Greece was only peripherally involved in the Napoleonic Wars, but one episode had

important consequences. When the French under Napoleon Bonaparte seized Venice
in 1797, they also acquired the Ionian Islands. The islands were elevated to the status
of a French dependency called the Septinsular Republic, which possessed local
autonomy. This was the first time Greeks had governed themselves since the fall of
Constantinople in 1453. Among those who held office in the islands was John
Capodistria, destined to become independent Greece's first head of state. By the end
of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Greece had re-emerged from its centuries of
isolation. British and French writers and artists began to visit the country, and wealthy
Europeans began to collect Greek antiquities. These "philhellenes" were to play an
important role in mobilizing support for Greek independence.
Reign of King Othon (Otto) (18331863)

When the 17-year-old Bavarian Prince Otto was installed by the London Conference
of 1832 as King of Greece, he adopted the Greek name Othon. His troubled reign
lasted for 30 years before he and his wife Queen Amalia left the way they came,
aboard a British warship. During the early years of his reign a group of Bavarian
Regents ruled in his name, and made themselves very unpopular by trying to impose
German ideas of rigid hierarchical government on the Greeks. Nevertheless they laid
the foundations of a Greek administration, army, justice system and education system.
Othon was sincere in his desire to give Greece good government, but he suffered from
two great handicaps. He refused to renounce his Roman Catholic faith in favor of
Greek Orthodoxy, and his marriage to Queen Amalia remained childless. This meant
he could neither be crowned as King of Greece under the Orthodox rite nor establish a
dynasty.
The Bavarian Regents ruled until 1837, when at the insistence of Britain and France,
they were recalled and Othon thereafter appointed Greek ministers, although Bavarian
officials still ran most of the administration and the army. But Greece still had no
legislature and no constitution. Greek discontent grew until a revolt broke out in
Athens in September 1843. Othon agreed to grant a constitution, and convened a
National Assembly which met in November. The new constitution created a bicameral
parliament, consisting of an Assembly (Vouli) and a Senate (Gerousia). Power then
passed into the hands of a group of politicians, most of whom who had been
commanders in the war of independence against the Ottomans.
Greek politics in the 19th century was dominated by the national question. The
majority of Greeks continued to live under Ottoman rule, and Greeks dreamed of
liberating them all and reconstituting a state embracing all the Greek lands, with
Constantinople as its capital. This was called the Great Idea (Megali Idea), and it was
sustained by almost continuous rebellions against Ottoman rule in Greek-speaking
territories, particularly Crete, Thessaly and Macedonia. During the Crimean War the
British occupied Piraeus to prevent Greece declaring war on the Ottomans as a
Russian ally.

A new generation of Greek politicians was growing increasingly intolerant of King

Othon's continuing interference in government. In 1862, the King dismissed his Prime
Minister, the former admiral Constantine Canaris, the most prominent politician of the
period. This provoked a military rebellion, and Othon accepted the inevitable and left
the country. The Greeks then asked Britain to send Queen Victoria's son Prince Alfred
as their new king, but this was vetoed by the other powers. Instead a young Danish
Prince became King George I. George was a very popular choice as a constitutional
monarch, and he agreed that his sons would be raised in the Greek Orthodox faith. As
a reward to the Greeks for adopting a pro-British King, Britain ceded the Ionian
Islands to Greece.
[edit] Reign of King George I (18641913)
The expansion of Greece from 1832 to 1947, showing territories awarded to Greece in
1919 but lost in 1923 (click to enlarge)
At the urging of Britain and King George, Greece adopted a much more democratic
constitution in 1864. The powers of the King were reduced and the Senate was
abolished. The franchise was extended to all adult males. But Greek politics remained
heavily dynastic, as it has always been. Family names such as Zaimis, Rallis and
Trikoupis occurred repeatedly as Prime Minister. Two broad parties existed: liberals,
led first by Charilaos Trikoupis and later by Eleftherios Venizelos, and conservatives,
led initially by Theodoros Deligiannis and later by Thrasivoulos Zaimis. Trikoupis
dominated Greek politics in the later 19th century. His governments favoured
protective tariffs and progressive social legislation. He competed with Deligiannis in
promoting Greek nationalism and the Megali Idea.
Greece remained a very poor country through the 19th century. Its only important
export commodities were currants, raisins and tobacco. Some Greeks grew rich as
merchants and shipowners, and Piraeus became a major port, but little of this wealth
found its way to the Greek peasantry. Greece remained hopelessly in debt to London
finance houses. By the 1890s Greece was virtually bankrupt, and poverty in the rural
areas and the islands was eased only by large-scale emigration to the United States.
There was little education in the rural areas. Nevertheless there was progress in
building communications and infrastructure, and fine public buildings were erected in
Athens.
Another political issue in 19th century Greece was uniquely Greek: the language
question. The Greek people spoke a form of Greek called Demotic. Many of the
educated elite saw this as a peasant dialect and were determined to restore the glories
of Ancient Greek. Government documents and newspapers were published in
Katharevousa (purified) Greek, a form which few ordinary Greeks could read.
Liberals favoured recognising Demotic as the national language, but conservatives
and the Orthodox Church resisted all such efforts. When the New Testament was
translated into Demotic in 1901, there were riots in Athens and the government fell.
The Liberals promoted Demotic and the Conservatives promoted Katharevousa. This
issue plagued Greek politics until the 1970s.

All Greeks were united, however, in their determination to liberate the Greekspeaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire. When war broke out between Russia and
the Ottomans in 1877, Greece rallied to Russia's side, but was too poor, and too afraid
of British intervention, to make much contribution. Nevertheless, in 1881, Thessaly
and parts of Epirus were ceded to Greece as part of the Treaty of Berlin, while
frustrating Greek hopes of rescuing Crete from Ottoman rule. Greeks in Crete
continued to stage regular revolts, and in 1897, a Greek nationalist government under
Theodoros Deligiannis declared war on the Ottomans. In the ensuing Greco-Turkish
War of 1897 the Greek army was defeated by the Ottomans and Greece lost some
small territories along the border to Turkey.
Nationalist sentiment among Greeks in the Ottoman Empire continued to grow, and
by the 1890s there were constant disturbances in Macedonia. Here the Greeks were in
conflict not only with the Ottomans but with the Bulgarians (Macedonian Struggle),
who also claimed the region, with its ethnically mixed population. The Cretan Greeks,
led by Eleftherios Venizelos, rebelled again in 1908, provoking another crisis. When
the Greek government led by Dimitrios Rallis refused to go to the rescue of the
Cretans, the army and navy rebelled and forced his resignation in May 1909.
Venizelos, a crusading Liberal, was brought from Crete to lead the revolt and in 1910
he became Prime Minister. Venizelos was to dominate Greek politics for the next 20
years.
The Greek War of Independence (18211829), also commonly known as the Greek
Revolution (Greek: Elliniki Epanastasi; Ottoman Turkish:
Yunan syan), was a successful war waged by the Greeks to win
independence for Greece from the Ottoman Empire. After a long and bloody struggle,
and with the aid of the Great Powers, independence was finally granted by the Treaty
of Constantinople in July 1832. The Greeks were thus the first of the Ottoman
Empire's subject peoples to secure recognition as an independent sovereign power.
The anniversary of Independence Day (25 March 1821) is a National Day in Greece,
which falls on the same day as the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary.
[edit] The Greeks under the Ottoman Empire
The Greek Revolution was not an isolated event; there were numerous failed attempts
at regaining independence throughout the history of the Ottoman occupation of
Greece. In 1603, an attempt took place in Morea to restore the Byzantine Empire.
Throughout the 17th century there was great resistance to the Turks in the
Peloponnese and elsewhere, as evidenced by revolts led by Dionysius in 1600 and
1611 in Epirus.[1] Ottoman rule over Morea was interrupted with the Morean War, as
the peninsula came under Venetian rule for 30 years between the 1680s and Ottoman
reconquest in 1715, after the TurkishVenetian War; the province would remain in
turmoil from then on, as over the span of the 17th century, the bands of the klephts
multiplied. The first great uprising was the Russian-sponsored Orlov Revolt of the
1770s, which was crushed by the Ottomans. The Mani Peninsula in the southern
Peloponnese continually resisted Turkish rule, enjoying virtual autonomy and
defeating several Turkish incursions into the region, the most famous of which was
the Ottoman Invasion of Mani (1770).

At the same time, a small number of Greeks enjoyed a privileged position in the
Ottoman state as members of the Ottoman bureaucracy. Greeks controlled the affairs
of the Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, based in Constantinople,
and the higher clergy of the Orthodox Church was always Greek. Thus, through the
Ottoman millet system, the predominantly Greek hierarchy of the Church enjoyed
control over the Empire's Orthodox subjects. From the 18th century onwards,
Phanariote Greek notables (Turkish-appointed Greek administrators from the Phanar
district of Constantinople) played an increasingly influential role in the governance of
the Ottoman Empire.
A strong maritime tradition in the islands of the Aegean, together with the emergence
over the 18th century of an influential merchant class, generated the wealth necessary
to found schools and libraries and pay for young Greeks to study in the universities of
Western Europe. Here they came into contact with the radical ideas of the European
Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Educated and influential members of the
large Greek diaspora, such as Adamantios Korais, tried to transmit these ideas back to
the Greeks, with the double aim of raising their educational level and simultaneously
strengthening their national identity. This was achieved through the dissemination of
books, pamphlets and other writings in Greek, in a process that has been described as
the "Diafotismos".
The most influential of these writers and intellectuals helping to shape opinion among
Greeks both in and outside the Ottoman Empire was Rigas Feraios. Born in Thessaly
and educated in Constantinople, Feraios wrote articles for the Greek-language
newspaper Ephimeris in Vienna in the 1790s; deeply influenced by the French
Revolution, he published a series of revolutionary tracts and proposed republican
Constitutions for the Greek and later also pan-Balkan nations. Arrested by Austrian
officials in Trieste in 1797, he was handed over to Ottoman officials and transported
to Belgrade along with his co-conspirators. All were strangled to death and their
bodies dumped in the Danube, in June 1798; Feraios' death fanned the flames of
Greek nationalism. His nationalist poem, the Thourios (war-song), was translated into
a number of Western European and later Balkan languages, and served as a rallying
cry for Greeks against Ottoman rule:
Greek
,
,
,
;
,
,

,
;
,
,
,
,
;
[...]

English
Until when, brave
warriors, shall we live
under constraints,
lonely like lions, in the
ridges of mountains?
Living in caves, viewing
wild tree branches,
abandoning the world,
due to bitter slavery?
Losing brothers, country
and parents,
our friends, our children,
and all of our kin?
[...]
Better an hour of free life,


,
,
.

than forty years of slavery

and jail.

[edit] Klephts and Armatoloi

See also: Klepht and Armatoloi
Armatolos. Water Colour by Carl Haag.
Central to the Greek Revolution were the Klephts () and Armatoloi
(). After the conquest of Greece by the Ottomans in the 15th century, many
surviving Greek troops, whether regular Byzantine forces, local militia, or
mercenaries, had either to join the Ottoman army as janissaries or serve in the private
army of a local Ottoman notable, or fend for themselves. In this environment many
Greeks wishing to preserve their Greek identity, Orthodox Christian religion and
independence, chose the difficult but free life of a bandit. These bandit groups soon
found their ranks swollen with impoverished and/or adventurous peasants, societal
outcasts and escaped criminals. Those that chose to go to the hills and form
independent militia bands were called Klephts, while those that chose to serve the
Ottomans were known as Armatoloi but many men would alternate between these two
groups.
For the Ottomans, it became progressively more difficult to distinguish the armatoloi
from the klephts; both groups began to establish relations with one another under a
common ethnic identity. This collaboration was also based on mutual sentiments
against foreign conquerors, and many armatoloi took up arms against the Turks at the
outbreak of the revolution: among them were Odysseas Androutsos, Georgios
Karaiskakis, Athanasios Diakos and Markos Botsaris.
The armatoloi considered concepts of sacrifice and martyrdom honourable when
fighting on the field of battle. Sacrifices from individuals such as Athanasios Diakos
merely continued a tradition of martyr-like efforts by armatoloi such as Vlachavas and
Antonis Katsantonis. During feasts, the armatoloi would traditionally prepare for
conflict with phrases such as ( , literally meaning 'good shot') or kalo molivi
( literally meaning 'good lead'). In times of warfare, these wishes also
took on the connotation 'May the shot that kills you be a good shot', and on a number
of occasions where armatoloi were seriously wounded during battle they demanded
that their own comrades bring about their death; for this group, it was better to be
killed by your own kind than to be captured by the enemy.
[edit] Preparation for the uprising - The Filiki Eteria
In 1814 three Greek merchants, Nikolaos Skoufas, Manolis Xanthos, and Athanasios
Tsakalov, inspired by the ideas of Feraios and influenced by the Italian Carbonari,
founded the secret Filiki Eteria ("Society of Friends"), in Odessa, an important center
of the Greek mercantile diaspora. With the support of wealthy Greek exile
communities in Great Britain and the United States and the aid of sympathizers in
Western Europe, they planned the rebellion. The basic objective of the society was a

revival of the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople as the capital, not the formation
of a national state.[2] In early 1820, Ioannis Kapodistrias, an official from the Ionian
Islands who had become the Russian Foreign Minister, was approached by the
Society to be named leader but declined the offer; the Filikoi (members of Filiki
Eteria) then turned to Alexander Ypsilantis, a Phanariote serving in the Russian army
as general and adjutant to Tsar Alexander I, who accepted.
The Filiki Eteria rapidly expanded, gaining members in almost all regions of Greek
settlement, amongst them figures who would later play a prominent role in the war,
such as Theodoros Kolokotronis, Odysseas Androutsos, Papaflessas and Laskarina
Bouboulina. In 1821, the Ottoman Empire found itself occupied with war against
Persia, and most particularly with the revolt by Ali Pasha in Epirus, which had forced
the vali (governor) of the Morea, Hursid Pasha, and other local pashas to leave their
provinces and campaign against the rebel force. At the same time, the Great Powers,
allied in the "Concert of Europe" in their opposition to revolutions in the aftermath of
Napoleon I of France, were preoccupied with revolts in Italy and Spain. It was in this
context that the Greeks judged the time to be ripe for their own revolt.[3] The plan
originally involved uprisings in three places, the Peloponnese, the Danubian
Principalities and Constantinople.[3] The start of the uprising can be traced to on
February 22, 1821 (O.S.), when Alexander Ypsilantis and several other Greek officers
of the Russian army crossed the river Prut into Moldavia.
[edit] Philhellenism
Due to Greece's classical heritage, there was tremendous sympathy for the Greek
cause throughout Europe. Many wealthy Americans and Western European
aristocrats, such as the renowned poet Lord Byron, took up arms to join the Greek
revolutionaries. Many more also financed the revolution. The Scottish historian and
philhellene Thomas Gordon took part in the revolutionary struggle and later wrote the
first histories of the Greek revolution in English.[4]
Lord Byron was a prominent English philhellene who died during the Greek
revolution
Once the revolution broke out, Ottoman atrocities were given wide coverage in
Europe, including also by Eugene Delacroix, and drew sympathy for the Greek cause
in western Europe, although for a time the British and French governments suspected
that the uprising was a Russian plot to seize Greece (and possibly Constantinople)
from the Ottomans. The Greeks were unable to establish a coherent government in the
areas they controlled, and soon fell to fighting among themselves. Inconclusive
fighting between Greeks and Ottomans continued until 1825, when Sultan Mahmud II
asked for help from his most powerful vassal, Egypt.
The sortie of Messolonghi by Theodoros Vryzakis.
In Europe, the Greek revolt aroused widespread sympathy among the public but was
met at first with the lukewarm reception above from the Great Powers, with Britain
then backing the insurrection from 1823 onward after Ottoman weakness was clear,

despite the opportunities offered it by Greek civil conflict and the addition of Russian
support aimed at limiting British influence over the Greeks.[5] Greece was viewed as
the cradle of western civilization, and it was especially lauded by the spirit of
romanticism of the time and the sight of a Christian nation attempting to cast off the
rule of a decaying Muslim Empire also found favour amongst the western European
public.
Lord Byron spent time in Albania and Greece, organising funds and supplies
(including the provision of several ships), but died from fever at Messolonghi in 1824.
Byron's death did even more to add European sympathy for the Greek cause. This
eventually led the Western powers to intervene directly. Byron's poetry, along with
Delacroix's art, helped arouse European public opinion in favour of the Greek
revolutionaries:
[edit] The Revolution in the Danubian Principalities
Alexander Ypsilantis was the selected as the head of the Filiki Eteria in April 1820,
and set himself the task of planning the insurrection. Ypsilantis' intention was to raise
all the Christians of the Balkans in rebellion, and perhaps force Russia to intervene on
their behalf. On February 22, 1821, he crossed the river Prut with his followers,
entering the Danubian Principalities, while in order to encourage the local Romanian
Christians to join him, he announced that he had "the support of a Great Power",
implying Russia. Two days after crossing the Prut, on the February 24, Ypsilantis
issued a proclamation calling on all Greeks and Christians to rise up against the
Ottomans:

Instead of directly advancing on Brila, where he arguably could have prevented

Ottoman armies from entering the Principalities, and where he might have forced
Russia to accept a fait accompli, he remained in Iai, and ordered the executions of
several pro-Ottoman Moldovans. In Bucharest, where he had arrived on March 27
after some weeks delay, he decided that he could not rely on the Wallachian Pandurs
to continue their Oltenian-based revolt and assist the Greek cause; Ypsilantis was
mistrusted by the Pandur leader Tudor Vladimirescu, who, as a nominal ally to the
Eteria, had started the rebellion as a move to prevent Scarlat Callimachi from reaching
the throne in Bucharest, while trying to maintain relations with both Russia and the
Ottomans.
At that point, former Russian Foreign Minister, the Corfu-born Greek Ioannis
Kapodistrias, sent Ypsilantis a letter upbraiding him for misusing the mandate
received from the Tsar, announcing that his name had been struck off the army list,
and commanding him to lay down arms. Ypsilantis tried to ignore the letter, but
Vladimirescu took this to mean that his commitment to the Eteria was over. A conflict
erupted inside his camp, and he was tried and put to death by the Eteria on May 27.
The loss of their Romanian allies, followed an Ottoman intervention on Wallachian
soil sealed defeat for the Greek exiles, culminating in the disastrous Battle of
Dragashani and the destruction of the Sacred Band on June 7.

Alexander Ypsilantis, accompanied by his brother Nicholas and a remnant of his

followers, retreated to Rmnic, where he spent some days negotiating with the
Austrian authorities for permission to cross the frontier. Fearing that his followers
might surrender him to the Turks, he gave out that Austria had declared war on
Turkey, caused a Te Deum to be sung in the church of Cozia, and, on pretext of
arranging measures with the Austrian commander-in-chief, he crossed the frontier.
But the reactionary policies of the Holy Alliance were enforced by Emperor Francis I
and the country refused to give asylum for leaders of revolts in neighbouring
countries. Ypsilantis was kept in close confinement for seven years.[7] In Moldavia, the
struggle continued for a while, under Giorgakis Olympios and Yiannis Pharmakis, but
by the end of the year, the provinces had been pacified by the Ottomans.
[edit] The Revolution in the Peloponnese
The Peloponnese, due to its long tradition of resistance to the Ottomans, was to be the
heartland of the revolt. In the early months of 1821, with the absence of the Turkish
governor Mora valesi Hursid Pasha and many of his troops, the situation was
favourable for the Greeks to rise against Ottoman occupation. Theodoros
Kolokotronis, a renowned Greek klepht who had served in the British army in the
Ionian Islands during the Napoleonic Wars, returned on 6 January 1821, and went to
the Mani Peninsula. The Turks found out about Kolokotronis' arrival, and demanded
his surrender from the local bey, Petros Mavromichalis, also known as Petrobey.
Mavromichalis refused, saying he was just an old man.[8]
Equestrian statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis in Nafplion, Greece
The crucial meeting was held at Vostitsa (modern Aigion), where chieftains and
prelates from all over the Peloponnese assembled on January 26. There the klepht
captains declared their readiness for the uprising, while most of the civil leaders
presented themselves skeptical, and demanded guarantees about a Russian
intervention. Nevertheless, as news came of Ypsilantis' march into the Danubian
Principalities, the atmosphere in the Peloponnese was tense, and by mid-March,
sporadic incidents against Muslims occurred, heralding the start of the uprising. The
traditional legend that the Revolution was declared on March 25 in the Monastery of
Agia Lavra by the archbishop of Patras Germanos is a later invention. However, the
date has been established as the official anniversary of the Revolution, and is
celebrated as a national day in Greece.
On March 17, 1821, war was declared on the Turks by the Maniots at Areopoli. An
army of 2,000 Maniots under the command of Petros Mavromichalis, which included
Kolokotronis, his nephew Nikitaras and Papaflessas advanced on the Messenian town
of Kalamata. The Maniots reached Kalamata on March 21 and after a brief two day
siege it fell to the Greeks on the 23rd.[9] On the same day, Andreas Londos, a Greek
primate, rose up at Vostitsa.[10] On March 28, the Messenian Senate, the first of the
Greeks' local governing councils, held its first session at Kalamata.
In Achaia, the town of Kalavryta was besieged on March 21. In Patras, in the already
tense atmosphere, the Ottomans had transferred their belongings to the fortress on
February 28, followed by their families on March 18. On March 22 the

revolutionaries declared the Revolution in the square of Agios Georgios in Patras, in

the presence of archbishop Germanos. On the next day the leaders of the Revolution
in Achaia sent a document to the foreign consulates explaining the reasons of the
Revolution.[11] On March 23 the Ottomans launched sporadic attacks towards the town
while the revolutionaries, led by Panagiotis Karatzas, drove them back to the fortress.
[12]
Yannis Makriyannis who had been hiding in the town referred to the scene in his
memoirs:
By the end of March, the Greeks effectively controlled the countryside, while the
Turks were confined to the fortresses, most notably those of Patras, Rio, Acrocorinth,
Monemvasia, Nafplion and the provincial capital, Tripolitsa, where many Muslims
had fled with their families at the beginning of the uprising. All these were loosely
besieged by local irregular forces under their own captains, since the Greeks lacked
artillery. With the exception of Tripolitsa, all sites had access to the sea and could be
resupplied and reinforced by the Ottoman fleet.
Kolokotronis, determined to take Tripolitsa, the Ottoman provincial capital in the
Peloponnese, moved into Arcadia with 300 Greek soldiers. When he entered Arcadia
his band of 300 fought a Turkish force of 1,300 men and defeated them.[15] On April
28, few thousand Maniot soldiers under the command of Mavromichalis' sons joined
Kolokotronis' camp outside Tripoli. On September 12, 1821, the Turkish capital in the
Peloponnese fell to Kolokotronis and his men.
[edit] The Revolution in Central Greece
The first region to revolt in Central Greece was Phocis, on March 24, whose capital,
Salona (modern Amfissa), was captured by Panourgias on March 27. In Boeotia,
Livadeia was captured by Athanasios Diakos on March 29, followed by Thebes two
days later. The Ottoman garrison held out in the citadel of Salona, the regional capital,
until April 10, when the Greeks took it. At the same time, the Greeks suffered a defeat
at the Battle of Alamana against the army of Omer Vryonis, which resulted in the
death of Athanasios Diakos. But the Ottoman advance was stopped at the Battle of
Gravia, near Mount Parnassus and the ruins of ancient Delphi, under the leadership of
Odysseas Androutsos. Vryonis turned towards Boeotia and sacked Livadeia, awaiting
reinforcements before proceeding towards the Morea. These forces, 8,000 men under
Beyran Pasha, were however met and defeated at the Battle of Vassilika, on August
26. This defeat forced Vryonis too to withdraw, securing the fledgling Greek
revolutionaries.
[edit] The Revolution in Crete
Cretan participation in the revolution was extensive, but it failed to achieve liberation
from Turkish rule due to Egyptian intervention. Crete has had a long history of
resisting Turkish rule, exemplefied by the folk hero Daskalogiannis who was martyred
whilst fighting the Turks. In 1821, an uprising by Christians met with a fierce
response from the Ottoman authorities and the execution of several bishops, regarded
as ringleaders. Between 1821 and 1828, the island was the scene of repeated
hostilities and atrocities. The Muslims were driven into the large fortified towns on
the north coast and it would appear that as many as 60% of them died from plague or

famine while there. The Cretan Christians also suffered severely, losing around 21%
of their population.
As the Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II, had no army of his own, he was forced to seek the
aid of his rebellious vassal and rival, the Pasha of Egypt, who sent troops into the
island. Britain decided that Crete should not become part of the new Kingdom of
Greece on its independence in 1830, evidently fearing that it would either become a
centre of piracy as it had often been in the past, or a Russian naval base in the East
Mediterranean. Crete would remain under Ottoman suzerainity, but Egyptians
administered the island, such as the Egyptian-Albanian Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha.
[edit] The war at sea
From the early stages of the revolution, success at sea was vital for the Greeks. If they
failed to counter the Ottoman Navy, it would be able to resupply the isolated Ottoman
garrisons and land reinforcements from the Ottoman Empire's Asian provinces at will,
crushing the rebellion. The Greek fleet was primarily outfitted by prosperous Aegean
islanders, principally from three islands: Hydra, Spetses and Psara. Each island
equipped, manned and maintained its own squadron, under its own admiral. Although
they were crewed by experienced crews, the Greek ships were mostly armed
merchantmen, not designed for warfare, and equipped with only light guns.[16] Against
them stood the Ottoman fleet, which enjoyed several advantages: its ships and
supporting craft were built for war; it was supported by the resources of the vast
Ottoman Empire; command was centralized and disciplined under the Kaptan Pasha.
The total Ottoman fleet size was 23 masted ships of the line, each with about 80 guns
and 7 or 8 frigates with 50 guns, 5 corvettes with about 30 guns and around 40 brigs
with 20 or fewer guns.[17]
In the face of this situation, the Greeks decided to use fire ships (Greek: or
), which had proven effective for the Psarians during the Orlov Revolt in
1770. The first test was made at Eresos on 27 May 1821, when a Turkish frigate was
successfully destroyed by a fire ship under Dimitrios Papanikolis. In the fire ships, the
Greeks found an effective weapon against the Ottoman vessels. In subsequent years,
the successes of the Greek fire ships would increase their reputation, with acts such as
the destruction of the Ottoman flagship by Constantine Kanaris at Chios, after the
massacre of the island's population in June 1822, acquiring international fame.
Overall, 59 fire ship attacks were carried out, of which 39 were successful.
At the same time, conventional naval actions were also fought, at which naval
commanders like Andreas Miaoulis, Nikolis Apostolis, Iakovos Tombazis and
Antonios Kriezis distinguished themselves. The early successes of the Greek fleet in
direct confrontations with the Ottomans at Patras and Spetses gave the crews
confidence, and contributed greatly to the survival and success of the uprising in the
Peloponnese.
Later however, as Greece became embroiled in a civil war, the Sultan called upon his
strongest subject, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, for aid. Plagued by internal strife and
financial difficulties in keeping the fleet in constant readiness, the Greeks failed to
prevent the capture and destruction of Kasos and Psara in 1824, or the landing of the
Egyptian army at Methoni. Despite victories at Samos and Gerontas, the Revolution

was threatened with collapse until the intervention of the Great Powers in the Battle of
Navarino in 1827. There the Ottoman fleet was decisively defeated by the combined
fleets of the Britain, France and the Russian Empire, effectively securing the
independence of Greece.
[edit] The Revolution in peril
The Greeks held a national legislative assembly in the Peloponnese January 1822.
Demetrius Ypsilanti (brother of Alexander Ypsilantis) was elected president.
In 15-20 November 1821, another unrelated council was held in Salona, where the
main local notables and military chiefs participated. Under the direction of Theodoros
Negris, they set down a proto-constitution for the region, the "Legal Order of Eastern
Continental Greece" ( ), and
established a governing council, the Areopagus, composed of 71 notables from
Eastern Greece, Thessaly and Macedonia.
Officially, the Areopagus was superseded by the central Provisional Administration,
established in January 1822 after the First National Assembly, but the council
continued its existence and exercised considerable authority, albeit in the name of the
national government. Tensions between the Areopagus which was dominated by
Central Greeks, and the National Assembly which was dominated by Peloponnesians
caused an early rift in the fledgling Greek state. The relationship between the two
governments was extremely tense, and Greece soon entered a phase of virtual civil
war based on the regional governments.
The flag of Mani - "Victory or Death, back with the shield or on the shield"
[edit] Egyptian intervention
Petros or Petrobey Mavromichalis, who liberated Kalamata and defended Mani.
Seeing that the Greek forces had defeated the Turks, the Ottoman Sultan asked his
Egyptian vassal, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, who hailed from Kavala in today's Greece,
for aid. The Egyptians agreed to send their French-trained army to Greece in
exchange for Crete, Cyprus and the Peleponnesos, which the Ottoman Sultan agreed
to hand over to Egyptian control. Mohammed Ali accepted the offer and sent his son
Ibrahim in command of the expedition. They planned to pay for the war by expelling
most of inhabitants and resettling Greece with Egyptian peasants.[18] Meanwhile, the
Greeks were in disarray because of political rivalries which caused a civil war.
Under command of Ibrahim Pasha, the son of the leader of Egypt, Muhammad Ali
invaded Greece, landing at Methoni and capturing the city of Kalamata and razing it
to the ground.[15] With the Greeks in disarray, Ibrahim ravaged the Peloponnese and
after a brief siege he captured the city of Messolonghi. He then tried to capture
Nauplio but he was driven back by Dimitrios Ypsilantis and Konstantinos
Mavromichalis, Petros' brother.[19] Much of the countyside was ravaged by Egyptian
troops. He then turned his attention to the only place in the Peloponnese that remained
under independent: Mani.

Ibrahim sent an envoy to the Maniots demanding that they surrender or else he would
ravage their land as he had done to the rest of the Peloponnese. Instead of
surrendering, the Maniots simply replied:
Ibrahim tried to enter Mani from the north-east near Almiro on the June 21, 1826, but
he was forced to stop at the fortifications at Vergas,Mani. His army of 7,000 men was
held off by an army of 2,000 Maniots and 500 refugees from other parts of Greece.
Ibrahim again tried to enter Mani, but again the Maniots defeated the Turkish and
Egyptian forces.[20] The Maniots pursued the Egyptians all the way to Kalamata before
returning to Vergas. This battle was costly for Ibrahim not only because he suffered
2,500 casualties but also ruined his plan to invade Mani from the north.[15][21] Ibrahim
would try again several times to take Mani, but each time the Turco-Arab forces
would be repulsed, suffering much heavier casualties than the Greeks.
[edit] European intervention
On 20 October 1827, the British, Russian and French fleets, on the initiative of local
commanders but with the tacit approval of their governments, attacked and destroyed
the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Navarino (). This was the decisive moment in
the war of independence, although the British Admiral Edward Codrington nearly
ruined his career, since he wasn't ordered to achieve such a victory or destroy
completely the Turko/Egyptian fleet. In October 1828, the Greeks regrouped and
formed a new government under John Capodistria (). They then
advanced to seize as much territory as possible, including Athens and Thebes, before
the western powers imposed a ceasefire. The Greeks seized the last Turkish
strongholds in the Peloponnese with the help of the French general, Nicolas Joseph
Maison.
The final major engagement of the war was the Battle of Petra, which occurred North
of Attica. Greek forces under Dimitrios Ypsilantis, for the first time trained to fight as
a regular European army rather than as guerrilla bands, advanced against Ottoman
forces as Greek commanders realized that under the peace terms the new state would
comprise whatever parts of Greece Greek troops occupied. The Greek forces met the
troops of Osman Aga and after exchanging fires, the Greeks charged with their swords
and decisively defeated the Turkish forces. The Turks would surrender all lands from
Livadeia to the Spercheios River in exchange for safe passage out of Central Greece.
This battle was significant as it was the first time the Greeks had fought victoriously
as a regular army. It also marked the first time that Turks and Greeks had negotiated
on the field of battle. The Battle of Petra was the last of the Greek War of
Independence. Ironically, Dimitrios Ypsilantis ended the war started by his brother,
Alexandros Ypsilantis, when he crossed the Prut River eight and a half years earlier.
[edit] Massacres during the Revolution
Almost as soon as the revolution began, there were large scale massacres of civilians
by both Greek revolutionaries and Ottoman authorities. Greek revolutionaries
massacred Turks and Muslims identified with their rule inhabiting the Peloponnese
and Attica where Greek forces were dominant, whereas the Turks massacred many
Greeks identified with the revolution especially in Ionia (Asia Minor), Crete,
Constantinople and the Aegean islands where the revolutionary forces were weaker.

Some of the more infamous atrocities include the Massacre of Chios, the Destruction
of Psara, the massacres of Turks and Jews following the Fall of Tripolitsa and the
Navarino Massacre. Harris J. Booras and David Brewer claimed that massacres by
Greeks were responses to the prior events (such as the massacre of the Greeks of
Tripoli, after the destruction of the sacred band).[22][23] However, according to
historians W.Alison Phillips, George Finlay, William St. Clair and Barbara Jelavich
massacres started simultaneously with the outbreak of the revolt.[24][25][26][27]
Tens of thousands of Greek civilians were killed ; the Turks also sold tens of
thousands of captives into slavery. A large number of Christian clergymen were also
killed, including the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Muslim Turkish and Albanian populations of the Peloponnese also suffered huge
losses.
Sometimes identified with Ottoman rule in the Peloponnese , the jewish population of
this area too suffered huge loss of life ; however, many Jews within Greece and
throughout Europe were supporters of the Greek revolt, using their wealth (as in the
case of the Rothschilds) as well as their political and public influence to assist the
Greek cause. Following its establishment, the new state attracted a number of Jewish
immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, as one of the first countries to grant legal
equality to Jews.
[edit] Diplomatic endgame
John Capodistria, who had been the only Greek that various rebel leaders could agree
upon as President of the new state, was assassinated in 1831 in Nafplion, leading to
civil war. He was killed by the Maniots because he had demanded that they pay taxes
to the new Greek state, and when the freedom-loving Maniots refused Capodistias put
Petrobey in jail, sparking vows of vengeance from his clan. As a state of confusion
continued in the Greek peninsula, the Great Powers sought a formal end of the war
and a recognized government in Greece. The Greek throne was initially offered to
Lopold I of Belgium, but he refused, as he was not at all satisfied with the
Aspropotamos-Zitouni borderline, which replaced the more favourable Arta-Volos
line considered by the Great Powers earlier.
The withdrawal of Lopold as a candidate for the throne of Greece, and the July
Revolution in France, delayed the final settlement of the frontiers of the new kingdom
until a new government was formed in the United Kingdom. Lord Palmerston, who
took over as British Foreign Secretary, agreed to the Arta-Volos borderline. However,
the secret note on Crete, which the Bavarian plenipotentiary communicated to the
Courts of the United Kingdom, France and Russia, bore no fruit.
In May 1832, Palmerston convened the London Conference of 1832. The three Great
Powers (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, July Monarchy France and the
Russian Empire) offered the throne to the Bavarian prince, Otto Wittelsbach, without
regard to Greek views on this. The line of succession was also established which
would pass the crown to the heirs of Otto, or his younger brothers in succession,
should he have no heirs. In no case would the crowns of Greece and Bavaria be
joined. As co-guarantors of the monarchy, the Great Powers also empowered their

Ambassadors in the Ottoman capital to secure the end of the war. Under the protocol
signed on May 7 1832 between Bavaria and the protecting Powers, and basically
dealing with the way in which the Regency was to be managed until Otto reached his
majority (while also concluding the second Greek loan, for a sum of 2,400,000
sterling), Greece was defined as an independent kingdom, with the Arta-Volos line as
its northern frontier. The Ottoman Empire was given 40,000,000 piastres in
compensation for the loss of the territory.
On July 21, 1832, British Ambassador to the Sublime Porte Sir Stratford Canning and
the other representatives of the Great Powers concluded the Treaty of Constantinople,
which set the boundaries of the new Greek Kingdom at a line running from Arta
() to Volos (). The borders of the Kingdom were reiterated in the London
Protocol of August 30, 1832, signed by the Great Powers, which ratified the terms of
the Constantinople Arrangement.
[edit] Aftermath
The consequences of the Greek revolution were somewhat ambiguous in the
immediate aftermath. An independent Greek state had been established, but with
Britain, Russia and France claiming a major role in Greek politics afterwards and with
the importation of a Bavarian dynasty as the ruler and a mercenary army.[28] The
country had been ravaged by ten years of fighting, was full of displaced refugees and
empty Turkish estates, necessitating a series of land reforms over several decades.[3]
The new state also contained 800,000 people, fewer than one third of the two and a
half million Greek inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire and for much of the next
century the Greek state was to seek the liberation of the unredeemed Greeks of the
Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the Megale Idea, the goal of uniting all Greeks
in one country.[3]
As a people, the Greeks no longer provided the princes for the Danubian Principalities
and were regarded within the Ottoman Empire, especially by the Muslim population,
as traitors. Phanariotes who had up to then held high office within the Ottoman
Empire were thenceforth regarded as suspect and lost their special, privileged
category. In Constantinople and the rest of the Ottoman Empire where Greek banking
and merchant presence had been dominant, Armenians mostly replaced Greeks in
banking and Bulgarian merchants gained importance.[28]
In the long term historical perspective, this marked a seminal event in the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire, despite the small size and impoverishment of the new Greek
state. For the first time, a Christian subject people had thrown off the Turkish yoke
and established a fully independent state, recognized by Europe. This would give
hope to the other subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire, as Serbs, Bulgars,
Romanians, and Arabs would all successfully throw out the Turks and establish free
states. Kurds and Armenians would try and follow suit, but would fail and suffer
horribly in the process. The newly established Greek state would become a
springboard for further expansion, and over the course of a century Macedonia, Crete,
Epirus, the Aegean and other parts of Greece would throw off the Turkish yoke and
unite with the new Greek state. Greece, poor and backward during the Ottoman

occupation, achieved satisfactory economic growth during the later 19th century that
allowed it to build one of the world's largest merchant fleets.
There is a parade in Manhattan annualy in either March or April celebrating the start
of the war and Greek Culture in general. In the parade there is the Mayor of New York
City, New York Senators, and other various politicians. Greek American politicians
and individuals are particularly highlighted as well as members of the Greek
Orthodox