Greek War of Independence

The causes

The Greeks, subjects of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries, kept a strong religious identity and a memory of antiquity that fuelled their desire for independence. National ideas coming from Europe won over the Greek elites, while secret societies prepared the uprising. The revolt broke out in 1821 in the Peloponnese, then quickly spread to central Greece and the islands.

From the 18th century, maritime trade enriched a Greek bourgeoisie established in Odessa, Trieste or Vienna, which financed schools and printing presses. Enlightenment ideas, relayed by the scholar Adamantios Korais, fed a cultural renaissance and a national consciousness. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, in 1774, which ended a Russo-Turkish war, gave Russia the role of protector of the Orthodox Christians of the Ottoman Empire. In the provinces, notables such as Ali Pasha of Ioannina weakened the sultan's authority. In 1821, Alexander Ypsilantis, an officer in the service of Russia, launched an uprising in the Danubian principalities; it was quickly crushed, and it preceded by a short time the uprising in the Peloponnese.

The course of the war

From 1822 onward, Ottoman repression led to massacres, notably on Chios, where a large part of the population was killed or enslaved. The English poet Lord Byron, who had come to support the insurgents, died of fever at Missolonghi in 1824, which strengthened European enthusiasm for the Greek cause. Besieged for many months, the town fell in 1826; the insurgents, divided among rival leaders, then struggled to resist the Ottoman and Egyptian armies.

In 1827, the British, French and Russian fleet destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet at Navarino, which changed the balance of power. The first head of the Greek state, Ioannis Kapodistrias, was assassinated in 1831. The Treaty of Constantinople, signed in 1832, recognized an independent Greek kingdom, whose throne went to Otto of Bavaria.

In 1822, the Assembly of Epidaurus adopted a constitution, but the insurgents split into rival factions, and a civil war pitted them against each other between 1823 and 1825. At sea, the shipowners of Hydra, Psara and Spetses armed fire ships, and Konstantinos Kanaris set Ottoman ships on fire off Chios, in 1822. The sultan then obtained the help of his Egyptian vassal, Muhammad Ali, whose son Ibrahim Pasha landed in the Peloponnese in 1825 and laid waste to the countryside and olive groves.

The insurgents obtained loans in London, in 1824 and 1825, which financed the fleet and the army, while European philhellenes fought at their side. In July 1827, the Treaty of London committed France, the United Kingdom and Russia to impose an armistice on the Ottoman Empire. After Navarino, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1828, and a French expedition settled in the Peloponnese the same year. The Treaty of Adrianople, in 1829, recognized the autonomy of Greece under Ottoman suzerainty.

Civilians paid the high price of the war. The countryside was devastated, villages burned and populations displaced, sometimes enslaved after the capture of strongholds. The fighters, the klephts, mountain bands rooted in a long tradition of resistance to the Ottomans, formed the backbone of the insurgent armies, while the island sailors supplied the fleet. Local leaders, who often fought for their own power, made it difficult to build a unified state, and feuds between factions continued until the end of the conflict.

The consequences

Greece became an independent kingdom, but its territory remained limited: Thessaly and Epirus stayed Ottoman. The great powers, which had chosen the king, kept strong influence over Greek affairs. The philhellene enthusiasm left a lasting image of Greece in European public opinion.

Greece became an independent kingdom, but limited to the Peloponnese, central Greece and the islands, which fed the "Megali Idea" (Great Idea), a nationalist project to unite all Greeks. The kingdom obtained Thessaly in 1881, then new territories after the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. The national holiday of 25 March commemorates the traditional date of the uprising. The powers that had imposed Otto continued to weigh on the country's finances, until the bankruptcy of 1893, and historians still debate the role of the philhellenic ideal in European choices.

Timeline

1. 1821Start of the Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire
2. 1822The Assembly of Epidaurus proclaims Greek independence
3. 1826Fall of Missolonghi after a long siege
4. 1827Battle of Navarino: the allied fleet destroys the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet
5. 1832Treaty of Constantinople: Greece is recognized as an independent kingdom

Key figures

• Theodoros Kolokotronis, military leader of the Peloponnese during the uprising
• Lord Byron, English philhellene poet, died at Missolonghi in 1824
• Ioannis Kapodistrias, first head of the Greek state, assassinated in 1831
• Otto of Bavaria, first king of Greece, chosen by the European powers