Makarios III was the Greek Orthodox archbishop who led Cyprus to independence and then dominated the island's politics as its first president for nearly two turbulent decades. Born Michael Mouskos in a Cypriot village, he entered the Church young, studied theology in Athens and at Boston University, and rose rapidly, becoming Bishop of Kition and, in 1950, Archbishop of Cyprus — uniting spiritual and political authority in the traditional manner of the Cypriot ethnarch.
As archbishop, Makarios became the foremost champion of the Greek Cypriot cause. At first he pressed for "enosis," the union of Cyprus with Greece, leading the campaign against British colonial rule; the British responded by exiling him to the Seychelles in 1956. Released amid mounting pressure, he shifted toward independence and negotiated the agreements that created the Republic of Cyprus in 1960, becoming its first president.
Governing an island bitterly divided between its Greek majority and Turkish minority proved nearly impossible, and intercommunal violence flared repeatedly through the 1960s as Makarios sought to hold power and balance the communities.
In 1974 a coup backed by the military junta then ruling Greece briefly overthrew him, prompting Turkey to invade and seize the northern third of the island — a partition that endures to this day. Makarios escaped, won international support, and returned to lead the rump Greek Cypriot state until his death in 1977. He remains a revered, if controversial, national father figure.