This work examines British rule in Cyprus, with a focus on how Britain formulated policies for that rule. It traces Britain's imperial and foreign policy in Cyprus from 1939 to 1955, from the outbreak of World War II until the beginning of the EOKA rising of 1955. The book puts forward two basic arguments. First, the violence of 1955 was not a thunderbolt from the blue, but the logical outcome of the events of the previous year. Second, British policy was an often ill-defined set of ideas devised between British ministries and departments in conflict over the form the island's future...