WI: Cyprus given to Greece in 1915?

Britain has offered Cyprus to Greece in 1915, as an attempt to lure Greece to their side in WW1. So, what if the Greeks ( or better to say King Constantine ) accepted the offer?
 
Constantine is going to have to go prior to the deal or concede to Venizelos to accept the proposal.

On Cyprus, pogroms against the Turks are very likely.

When was this offer made? If the Greeks make it relatively certain they'll join, I see the British scrapping Gallipoli and using Greece as a staging ground to strike through Serbia towards Austria-Hungary supporting the Italians. If the King doesn't get in the way (surrendering the military fort in Macedonia aiding in creating a defensive line the Allies would later struggle to break) the Allies might just have a thrust that could hit Vienna.

Wider effects, the animosity that permeated Greek politics contributing to the fall of the Second Hellenic Republuc and the rise of Metaxas as well as creating issues that contributed to the loss during the Greco-Turkish War would likely dissolve.

The struggle between Constantine and Venizelos was one over who truly held power. Resolve that in Venizelos' favor and Greece likely has a brighter future.
 
British Government falls. Britain was already paying Italy and Russia's war bills, they don't need another drain on the treasury.
 
I am not knowledgeable enough about the Balkans in WW1 to guess how it affects the Central Powers (I presume its a screw, as then Romanian will join the Allies sooner and Russia is in much stronger shape, so Austra-Hungary probably collapses by the end of 1916.)

If this is the case, Turkey is in major trouble. IOTL, Greece almost annexed large parts of Turkey until their king was bitten by a monkey and died of an infection. I would have to guess that the Ottomans are in way worse shape ITTL and almost anything can butterfly a monkey bite. Constantinople would probably be the capital of Greece today, and large parts of Greece would be hellish, fundamentalist Islam heck-holes with Greek minorities calling the shots. Greece probably remains a fascist state after WW2, with hypocritical British and American support of course. I wonder if these keeps Greek birth-rates up and what the modern Orthodox Church looks like as a result.

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When in 1915? Before the Gallipoli landings? After Bulgaria declared for the Central Powers? After the collapse of Serbia?
As long as it prevents the king surrendering the Macedonian fortress, the Central Powers are screwed. There were Allied troops en route before Constantine screwed it up.
 
how much interest by Italy in Cyprus? they held the Dodecanese, were due to hand them over to Greece but derailed by Greco-Turkish War. so the British would not want to gain Greece only to lose Italy?
 
Considering what the Italians wanted from A-H, Cyprus is not a big blip on their radar. Italy is more likely to join early if Greece is already in the fight, otherwise more determined to grab land before what it would see as the prospect of a quick A-H surrender. Bulgaria is likely to go Allied in this scenario as it would sense the best chance for expansion is at the expense of the Ottomans.
So we can end up with a bigger Bulgaria ( no lost land and gains in Thrace ) , Serbia possibly annexing Serb areas of Bosnia before Yugoslavia is formed ( due to where the front lines will be ) , ergo a smaller but more homogeneous Bosnia and the war over before the US get involved. Very different post war picture as Germany would not lose as much territory ( positions not hardened as much ) and the OTL "stabbed in the back" myth would be more "cowardly Austrians letting the side down" ( which could well butterfly Hitler's rise )
 
I am not knowledgeable enough about the Balkans in WW1 to guess how it affects the Central Powers (I presume its a screw, as then Romanian will join the Allies sooner and Russia is in much stronger shape, so Austra-Hungary probably collapses by the end of 1916.)

If this is the case, Turkey is in major trouble. IOTL, Greece almost annexed large parts of Turkey until their king was bitten by a monkey and died of an infection. I would have to guess that the Ottomans are in way worse shape ITTL and almost anything can butterfly a monkey bite. Constantinople would probably be the capital of Greece today, and large parts of Greece would be hellish, fundamentalist Islam heck-holes with Greek minorities calling the shots. Greece probably remains a fascist state after WW2, with hypocritical British and American support of course. I wonder if these keeps Greek birth-rates up and what the modern Orthodox Church looks like as a result.

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They were given Izmir and instead of just securing it they expanded. We all know how it ended. And besides, if Russia still remains under the czars then the Greeks can forget about Constantinople. That if, the British so not betray the Russians as well.

If Bulgaria is lucky and finishes off Serbia together with A-H they can keep the Greeks away with the British Army in Thessaloniki. If Romania intervenes then Ottoman troops are needed to halt the Romanians together with the Bulgarians. And Romania depends on how long it will take Germany to reach Romania and finish the deal.
 
When in 1915? Before the Gallipoli landings? After Bulgaria declared for the Central Powers? After the collapse of Serbia?

After Bulgaria joined the war (October 15, 1915, I think) but (a little) before the Serbian collapse. The offer was formally made on October 17, 1915, by Francis Eliot, British Minister to Greece, authorized by British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, but was formally rejected by Greece on October 22. Now, this was after Constantine gave Venizelos the boot (October 7?), and this amounted to a last-ditch measure to get Greece into the war.

Constantine was obviously pretty entrenched in his position to stay out of the war, which is why Venizelos was removed as Prime Minister in the first place, but IF the offer of Cyprus (on top of Epirus, Thrace, and Smyrna) proved too hard to resist and brought Greece into the war, maybe the Allied forces would have more luck on the Salonika/Balkan front. It's an iffy proposition, because the French under Sarrail and the British under Mahon didn't show much fighting spirit. It wasn't until d'Esperey took over French command that things started happening on the Balkan front. So, maybe things wouldn't have changed a whole lot. Except for Cyprus being part of Greece, I mean.

My first post here; this is a fantastic site.
 
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how much interest by Italy in Cyprus? they held the Dodecanese, were due to hand them over to Greece but derailed by Greco-Turkish War. so the British would not want to gain Greece only to lose Italy?

The documents I've seen reflected that France and Italy were okay with the British offer. The Russians, however, objected, but I'm not clear why exactly.
 

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There wouldn’t be any Turks left in Greece as the Balkan States alway ethnical cleansed the areas, they took of Muslims

I don't think this overstates what Balkan states often did, but it does overstate their success. Also, I think Pattersonautobody was thinking that Muslim majority places lorded over by Greek Orthodox would be in the large parts of Anatolia Greece annexed.
 
how much interest by Italy in Cyprus? they held the Dodecanese, were due to hand them over to Greece but derailed by Greco-Turkish War. so the British would not want to gain Greece only to lose Italy?
The Savoys also had a claim to the island historically....
 
Russian claims to Constantinople (IIRC McMeeken addresses this in one of his books) took precedence over Greek claims. It was also viewed that the Russians were more likely to be able to actually hold the territory. Greece and Russia had a relatively close relationship in this time, with most of Russian Black Sea trade being carried in Greek ships.
 
A couple of more thoughts:
1) Constantine agreeing to join the war in 1915 would not have exactly resolved the national schism, but would have gone a long ways towards minimizing it.
2) I think that If I were Greece, I'd leave the French, British, Serbs, and a third-rate Greek corps to it in Salonika and focus on Albania. The Greeks were already in North Epirus until driven out by the Italians in 1916. They could have had a corps or two, as an official ally, engage the Austro-Hungarians in a semi-independent campaign, and held most of the country by the end of the war.

Now, imagine this: Greece and Yugoslavia divide Albania, as was discussed from time to time. The great powers, war weary, accept it. The Italians are pissed, and maybe they're in Vlore and maybe they're not, but in any event they can't do much about it.

Could Italy have invaded Greece in 1940 without a base in Albania? If not, would British troops been in Greece? If not, would Yugoslavia have tried to void the alliance with Germany? And again, if not, would Germany have delayed Barbarosa by 6 weeks in order to secure the Balkans? How much more could they accomplished in Russia with another month and a half in 1941?

Interesting questions.
 
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