598–599, 603}} At about the same time [[Albanians]] crossed from [[Euboea]] over into the island, settling in its northern part.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=600}}

In 1431, when the Venetians ravaged the Genoese colony of [[Chios]], the Genoese seized Andros and Naxos, both under Venetian protection, in retaliation, and only adroit diplomacy by the dukes of the Archipelago managed to prevent the islands' outright annexation by Genoa.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=603}} In 1427, Pietro Zeno died, and was succeeded by his son Andrea, who was of poor health and only had a daughter. In 1437, Andrea too died, and the island was seized by Andrea's uncles, who aimed to wed Andrea's daughter to their son when she came of age, and thus legalize their control of Andros. Venice quickly reacted and took over the island, installing a governor there while her courts heard the cases of all the claimants. One of them was Maria Sanudo's son [[Crusino I Sommaripa]], Lord of Paros and [[Triarch of Negroponte]]. Like his mother, he never abandoned his claims on the island, and eventually was vindicated by the Venetian courts. After compensating the Zeno family, he took possession of the island in 1440.{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=595, 604–605}}{{sfn|Setton|1978|p=93 (note 47)}}

Andros suffered once again heavily from Turkish attacks during the [[Ottoman–Venetian War of 1463–1479]]. In 1468 four ships attacked the island, killing baron [[Giovanni Sommaripa]] and carrying off numerous prisoners and booty worth 15,000 [[ducat]]s. Two years later the Ottomans raided the island again, carrying off so many of its population that the island was left with 2,000 inhabitants.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=611}} Despite these disasters, the two Sommaripa possessions of Andros and Paros remained the most prosperous islands in the Cyclades in the period, and the Sommaripa rulers of Andros acted independently of their theoretical suzerain at Naxos, even to the point of claiming the title of duke for themselves.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=617}} By the 1500s, however, the two Sommaripa branches of Andros and Paros were at war with each other, as a result of which many Andrians were carried off to Paros. In addition, the Andrians suffered from the cruelty of their own "duke", Francesco, to the point that they sent an embassy to Venice threatening to call in the Turks if nothing was done. The Venetians responded by removing Francesco to Venice in 1507, and installing a governor of their own for the next seven years.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=619}}

In the event, Sommaripa rule was restored when Venice recognized [[Alberto Sommaripa]] as the rightful heir.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=621}} The island was seized by the Ottoman admiral [[Hayreddin Barbarossa]] in 1537, but [[Crusino III Sommaripa]] managed to regain it through the intercession of the French ambassador, in exchange for an annual tribute of 35,000 ''[[akçe]]s'' to the Ottoman governor at Negroponte.{{sfn|Miller|1908|p=628}}

===Ottoman period===
When the Ottomans annexed Naxos in 1566, at the behest of the local Greeks, the Andrians too decided to rise up against their ruler, [[Gianfrancesco Sommaripa]]. Although the latter managed to escape with his life, Andros too now came under Ottoman control.{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=634–636}} For the next thirteen years, the entirety of the former Duchy of the Archipelago was granted to the Sultan's favourite, [[Joseph Nasi]], who ruled the islands via representatives and was mostly concerned with using them as a source of wealth.{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=637–643}} Upon Nasi's death, the Greeks of Andros and Naxos requested from the Sultan that the descendants of their old dynasties be restored as Turkish vassals, but in the end, the islands were directly annexed as a province; in 1580, however, the Cyclades were granted a charter of privileges that granted them considerable local autonomy, low taxes and religious freedom, a situation that remained throughout the period of Ottoman rule.{{sfn|Miller|1908|pp=643–644}} In the early 1770s, during the [[Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74]], the island was occupied by the [[Russian Empire|Russians]] and used as a base for their operations in the Aegean.<ref name="Archipelago">{{cite web | title = Andros, Chapter 2: History | author1 = Seleli Alexandra |author2=Beneki Eleni |author3= Spiropoulou Vaso |author4= Tsonos Konstantinos | work = Cultural Portal of the Aegean Archipelago | publisher = Foundation of the Hellenic World | url = http://www2.egeonet.gr/AIGAIO/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaid=10403&boithimata_State=true&kefalaia_State=true#chapter_2 | date = 28 April 2006 | access-date = 10 April 2013 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

===Modern period===
On May 10, 1821, [[Theophilos Kairis]], one of the leading Greek intellectuals, declared the island's participation in the [[Greek War of Independence]] by raising the Greek flag at the Church of St George.<ref name="Archipelago"/> At this time, a famous heartfelt speech, or "ritoras" (ρήτορας), inspired shipowners and merchants to contribute funds to build a Greek Navy to combat the Ottomans. At the end of the war, the island became part of the independent [[Kingdom of Greece (Wittelsbach)|Kingdom of Greece]].

Following Independence, Andros became a major centre of [[Greek shipping]]. In this it was helped by the arrival of [[Destruction of Psara|refugees]] from [[Psara]], and the decline of other traditional shipping centres such as [[Galaxeidi]] and [[Hydra Island]]. Andrian merchants were particularly active in the [[grain trade]] from central and eastern Europe conducted from the [[Danube]] estuary. Initially locally constructed, Andrian ships were later built at [[Syros]], especially as shipping began the transit to steam. By 1914, Andrian-registered shipping was second in Greece in terms of capacity. After [[World War I]], the local registered ships rose from 25 (1921) to 80 before [[World War II]]. The losses suffered during the latter, as well as the internationalization of shipping and emigration of the ship-owning families to Piraeus and London, signalled the end of Andrian shipping.<ref>{{cite web | title = Andros, Chapter 5: Shipping on Andros | author1 = Seleli Alexandra | author2 = Beneki Eleni | author3= Spiropoulou Vaso | author4 = Tsonos Konstantinos | work = Cultural Portal of the Aegean Archipelago | publisher = Foundation of the Hellenic World | url = http://www2.egeonet.gr/AIGAIO/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaid=10403&boithimata_State=true&kefalaia_State=true#chapter_7 | date = 28 April 2006 | access-date = 10 April 2013 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>