Crete, with a Christian population of two hundred and fifty thousand souls (the other fifty thousand are Mussulmans), rose in insurrection more than half a dozen times, since she was given back to Turkey in 1830, and every time that the movement was suppressed by Turkey, assisted openly or secretly by the European powers, the Sultan promised reforms and gave promises for the amelioration of the condition of the wretched inhabitants, which were never fulfilled. These periodical insurrections placed a very heavy burden on Greece, particularly those of 1866, 1876, and 1896, when the Greek Government had to feed more than sixty thousand Cretan refugees, mostly women and children, taxing its resources to the utmost extent.
The massacres of Christians at Canea in the fall of 1896 roused, very naturally, a cry of indignation all over Greece, and the people at large clamored for interference, accusing both king and government of cowardice and neglect of a sacred duty. The opposition joined forces with the popular movement, and the pressure to act became thus irresistible. A Greek squadron and a small contingent of the Greek army were despatched to Crete to protect the Christians. The sequel is well known. The great powers
