After the squadron brought fighting on Crete to an end, its admirals attempted to negotiate a peace settlement, ultimately deciding that a new Cretan State should be established on the island under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire.

[8] However, the situation continued to escalate on 14 February, when a Greek Army expeditionary force commanded by Colonel Timoleon Vassos (1836–1929) consisting of two battalions of Greek Army infantry – about 1,500 men – and two batteries of artillery landed at Platanias, west of Canea; Vassos declared that his troops had come to occupy Crete on behalf of the King of Greece and unilaterally proclaimed Greece's annexation of Crete.

[9][10] Vassos's declaration was a direct challenge to both the Ottoman Empire and the Great Powers, and Berovich's departure left Crete with no functioning civil authority.

[9][12] When the first Imperial German Navy warship, the protected cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta, arrived off Crete on 21 February, she reinforced the International Squadron's occupying force ashore by landing an additional 50 men.

The International Squadron ordered Vassos to come no closer than 6 kilometers (33⁄4 miles) to Canea, but he began operations intended to capture the town, leading to a clash on 19 February 1897 in which his expedition defeated a 4,000-man Ottoman force in the Battle of Livadeia.

The insurgent force – which included Eleftherios Venizelos (1864–1936), a future prime minister of Greece – threatened to shell Canea and carried out unsuccessful attacks on the town on 13 and 14 February that Ottoman troops and Muslim Bashi-bazouk irregulars repelled.

[6][13] Although the French and Italian ships present were unable to participate because of other ships masking their fire, the British battleship HMS Revenge and torpedo gunboats HMS Dryad and HMS Harrier, the Russian battleship Imperator Aleksandr II, the Austro-Hungarian armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, and the newly arrived German protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta bombarded the insurgent positions,[6] Revenge receiving credit for firing three 6-inch (152-mm) shells into the farmstead serving as the insurgent base of operations.

[15][16] The insurgent Spiros Kayales became a Cretan hero when he grabbed the Greek flag after the International Squadron's gunfire had knocked it down twice and held it aloft himself.

[3][14][17][18] Despite its success from a military standpoint, the "Bombardment of Akrotiri" and legend of Spyros Kayales had the deleterious effects on the Great Powers′ goals in Crete of further inflaming the nationalist passions of Cretan insurgents and misleading the island's Muslims into thinking that the International Squadron was operating in support of them rather than to prevent combat actions by either side.

On 6 March an international landing force consisting of 200 British Royal Marines and sailors, 100 men each from Austro-Hungarian and French warships, 75 Russians, and 50 Italian sailors under the overall command of Captain John Harvey Rainier of Rodney came ashore and began an expedition to Kandanos, stopping at Spaniakos overnight and arriving at Kandanos on 7 March.

Stopping for the night at Selino Kasteli, the expedition came under fire by Christian insurgents besieging two small Ottoman redoubts outside the village, but a Russian field gun drove them off.

On the morning of 9 March, Christian insurgents again opened fire, but the expedition's artillery ashore and gunfire by International Squadron warships in the bay silenced them.

The explosion – which occurred after the turret crew disabled a malfunctioning safety mechanism, allowing one of the guns to fire before its breech was properly closed – killed 16 men instantly and injured 15, six of whom later died of their injuries.

[32] Just as the European soldiers were beginning to arrive on Crete, the insurgents renewed their attack on the Aptera blockhouse and captured it on 25 March 1897 despite shelling by Ottoman warships in Suda Bay.

During March, French marines landed on Crete and took the responsibility for assisting Ottoman troops in defending Fort Soubashi, 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Canea, against Greek Army and Christian insurgent forces; on 30 March, the French marines took part in an international expedition to protect a source of fresh water at the fort.

In late March, the British battleship HMS Rodney shelled insurgents attempting to mine the walls of the Ottoman fort at Kastelli-Kissamos, driving them off, and the International Squadron landed 200 Royal Marines and 130 Austro-Hungarian sailors and marines to reprovision the fort and demolish nearby buildings that had provided cover for the mining effort.

Stymied by the International Squadron's actions and unable to advance beyond Fort Soubashi to threaten Canea or to receive reinforcements or supplies in the face of the blockade, Vassos, who had achieved little since February, accomplished nothing further during the war and left Crete on 9 May 1897.

However, the military threat to the European Powers dropped so much after March 1897 that the International Squadron and the occupying forces ashore could turn their attention to ceremonial activities in the spring, such as a parade in honor of the Italian participation in the intervention on 4 May 1897 and a celebration of Queen Victoria′s Diamond Jubilee on 22 June 1897.

The Admirals Council then decided to resolve the situation by establishing a new, autonomous Cretan State that would run its own internal affairs but remain under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire.

[41] Although the departures of German and Austro-Hungarian ships and troops weakened the International Squadron and the occupying forces, the four remaining Great Powers continued the blockade and occupation, dividing Crete into zones of responsibility among themselves.

[42] On 25 July 1898, the Admirals Council took the major step of turning over civil administration of Crete, except for the towns under international occupation, to the Christian Assembly, which was intended to become the legislative body of the Cretan State.

When the British attempted to take control of the custom house at Candia (now Heraklion) on 6 September, however, violent resistance broke out among Muslim inhabitants, who believed that they were being forced to pay for a Christian takeover of their privileges.

Estimates of deaths during the day vary; the British suffered between 14 and 17 military personnel and at least three civilians killed and between 27 and 39 servicemen wounded, and Muslims slaughtered somewhere between 153 and nearly a thousand Christians, according to different sources.

[46][47][48][49] After a tense night, reinforcements arrived in the form of the British battleship HMS Camperdown on 7 September, and she put a landing party of Royal Marines ashore.

French, Italian, and Russian warships also arrived, and Austria-Hungary – although no longer a part of the International Squadron – sent the torpedo cruiser SMS Leopard to the scene.

He disembarked immediately to inspect the scene of the riot personally, and ordered the Ottoman governor, Edhem Pasha, to meet him aboard Revenge on the morning of 13 September.

At the meeting, Noel ordered Edhem Pasha to demolish all buildings from which rioters had fired on the British camp and hospital, disarm the entire Muslim population of the city, pay all customs duties due since 3 May 1898 and continue to pay them daily, and hand over the persons chiefly responsible for instigating the riot so that they could face trial; when Edhem Pasha refused, Camperdown and Revenge conducted a demonstration that overcame his reluctance.

Held aboard the British protected cruiser HMS Isis while awaiting their trials and executions, the men were hanged publicly in prominent locations.

On 26 November 1898, the Admirals Council formally offered the position of High Commissioner of the Cretan State to Prince George of Greece and Denmark.

[56] With the last Ottoman forces gone from Crete, the International Squadron's final task was to arrange for Prince George's arrival on the island to take up his duties, marking the establishment of the new state.