Surrender of the Turkish garrison in Rhodes near Psithos to the Italian general Giovanni Ameglio on 16 May 1912 (as appeared in the magazine "Domenica del Corriere" on June 1912)
The island of Rodi gradually declined during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance centuries, as the result of pestilence, emigration, wars with harsh Turkish administration and also because later suffering severely during the War of Greek Independence (1821–29).
The Italians conquered an island in very bad conditions, without sewages and hospitals. But soon started to improve the island, mainly the capital.
With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 the Dodecanese (with Rodi) was officially annexed by Italy, as the ''Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo''.
In the 1930s Mussolini embarked on a program of "Italianization", hoping to make the island od Rodi a modern transportation hub that would serve as a focal point for the spread of Italian culture in Greece and Levant. The Fascist program did have some positive effects in its attempts to modernize the islands, resulting in the eradication of malaria, the construction of hospitals, aqueducts, a power plant to provide Rhodes' capital with electric lighting and the establishment of the Dodecanese Cadastre.
The main castle of the Knights of St. John was also rebuilt in Rodi city. The concrete-dominated Fascist architectural style integrated significantly with the islands' picturesque scenery (and also reminded the inhabitants of Italian rule), but has consequently been largely demolished or remodeled, apart from the famous example of the Leros town of Lakki, which remains a prime example of this architecture.
From 1923 to 1936 governor Mario Lago was able to integrate the Greek, Turkish and Ladino Jewish communities of the island of Rhodes with the Italian colonists, obtaining a so called "Golden Period" in the Italian Dodecanese with the economy and the society enjoying huge developments and harmony (https://www.dodecaneso.org/content/storia-egeo-1912-1943/ The "golden years" of governor Lago, in Italian).
From 1936 to 1940 Cesare Maria De Vecchi acted as governor of the Italian Aegean Islands promoting the official use of the Italian language and favoring a process of italianization, interrupted by the beginning of WWII.
......to be continued.....
LINKS
* RODI ITALICA: (https://www.rodiitalica.it/ Associazione reduci e profughi dal Dodecaneso italiano)
*FARE GLI ITALIANI DELL"EGEO: (http://eprints-phd.biblio.unitn.it/2548/1/Tesi_di_dottorato_Filippo_Marco_Espinoza.pdf)
*Photos of Italian Rodi's architecture: (http://www.artefascista.it/rodi__fascismo__architettu.htm)
*L’ITALIA A RODI:
( http://dspace-roma3.caspur.it/bitstream/2307/179/3/03%20-%20capitolo%20II%20-%20Italia%20a%20Rodi.pdf)
*RHODES HISTORY & ARCHITECTURE (1912-1945): (https://iris.unipa.it/retrieve/handle/10447/40817/399300/RITORNO_DEI_CAVALIERI_RODI%20.pdf)
*FOTO E STORIA DI RODI: (http://wwwbisanzioit.blogspot.com/search/label/Rodi)
