In
about 1475, due to pirate raids and the insecurity that
followed, many people of Samos sought refuge in the
island of Chios and in Asia Minor. Many settlements near the sea
were deserted and the island’s population was so scarce that the
period is characterized as the evacuation of Samos. That situation
went on for about a century.
Sultan's firman
In 1562 approximately, Kilitz Ali pasha, admiral of the
Ottoman fleet, is said to have anchored with his fleet at the area
of Heraion and, enchanted by the island’s beauty and history,asked the sultan Suleyman for permission to bring the population
back to the island, securing also important privileges for them.
The most significant privileges were that the new settlers were
going to be exempted from the majority of the taxes, the
compulsory unpaid labour and the customs, they would also be
considered as Christians and they would be self-governed.
These
privileges were often validated from Suleyman’s successors and
contributed to the resettlement of Samos from Christians of
various areas, who found there a refuge, relevant freedom and land
to cultivate. The descendants of the former dwellers of the island
returned there, too. The contemporary villages of Samos originate
from that new settlement. The names of some villages indicate the
homeland of the new or the old settlers: Mytilinii, Vourliotes,
Leka, Kondeika, Skoureika, etc.
Until
the 1821 revolution, the administrator of Samos was
originally a Christian church-warden and later an Ottoman
who was appointed by the sultan. The latter had four
high-ranking elders as counselors, elected by the
low-ranking elders of the villages. For three years, from
1771 until 1774, the island was temporarily under Russian
occupation. In the late 18th century, many new settlers from
Peloponnese, kithera and the Ionian islands came here and
brought some new ideologies with them. The developments in
trade and shipping, traveling and new schools, such as the
Hellenic School of Karlovasi (1784), the ideas of the modern
Greek Enlightenment and the French Revolution, led to the
gradual formation of social sectors, reflected in two
political parties, the Karmanioli and the Kallikantzari.
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