Cyprus became part of the Byzantine Empire after the partitioning of the Roman Empire in 395, and remained so for almost eight hundred years, [punctuated by a?] brief period of Arab domination and influence.

After the rule of the rebellious Byzantine Emperor Isaac Comnenus, King Richard I of England captured the island in 1191 during the Third Crusade.

Guy of Lusignan purchased the island from Richard in 1192 compensated for the loss of his kingdom by purchasing Cyprus from the Templars. The Republic of Venice took control in 1489 after the death of the last Lusignan Queen, after which the Ottoman Empire conquered the Island in 1571.

Ottoman rule brought about two radical results in the history of the island. For the first time since the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC, a new population group appeared, the Turks.

The second important result of the Ottoman conquest benefited the Greek peasants who no longer remained serfs of the land they were cultivating. Now they could acquire it by purchase, thus becoming owners of it.

The inhabitants of Cyprus, disappointed at the mismanagement of Ottoman governors, soon turned to Western Europe in search of help for liberation.

Between 1572 and 1668, around twenty-eight bloody uprisings took place on the island and in many of these both Greeks and Turk peasants took part. All ended in failure.

About 1760 the situation in Cyprus was intolerable

Cyprus was placed under British control on 4 June 1878 (50 years after the independence of mainland Greece from the Otoman Empire) as a result of the Cyprus Convention, which granted control of the island to Britain in return for British support of the Ottoman Empire in the Russian-Turkish War.

Cyprus was formally annexed by the United Kingdom in 1913 in the run-up to the First World War. Many Cypriots, now British subjects, signed up to fight in the British Army, in this and in the Second World War.

During the 1900s and 1950s,Greek Cypriots began to demand union with Greece. In 1950, Greek Cypriots [citation needed] voted in a referendum in support of enosis while the Turkish Cypriots vetoed the referendum. The enosis movement largely ignored the Turkish Cypriots presence on the island and the British sought to quell any movement which could threaten their possession of the island. In 1955, the struggle against British rule erupted with the foundation of EOKA, which lasted until 1959.

Independence was attained in 1960 after exhaustive negotiations between the United Kingdom, as the colonial power, and Greece and Turkey, the cultural 'motherlands' for both of the communities in Cyprus. The UK ceded the island under a constitution allocating government posts and public offices by ethnic quota, but retained two small Sovereign Base Areas.

During the 1960s, President Archbishop Makarios III and Vice President Fazıl Küçük pursued a non-aligned foreign policy, cultivating good relations with Britain, Greece and Turkey, and taking a leading role in developing the Non-Aligned Movement.

Tension began in 1963 when Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots were opposed to the proposal since it sought to remove their constitutional safeguards which Greek Cypriots claimed to be problematic in the conduct of government. On 21 December 1963, clashes between Greek and Turkish Cypriots erupted which unleashed a wave of violence across the island.

By 1974, dissatisfaction among Greek nationalist right-wing elements in favour of the long-term goal of unification with Greece precipitated a coup d'etat against President Makarios which was sponsored by the military government of Greece and led by the Cypriot National Guard. The new regime replaced Makarios with Nikos Giorgiades Sampson as president, and Bishop Gennadios as head of the Cypriot Orthodox Church. Seven days after these events Turkey intervened militarilly in Cyprus by sea and air on 20 July 1974. At the time Turkey claimed it was invading to uphold its obligation under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. Talks in Geneva involving Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the two Cypriot factions failed in mid-August, and Turkish forces subsequently moved from the previous cease-fire lines to gain control of 37% of the island's territory. During the invasion, over 160,000 Greek Cypriots [4] were displaced from their home land, while Turkish forces killed several thousand Greek Cypriots captured in the occupied areas[citation needed]. While this was happening, the entire inhabitants of several Turkish Cypriot villages were massacred in reprisal for the landings by Greek Cypriot paramilitaries.[5] As of today, there are still thousands of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots unaccounted for. The events of the summer of 1974 have dominated Cypriot politics ever since and have been a major point of contention between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, as well as Greece and Turkey.

Since 1974, there have been continual efforts to negotiate a settlement, which met with varying levels of disagreement from either side. Since 18% of the population was left in control of 37% of the territory, including fertile and productive land, the Turkish government arranged an influx of settlers from Turkey whose exact numbers are disputed, but believed to be in the range of over 100,000. Turkey counters that the Turkish Cypriots - before 1963 - owned and farmed 33% of Cypriot land before being forced into enclaves, thus the take-over of one-third of Cyprus was seen as compensating the Turkish Cypriots for their lost land.

Turkish Cypriots proclaimed a separate state, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), under Rauf Denktaş on November 15, 1983. The UN Security Council, in its Resolution 541 of November 18, 1983, declared the action illegal and called for withdrawal. Turkey is the only country to date that recognises the administration on the northern third of Cyprus. Turkey does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus's authority over the whole island, and refers to it as the Greek Cypriot administration.

-- all text taken from Wikipedia entry on Cyprus (Cyprus)