Decline of the Ottoman Empire

From the ^eighteenth century , the system established by the Ottomans lost its steam. The administration was increasingly ineffective, the power of the Sultan was waning in favor of small provincial governors. The army, which had its operation and its power enabled the building of the empire, was completely outdated. The Ottoman Empire was not only more invincible, but it seemed more and more low . Topics glimpsed hope for change and its enemies opened the " Eastern Question ".

Popular Discontent

With the disintegration of central power, the abuses of the local lords were accentuated. Primarily, the tax burden became heavier because of farming taxes. It was also the case in areas directly ruled by the Ottomans in the communities where the mighty Greek dominated . This, and the wave of instability and insecurity that accompanied it, partly explains the last great wave of conversions to Islam in the second half of the ^eighteenth century , mainly in the plains of northern Greece . The actual weight of taxes added a moral reason. They continued to suffer morally, although the practice has disappeared since the beginning of the century, the paidomazoma. It played a role in the mindset of people .

A very old reflexes of resistance was flight: flight to the mountains agrapha or abroad. To survive in the mountains, except livestock and crops precarious one way was robbery. A party of men was therefore klepht (the first documented back to the ^sixteenth century ). Initially regarded as bandits, they eventually, especially with the romantic Western, by acquiring an aura of freedom fighters. They mainly attacked the Ottomans, but also the rich in their service. To fight against gangs klephts, the Ottoman power (central or local) had recourse to the carnival dressed. Clearly, the governor hired a band that became klephts carnival dressed, struggled against the other time klephts in a semblance of law and order and then rejoin klephts, when the Ottomans did not pay more. The Tactical Combat klephts, klephtopolmos said, was the guerrilla : helping hands fast by taking advantage of favorable terrain such as mountain passes. The klephts developed a sense of belonging to a group: the first band and the territory it controlled, but then feel differences from the Turks (in the west of the peninsula) the Italians. There was a basis for the birth of a Greek national sentiment ^, .

Enlightenment and national spirit

The Greek emigrants and traders found themselves in the middle of the ^eighteenth century in contact with the ideas of the Enlightenment that flourished in the West and were realized in the American Revolution and the French Revolution. They were also gradually bourgeois class , vector ideas of the Enlightenment and revolution. The works and ideas are diffused gradually in the Greek territory ^, .

Rigas (or Velestinlis said Rigas Rigas Fros), born in 1757 and executed in 1798, was the symbol and the main architect of this phenomenon. Born into a wealthy family, he studied that allowed him to enter the service of hospodars Greek Wallachia ( Alexander Ypsilanti then Niklaos Mavrogenes ). He then moved to Vienna in 1796. Influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution , he made numerous written policies in the service of democracy , freedom and independence of the Balkan peoples oppressed by the Ottomans , as his or her Thourios New Political Constitution ^, . Rigas wanted his nation took up arms and soulevt against the Ottoman Empire. To get there, he first undertook to restore confidence to the Greeks, then make them willing to sacrifice their lives for freedom. Throughout his work, he insisted on the link and continuity between ancient Greece and modern Greece. He explained to his contemporaries that their legacy had left their illustrious elders: the ancient Greek cities, the economic and political power and bravery , as in its Greek translation of the young Anacharsis Travel in Greece Jean-Jacques Bartholomew and his Map of Greece to accompany the book. His Thourios (War Song) begins with the evocation of the situation of all people oppressed by the arbitrary power of the Ottoman Empire. It was not directed in effect only to Greeks, but to all Balkan peoples submitted to the Sultan, he said, was no longer unbeatable. He stressed the need for religious tolerance to unite all the oppressed, Muslims included. He also addressed to Greeks of the Diaspora, asking them to return to fight for the freedom of their homeland. He finally recalled, as usual, the past glories of their ancestors . The New Administration Policy (draft constitution) Rigas was inspired largely by the French constitution of 1793. It begins with a Declaration of Human Rights of 35 items, inspired by the Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789. It should apply to running a democratic republic with proportional representation. The text affirms the equality of citizens before the law, individual liberty and national freedom of expression, conscience, religion, assembly and the abolition of slavery, respect for property, the prohibition wear; the necessary resistance to violence and injustice. Compulsory education for boys and girls, it was planned, as well as gender and military service compulsory for both sexes. Rigas also made it mandatory participation in political life ^, .

Rigas was not alone in seeking to awaken the national feeling Greek. Other scientists and scholars working there while at the same time, one of the most famous was Adamantios Koras. Without his tragic (and perhaps his Thourios), Rigas was ranked among the numerous and somewhat forgotten, "Masters of the Nation," as they were called later. His work is indeed characteristic of a scholar of the Enlightenment: Following extensive encyclopaedic but marked by the romance and lulled by illusions .

Adamantios Koras , born in Smyrna in 1748 and died in Paris in 1833 , was a physician and scholar at the origin of the Katharevousa (cleansed Greek). He undertook and to "translate" from the ancient Greek in this form of modern Greek masterpieces of ancient literature. He admired the American Revolution and the French Revolution. It was a direct witness of it. Despite the excesses of a href = "Terreur_ (R% C3% A9volution_fran% C3% A7ais)" title = "Terror (French Revolution)"> Terror he disapproved, he continued to admire Achievements of the French nation. He considered that the French had managed such great things through education. The aim was to educate the Greeks to help them free themselves from the tutelage of the Turks that he hated. He placed much of its hopes in France but was wary of the United Kingdom and Russia ^{Influence of Russia}

Catherine II of Russia had the same dream that Greek Peter the Great. She did not want to just expand Russian influence further south in search of an open sea (which does not freeze in winter like other Russian seas). She wanted to replace the Ottoman Empire with "Empire of the Balkans ", protected by Russia, or governed by a Russian. One of his grand-son was named Constantine in honor of the last Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus he could take over. Catherine, in order to achieve this goal, a rhetoric deployed in the Balkans and Greece, saying such as "historical rights" of Hellenism to lead the region. His envoys also took numerous contacts with community leaders, clergy and leaders of klephts Greece ^, .

The Russian intervention was also more direct with the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. The signal was then given the revolt in the Peloponnese in 1769. This was the " Revolution of Orloff. A fleet of seven ships commanded by Russian brothers Feodor and Alexis Orloff intervened in Aegean and won the battle of Tchesme. But the quota proved insufficient, as the Greek aid to the insurgents. Some regions (Peloponnese, Cyclades) were once freed from the Ottomans. However, the objective of Catherine II reached the north, the Russians withdrew. The Ottoman rulers sent tapes of carnival dressed Albanian regain the Peloponnese, which was devastated during a decade .

The Treaty of Kk-Kainardji of 1774 had made the Czar of Russia the protector of the Orthodox (and Greek) in the Ottoman Empire , giving it a legal possibility of intervention on the side of the Greeks . The treaty was completed in 1779 by a new agreement by then a commercial agreement in 1783. The Greeks could sail in the Black Sea and Mediterranean under the Russian flag. They could also install trading houses in Russia, including in Crimea. In 1819, the thousand ships "Russian" in the Mediterranean, half were Greeks. Soon, families grew rich from trade and poorer islands far acquired importance: Hydra , Spetses , Psara , Kassos , Mykonos , etc.. This accentuated the contacts with Western ideas and with Russia, while increasing the numerical middle class .

Filiki Eteria

On 14 September 1814 , at Odessa , three members of the Greek bourgeois merchant class in Russia, Nikolaos Skophas, Athanasios Tskalov and Emmanuel Xanthos, created the Filiki Eteria on the model of Freemasonry. She experienced a slow start, then a strong increase after 1818 by, for example, Anagnostaras. She recruited throughout Greece and all over the Diaspora . In 1819, the Filiki Eteria had 452 members: 44% belonged to the merchant class and 41% in the bureaucracy or the intelligentsia . Thirty-six of these members came from Russia , 25 of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia , 62 Constantinople , 125, Peloponnese , 25 of the Aegean islands and 41 of the Ionian Islands. Members were in the early years of young men whose proportion decreased. In 1818, over 70% were under 40 years. In 1819 they represented less than half .

The Filiki Eteria asked Ioannis Kapodistrias to his head. Born into a wealthy family in Corfu , editor of the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of the Seven Islands and a member of his government, he had noted during the Russian occupation of the archipelago and had entered Russian diplomacy until 'to become a minister in St. Petersburg , combined with Nesselrode. But Kapodistria refused in January 1820. The direction was then given to another Greek in the service of Czar Alexander Ypsilanti . The idea was to coordinate an uprising among the Danubian provinces north and south and the Peloponnese.

Phanariotes

Among the members of the Filiki Eteria , there were the Phanariotes , that is to say, from the Greek Orthodox Fener district in Constantinople. They were the most senior official Ottoman Greek origin. Since the ^seventeenth century , the Sultan did not hesitate to take his service. There were two reasons: the Ottoman administration was partly inherited from the administration Byzantine , Greeks were thus well placed to make it work; the Phanariotes were rich and could buy the administrative burden. In the eighteenth ^century , the Phanariotes were appointed at the head of principalities (vassal of the Ottoman Empire) in Moldavia and Wallachia , with its capital respectively Iasi and Bucharest. There, enjoying the autonomy of these principalities vis--vis the Sublime Porte, during their "princely" became centers of intense intellectual activity, heavily influenced by France of the Encyclopedia. Notables senior, however, they remained more reformist than revolutionary ^, .

The revolt of Ali Pasha

Contacts had taken place between the Filiki Eteria and Ali Pasha of Janina. This chieftain original Albanian born in the 1740s began his career as klepht and carnival dressed. He had managed to carve out an area more or less autonomous north-west of the Ottoman Empire, around Berat , Delvino , Preveza and Ioannina. He wanted to go totally independent of the sovereignty of the Sultan. He then sought for allies to break the door. So he approached the Eteria and hoped to win the friendship of Russia , as the saying is Eteria supported by the Tsarist Empire. On the advice of Germanos of Patras , it would have also decided to approach the pasha of Yanina .

However, Ali Pasha, at the same time, tried to assassinate one of his political enemies, Ismail Pasha, Constantinople. The failure led to the rift between Ali Pasha and the Porte. On 23 March 1820 , he announced openly that he was the liberator of the Greeks and received in exchange for the assurance of support Hetairia . Sultan Ismail Pasha sent first, then Khursit Pasha , the governor of Peloponnesus, at the head of thousands of men caught in the different provinces of the Ottoman Empire to crush his rebellious subject. Of Pallikaris Greek, controlled by members of the Eteria as Odysseas Androutsos , fought in the camp of Ali Pasha. This mobilization of the Ottoman troops in Epirus served as the views of Hetairia: other provinces were discovered, the struggle for liberation may be easier . However, in January 1821, Ali Pasha, who was attempting a comeback with the Sultan denounced the Hetairia and its members in letters he sent to Constantinople. This betrayal was one of many elements that informed the Porte of what was going on, forcing the Hetairia to accelerate the course of events . Nevertheless, the Ottoman troops remained concentrated around Ioannina leaving the field in other provinces. The army Khursit Pasha, the governor of the Peloponnese, said the head of Ioannina, and the palace of Ali Pasha until January 1822 .

The War in the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia

Objectives

October 7 (Julian) 1820, a meeting of Filiki Eteria was held in Izmail in Bessarabia , at the initiative of Papaphlssas . It was proposed to Ypsilanti to attack by the Danubian provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia as Hetairists considered another Greece. The inhabitants were Orthodox. Leaders, hospodars serving the Door , were Phanariotes , thus potentially favorable to the Greek cause. The Hospodar Phanariot of Moldova , Michel Soutsos was even a member of the Hetairia and supportive of the uprising. Their directors, composed of Greeks, was largely already affiliated with the Hetairia, like Greek merchants. In addition, regions were no longer defended by several hundred Turkish soldiers, the others having been mobilized against Ali Pasha of Janina. The area was also long been coveted by Russia. Y trigger the uprising would only meet the Tsar and his win final support. Finally, the treaties between the Russian and Ottoman Empire banned the Porte to send troops into the Danubian provinces without the consent of St. Petersburg .

In late January 1821, two agents of Ypsilanti, carrying letters concerning the insurgency signed by him, were captured in Serbia and Thessaloniki. It might be recalled by the Tsar. It was rush events . February 16 (Julian) 1821, Chisinau , Ypsilanti fixed the final date of the uprising in March 25 for Greece and even crossed the Prut February 22 (Julian), thereby triggering the insurgency in the Danubian provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia .

Failed

The day before the coming of Ypsilanti in the Danubian provinces, at Galatz , Vasilios Karavia, principal member of the local Hetairia, meet other members and his followers. He told them that the outbreak of the uprising was near and he had to take the Ottoman troops by surprise. These were immediately killed. Then Karavia living there a way to get rich, ordered the massacre of Hetairists Turkish merchants of the city and to seize their property. Karavia later became one of the two battalion commanders of the troops of Ypsilanti. Similarly, when, on March 6, Jassy , the capital of Moldavia, was taken (without fighting), Ypsilanti badly in need of funds to pay his troops, raised a "revolutionary tax" on the richest citizens and extorted from large sums to a Greek banker in the city, claiming that he had concealed (perhaps deliberately) funds to Hetairia ^, . March 14, he left to head Jassy about 1600 men including 800 riders, most volunteers Hetairists. The troops marched on Wallachia. En route, volunteers Hetairists indulged in widespread looting (the company had decided to live on the country) who dconsidrrent. Gradually, local people began to fear their arrival .

In March, the Tsar and Kapodistria since Laibach Congress condemned the outbreak of the Greek insurrection, and Alexander ^I of Ypsilanti drove his army and forbade him to set foot on Russian territory. At the same time, the Patriarch of Constantinople Grigorios launched an anathema against the Hetairia which endangered the Orthodox Church. If those shots that struck the movement does not deter Ypsilanti, his case suffered. He was abandoned by some of its troops, as well as Michel Soutsos who fled to Russia. He moved to April 16 Tergovist with just over 600 men. Among these, he had organized his Hetairists the youngest and strongest in a sacred battalion as dressed in black with a skull emblem and two crossbones above the motto Liberty or death ^, .

Tudor Vladimirescu had benefited from the input Ypsilanti in the Danubian provinces to trigger a revolt Romanian national, more or less coordinated with the Greek attempt. But the two movements were in competition. Some officers were Vladimirescu Hetairists and resented his discipline and policy. The lieutenant Vladimirescu, a Greek Hetairists Iorgaki Olimpiotis, denounced his troops before the ambiguous attitude, stopped him and brought him to camp in Ypsilanti where he was executed. Vladimirescu troops were combined with those of Ypsilanti. In mid-June, he tried to move north. June 13 (Julian), the Ottoman troops had regained Iasi. They marched to the meeting in Ypsilanti. The meeting took place June 19 at Dragatsani. There, the battalion commanded by Iorgaki Olimpiotis sacred and the youngest brother Ypsilanti, Nicholas, and 500 cavalry commanded by Vasilios Karavia were cut to pieces by the Ottoman troops. Vasilios Karavia and his men fled. Iorgaki Olimpiotis managed to save a hundred men (among them was Tskalov Athanasios, a founder of the Filiki Eteria) and the banner of unity. The rest of the Sacred Band, more than 400 men perished. The only battle of Ypsilanti and Hetairia in the Danubian provinces ended in disaster. The army is disintegrating. Ypsilanti managed to somehow win the Austrian Empire where he ended his life in prison ^, .

Uprising in Greece

Uprising

Founding Myth

The official story (March 25 is one of two national holidays in Greece ) has started the war of independence on 25 March 1821 , the monastery of Aghia Lavra Kalavryta north of the Peloponnese. There, the Metropolitan of Patras , Germans , would have miraculously escape sixty Ottoman horsemen came to arrest him, thanks to the 1500 Greek peasants present who have pushed the war cry of the Maccabees : "Victory of God". Then he celebrated a " Te Deum "for the 5000 farmers who had gradually assembled. He then preached insurrection against the Turks, saying that the Greeks should fight alone, without counting on help from major powers. He announced the events of the Danubian provinces and Janina, and their ultimate defeat would happen necessarily. But he said they served the Greek cause, entertaining the troops that could crush the revolt. He then gave a preemptive absolution to the crowd, distributed to the various leaders present (which Theodoros Kolokotronis ) the tasks they had to do and sent everybody into battle .

The principal propagator of this version is Francis Pouqueville who was long one of the "sources" in the history of the war of independence with his huge work History of the regeneration of Greece ... The story is "too good to be true. It relates very strongly to the beginnings of the insurgency fundamental Christians. March 25 is in effect the Feast of the Annunciation (, Evangelismos Greek). The incident took place in a monastery. A miracle reminiscent Maccabees saves Germanos. The crowd reached 5,000 people, many of those who listened to the Sermon on the Mount. In the construction of the story, insisting on religion is a way to emphasize the difference with the Muslim Ottomans. Moreover, Kolokotronis could not find Kalavryta at that time. Finally, Metropolitan demonstrated a great ability to geostrategic analysis, only later authors could have. The facts were somewhat different .

Early Fighting

A number of events leading to the clash between Turks and Greeks took place in the early months of 1821. Theodoros Kolokotronis , who came from Zante , had also toured the Peloponnese since the beginning of January 1821 to advance the cause Independence . Kolokotronis, who had served in the British army, had gone to Zante with that Corfu was a hotbed of the insurgency, the islands occupied by the United Kingdom is one of the few Greek regions not subject to the Ottoman Empire.

It is more likely that the uprising began between 15 and 20 March (Julian), on the north coast of the Peloponnese (Patras, Vostitsa, Kalavryta) and the Magne. Thus, March 14 (Julian) already, a company controlled by a small Hetairists Nikolas Suliotes, intercepted near Agridis in Achaia sent messengers to Khursit Pasha Ali Pasha besieged in Ioannina. They were carrying letters warning him of the impending uprising. It was therefore necessary to prevent them from completing their mission. This clash can be considered the first confrontation of the war of independence . On March 17 (Julian), Petrobey have met the principal chiefs of the clan Magne to Tsimova (since renamed Areopoli) to proclaim the insurgency with an oath on the flag " Freedom or Death. " Thus, they were the first to have raised. Then, the March 18 (Julian), the fighting took place near Kalavryta north of the peninsula was taken March 21 (Julian) 23, it was the turn of Vostitsa north and Kalamata (the first real city) south to be "liberated," while the region of Karytaina in Arcadia heaved. March 25 (Julian), while Germanos was supposed to proclaim national uprising, one of the "geriatric 'of Tripolizza , Anagnostis Kontak, organized the first "military camp" Greek Vervenne in Arcadia , to monitor movement Ottoman troops and protect the region against a potential attack. March 26 (Julian), Pyrgos in Elis rebelled. On 28, the seat of Monemvasia , where 4500 Turks had taken refuge, began. The city was only taken on July 23 (Julian), at a time when the morale of the insurgents was at its lowest because of the difficulties of headquarters Tripolizza .

The successes were not the rule everywhere. Thus, lifting around Gastouni (north-western Peloponnese) led to the siege of Fort Chlemoutsi March 26 (Julian) who had to be lifted the day after facing an attack against Turkish troops in Albania . The situation was very complicated to Patras. From March 23 (Julian), the Ottoman forces, who suspected a Greek city of hiding weapons, set fire to the house, unable to penetrate. The whole town was burnt. Two hundred homes were destroyed in half a day. Clashes sparked between Greeks and Turks in the city. They constituted one third of the population of Patras. They took refuge in the fortress overlooking the city on which they began to shoot. The Greeks laid siege with their own guns. In both cases, the shots proved ineffective. Reinforcements led by Greek Germanos and Andreas Londos, two hundred men, arrived on 26 (Julian). The seat was organized, and the looting of Turkish houses in the city. April 3 (Julian), Youssouf Pasha, the new Pasha of Evia , with 300 to 1,000 men according to sources made his entrance in Patras. The troops were sent Germanos to meet him had deserted their posts to come and take part in looting. Yet the Greeks who outnumbered the Ottomans fled upon their arrival. Yusuf ordered that the houses of leaders of the rebellion were burned. The wind fanned the flames again, and seven hundred buildings were destroyed in turn. The Greeks took refuge in the consulates of the Western powers or fled by boat to the Ionian Islands. The fortress of Patras remained in the hands of the Ottomans throughout the war (she was only taken by French troops from the Morea expedition in 1828). The city had over at the end of 1821 a dozen houses still standing .

Wins Greek

In the Peloponnese , two regions were at the heart of the insurgency: the Achaia and Magne. Part of the bands more or less organized Pallikaris . The headquarters Tripolizza allowed Theodoros Kolokotronis to impose a reorganization of the Greek troops. Until then, the insurgents belonged to a gang, often family (like the time they were klephts ) and obeyed the head of it, very often the eldest of the family. Their weapons were rudimentary, usually a knife or converted agricultural tools (spade, for example). There was no coordination between the bands whose leaders were pursuing personal goals. Supplies were provided by women. Kolokotronis was trained military troops in British and Ionian Islands , where he attained the rank of major. He imposed a more rational mode of operation. Band leaders were officially appointed "officers", written by a patent. They should provide an accurate count of the number of men constituting the group. This will prevent the swell to get more weapons, more food and more money for the sales. This also prevented the men return home without anyone knowing. Kolokotronis finally imposed its centralized command a certain discipline in the bands and coordination between them . This organization allowed the taking of Tripolizza but did not prevent the massacre of the Turkish population and looting of the city .

The small islands of the Aegean played a role. Commercial fleets of Hydra , Spetses and Psara were transformed into war fleets. It was not difficult to add guns to the ships which were already sufficiently armed to cope with the threat of pirates. The owners of these islands belonged to the new middle class enriched by commerce, responsive to the ideas of the Enlightenment and having already tasted the self-administration. They were supportive of the uprising, whose victory would endorse their freedom permanently. The vessels of these islands played a key role in blocking the supply of fortresses Ottoman siege. They dominated the seas and hesitate to use fire ships against the Ottoman fleet .

Other parts of Greece were less organized and centralized than the Peloponnese. In central Greece, due to a stronger tradition of bands klephts / carnival dressed and most rugged geography where urban centers lacked the forces were more dispersed. The Greek Pallikaris soon dominated the countryside. The guerrillas klephtopolmos assured them most often Victory ( Battle of the khan of Gravia ) but sometimes the gangs could not face the Ottoman troops ( Battle of Alamanni ). The insurgents took the Greeks Ottoman fortresses: Athens , Salona , Livadia , Lepanto. Further north ( Thessaly and Macedonia ), the forces were even more dispersed and unorganized. In addition, the plains were there long held by the Ottoman troops. The Crete where the Ottoman presence was stronger in rebellion came late in June 1821 .

Proclamation of Independence

End December 1821, fifty-nine representatives from various local governments organized in the regions identified met at Piada (renamed today Nea Epidavros, near the ancient Epidaurus ). They mainly came from Morea (twenty representatives), the "Greece of the Levant "(twenty-six representatives), the" Greece of the West (eight or nine representatives) and islands shipowners ( Hydra , Psara and Spetses ). The islands of the Aegean had no representatives. Some Phanariots were also present .

p> Members of the Greeks proved divided into two parties: that of "political" and that "military". The party dominated policy in the Peloponnese. He had the support of the three islands and bishops. It was directed by Alexandros Mavrokordtos. The party of "politics" was rather liberal , defending the concept of national sovereignty in the West. The party of "military" had its greatest influence in central Greece, even though he had grown in the Peloponnese with the victories of Kolokotronis. This led the party of the captains, working closely with Dimitrios Ypsilanti. Under the influence of Ypsilanti, very close, as his brother Alexander to model autocratic Russia , he leaned towards the establishment of an authoritarian or even dictatorial time of conflict. But it was divided into many streams, corresponding to the various warlords .

Reaction Ottoman

The Greeks were not raised victorious everywhere. In the north of the peninsula, the Ottoman forces who already held the plains and could draw on the capital , relatively close, cons-attacked and crushed the insurgents. The Halkidiki was submitted late 1821, the company settled on the Olympus , which went down to Salonica was crushed in April 1822 Thessaly was recaptured in August 1823 when the last bastion insurgent Trikeri fell. In Epirus , where the fighting was concentrated against Ali Pasha of Janina (defeated in January 1822), Ottoman troops besieged and reduced the Suliotes who surrendered in September 1822. The expedition led by Alexandros Mavrokordtos to support the insurgents of Epirus and Souli was a failure. At the battle of Peta , the Philhellene battalion was decimated . The majority of the fighting concentrated in the so Peloponnese or for entry into the peninsula.

There was also the announcement from the uprising of the massacres of Greeks in Constantinople , Salonica , Adrianople , Smyrna or Kydon. The Patriarch of Constantinople , Gregory V , was convicted and hanged as well as of 10 April 1821. He was left exposed three days before his body was delivered to the crowd in the city .

Massacre of Chios

Chios was one of the richest in the Aegean and the Greek insurgents attempted to rally to their cause. By May 1821, Iakovos Tombazis had gone for help puppy, without success . The island feared for its citizens scattered in all ports of the Ottoman Empire . To be sure of the loyalty of the islanders, Sultan strengthened the garrison and took forty hostages among the richest families . In March 1822, a troop Samian landed on Chios of klephts and took the capital. The Sultan sent his Capitan Pasha (Ottoman admiral of the fleet), Kara-Ali, the recovery of the island. It could have with 30 000 volunteers gathered at Chesma , attracted by the prospect of loot .

Klephts resistance was brief. Repulsed, they finally evacuated and the population began to be systematically massacred and executed hostages. However, much of the population was rather enslaved and sold on the markets of Constantinople is either Smyrna , from Egypt or North Africa. Some of them were bought by western diplomats who had earlier also tried to save the inhabitants of the island of massacres that lasted from mid-April to late May 1822 . June 18 (June 6, Julian) 1822, Captain psariote Constantine Kanaris sank the Ottoman flagship with a fire ship, killing the Ottoman admiral Kara Ali and 2000 Turkish sailors. This action is regarded by Greek historiography as having avenged the massacre of Chios .

The population of the island in early 1822 is estimated between 100,000 and 120,000 people of which 30 000 lived in Chora, the capital. There were also around 2,000 Muslims on the island ^, . The most common estimates are 25,000 dead and 45,000 people enslaved. 10 000 to 20 000 had managed to escape ^, .

An immense feeling at the horrors committed crossed Europe, sparking a first wave of philhellenism. Castlereagh , the British Foreign Secretary, threatened the Ottoman Empire of a rupture of diplomatic relations. Eugene Delacroix exhibited his Scene of the Massacre at Chios at the Salon of 1824. Charles X made him immediately acquired for the Louvre. In Russia , Prince Golitsyn organized a fundraiser to help victims of the massacres. The collection Les Orientales by Victor Hugo , includes a poem "The Greek child" dedicated to the massacre of Chios ^{, ,} .

Reaction in Europe

philhellenism

The Greeks received assistance from many foreign volunteers (the Philhellenes ), including British liberals like Lord Byron and French as Colonel Fabvier , and won success on the troops of the sultan. Byron landed with arms supplied by the committees Philhellenes European January 4, 1824 at Missolonghi. His death in April, was an important turning signal awareness of the situation across Europe.

Diplomacy Metternich

To keep intact the work of the Congress of Vienna , to protect themselves from internal revolutions and maintain the geopolitical balance in place in Europe, the victorious powers of France , had organized in the Holy Alliance. The latter, thanks to the policy of Congress, watched very fussy to changes in domestic politics of European countries. The Austrian chancellor, Prince Metternich was its main architect. It was passed in Congress Troppau late 1820 the right of the legitimate powers of intervention in a country threatened by any revolutionary movement (liberal or national). These movements could break the political stability of Europe. This was true of the creation of a independent Greece weakening the Ottoman Empire, Empire which could eventually implode and fragment. The European equilibrium would be in danger, and Europe could again experience a conflict of the magnitude of the Napoleonic wars.

In 1822, Alexander ^I was more inclined to follow the path suggested to him Kapodistrias and help Greece insurgent. He complained of not finding at Vienna and the Holy Alliance all the support he could have expected when he himself had assisted in the affairs of Italy a few months earlier. He sent General Tatistchev plead his case. He wanted his final was recognized as protector of the Orthodox in the Ottoman Empire. He also wanted the assurance of support, at least moral, in case of military action on its part against the Turks. But, General Tatistchev was a political enemy personnel Kapodistrias. He could not stand the influence that a Greek might have on her Russian tsar. Alexander von Metternich could not get the assurance that, if the Sultan rejected the legitimate demands of St. Petersburg, then the Emperor Francis would sever diplomatic relations with the Sublime Porte, as the most solemn and most vivid possible provided that all other allies do the same. The Russians did not support the hardcore of the Austrian Empire and dared not commit too much before.

Alexander ^I accepted that the Greek problem was discussed at a ministerial conference in Vienna. Decisions taken by the conference would then be proposed for approval at the next congress of the Holy Alliance. Accept a conference in Vienna was returning to accept a settlement of the Austrian crisis. The Tsar appointed as Tatistchev representative at the conference. Memoranda and notes he sent the Tsar had been written by Metternich himself . End of June 1822, the triumph of Austria was total. Alexander ^I suggested to Kapodistrias to take leave indefinitely. The latter departed for Greece.

In October, the Congress of Verona , the Eastern Question seemed settled. Alexander ^I was satisfied with the moral support in his complaints against the Sublime Porte . He raised no objection when it refused to receive the delegation that the Greek insurgents had sent to plead their cause. The affairs of Spain were far more urgent to resolve. The Tsar found himself face to a contradiction. How could he accept the French intervention against the Spanish liberals in revolt against their legitimate sovereign and suggest a Russian intervention in favor of liberal Greeks against their lawful sovereign?

The French quickly overcame Spanish with insurgents at the Battle of Trocadero. Alexander ^I had more time to worry about the Spanish Revolution and turned his attention to Greece. The Tsar agreed at a meeting in October 1823 all that Metternich proposed for over a year: separate conflicts. Then there was one side of the conflict between Russia and Turkey about the Romanian provinces. Alexander agreed that the dispute could be settled by the joint mediation of Austria and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, there was the Greek problem and mainly how the Sublime Porte submitted a region that belonged to him. Alexander accepted the principle of conferences "Greek" in St. Petersburg. There, the diplomatic representatives Prussian, British, French and Austrian had no power of decision and were forced at each stage to refer to their respective governments, which, given the distances, promised to infinite time. Thus, the Greek insurrection would have had ample time to be strangled by the Turks, without need for external mediation .

The conference dragged on as planned. In the fall of 1824, Alexander ^I proposed the creation of three Christian principalities more or less autonomous in Greece, a little on the model of Moldavia and Wallachia. The project is not successful. They parted to resume early in 1825 .

Civil wars

Greek insurgents seemed easier then to the Holy Alliance. They had won the first two years of conflict, but soon they stopped fighting against the Turks to fight them, mainly to share power.

The Greek side was indeed affected by many factors of disunity, of several kinds. The first was a geographic antagonism, mainly between the inhabitants of mainland Greece or Roumeliotis, or Morotes the Peloponnesians, and the inhabitants of the islands of the Aegean owners; other divisions existed within these sets, as competition between the neighboring islands of Hydra and Spetses, or bad relations between lowlanders and highlanders semi-independent Magne , accused of robbery and contempt in return their neighbors .

The second main factor of division was the rivalry between the different categories of potential leaders, from social groups with conflicting interests: the top three were the civilian leaders, military leaders and Westernized Greeks. The first group comprised of notables from the mainland and islands of the merchant class, whose kotsabassides, landowners from the Ottoman administration, which managed the collection of taxes and had acquired a monopoly on the products of Export as currants, and secondly the higher clergy, often based on the powerful families of notables. The second group consisted of warlords from the class "para-social" of klephts, carnival dressed and robbers, often made from the peasantry as Kolokotronis and based on it, they had often served the earlier during the Ottoman period. The third class consisted of both the merchants of the Greek diaspora settled in Western Europe and the rest of the Ottoman Empire, Phanariots from high Ottoman administration, and intellectuals who have studied abroad .

We then witnessed two civil wars in 1823-1825. The first was caused by the notables who wanted to regain control of the revolution and restored in the way they defended by removing the warlords from power. The second contrasted the mainland to the islands. On one side were the notables of the Peloponnese aided by Kolokotronis and other traders in the islands ( Hydra mainly with Georgios Kountouriotis and Mavrokordtos ) supported by the Liberals, the majority of the class and the soldiers of Greece Central.

Divisions among Greeks

The National Assembly of Epidaurus , had met in December 1821 and January 1822, representatives of various insurgent regions. They were then divided into two parties: that of "political" or "significant" and the "captains" or "military". Policies, directed by Alexandros Mavrokordtos were rather liberal and defending the concept of national sovereignty in the West. The party was led by captains Kolokotronis, working closely with Dimitrios Ypsilanti and leaned to the establishment of an authoritarian or even dictatorial time of conflict. But it was divided into many streams, corresponding to the various warlords . The party policy succeeds in imposing its concept of power. He had defeated the party of the military. They do not want to admit defeat while policies definitely wanted to get rid of them . The effects made themselves felt at the National Assembly Astros.

It meets in March 1823 in the small town of Astros, a few miles south of Nafplion then in the hands of the clan Kolokotronis. In fact, delegates were divided into two different camps in two villages near the Astros. On the one hand policies around Alexandros Mavrokordtos and the other soldiers around Kolokotronis, and between, a wide ditch. Each camp was protected by armed men: 800 in 2400 among military and politicians. The dispute took shape. The policy sought to control the military and their actions in the war of independence. The military, led Kolokotronis, felt that policies should not only take care of supplies .
Among his various decisions, the Assembly created a Senate that would exercise the legislative and executive who thus exercise the executive power. The Assembly appointed the members of the Senate, which in turn would appoint five persons to the Executive. The Senate was then composed of "political". He immediately decided to abolish the post of Commander in Chief. It was a way to reduce the influence of Kolokotronis. To appease the former archistrtigos, the Senate appointed party members of the military, as Petros Mavromichalis or Andreas Metaxas in the new Executive. It was not enough .

At the end of the session, in June 1823, it was decided to move the seat of government (Executive and Senate) to Tripoli , the city at the center of the Peloponnese, rebuilt after the siege victorious by Kolokotronis. It was installed in the area where he had the most influence. And indeed, the Executive decided immediately to convene a new National Assembly, Karytaina. Rather than arrive at this end, the Senate decided to appoint Kolokotronis also a member of the Executive, but in such terms that he could not refuse without triggering a civil war, and he refused not :
"If you do not accept this offer you are the People and the Government, and if you did not order your men to stop any action against the Government, then the Government would find itself in the unpleasant duty to declare to you, you and your family and you go after rebels as traitors and enemies of the People. If the conflict that followed, you were victorious (that we can not believe), then the Greeks Rumelia and islands should be resolved to seek an honorable peace with the Turks . "

The two branches of government were far in August, Kolokotronis friendly regions. They went to Salamis , before disbanding in October. The Executive Committee, dominated by the military moved to Nafplion Peloponnese, while the Senate, to the politicians stood under the protection of owners of the islands Hydra and Spetses by moving the tip of the peninsula of Argolis in Krandhi .

Kolokotronis perhaps would not accept the obligation that had been made to enter the Senate, if there had not seen his own (financial) interest. But over the months, the "reasons" to stay became less and less "obvious". He also realized that his reputation suffered. The Greeks regarded him less as a hero and Tripolizza Dervnakia, and more and more like a politician like the others. In late October, he left the Executive .

Conflicts

In fall 1823, the Senate and the Executive did not cease to compete at the slightest pretext. One of the hardest conflicts took place about the quorum of voting a tax on salt . Finally, on December 7 (Julian) resigned the Senate Andreas Metaxas from his position in the Executive and appointed in his place a "political" Ioannis Kolet .
The next day, December 9, supporters reacted Kolokotronis. His son, Panos, took the head of 200 men, Nafplio, Argos marched on which the Senate was in session. He broke up before the troops arrived to again find refuge Krandhi under the protection of Hydra and Spetses. His first decision was to remove the last soldiers of the executive and replaced by policies which Georgios Kountouriotis , Hydriot owner. Members resigned from the Executive did not accept this decision. They were joined by a dozen senators favorable to the party of "military". They left to form their own government Tripolis. In early 1824, Greece had two insurgent governments, a "political" or "constitutional" in Krandhi, protected by the fleet and troops from mainland Greece, and a "military" in Tripoli, protected by troops morotes of Kolokotronis . Troops from both sides clashed, especially near Argos, often to the advantage of "political" announcing the arrival of the first payments of the new loan also allowed the British to poach some of the rebel troops. Nafplion held by the son of Kolokotronis was besieged. Finally, Kolokotronis accepted his defeat and treated with the primates of the Peloponnese, Londos, and Zaimis Notaras. They spared the however, in order not to over build islands of shipowners, their rival, a reversal occurred and alliances, leading to a second civil war with one hand the primates now Peloponnesian allies Kolokotronis and the other owners of the islands and most of the troops Roumeliotis. The rebels were eventually crushed by troops summoned by Kolet Roumeliotis, and their leaders were jailed early 1825.

Fighting in the Peloponnese

The situation during the Peloponnesian War is one of the most eloquent examples of the military difficulties faced by the Greeks. It was from this peninsula that left the insurgency, with Germanos in Patras, March-April 1821 and May 23 Kanelos Deliyannis to Langadia. Immediately, Maniotes of Petrobey Mavromichalis who had always resisted the Ottomans and had never been conquered, went into battle. They were joined by Kolokotronis and his men. The city of Tripoli was captured in October 1821. In 1822, Kolokotronis defeated the Turkish Pasha Dramali Dervenaki the parade and took the road to Corinth and then to Nafplion , which fell in 1823. Then took place the cons-Turkish attack with Ibrahim Pasha who regained all Peloponnesus with his Egyptian army. It was not until 1828 that the Battle of Navarino, and landing of the French expedition to Morea forced the Ottomans to evacuate the peninsula.

The Sultan asked the help of her Egyptian vassal Mehemet Ali. The latter is charged directly to suppress the revolution in Crete at Kasos and Psara. Ibrahim's son Muhammad Ali landed in the Peloponnese. The Greek fleet could not prevent the landing because the sailors had not been paid for long refused to take the sea obtained by Egyptian troops Morea victories proved. The defeats Greek multiplied from 1824 to 1827, despite strong resistance Kolokotronis in the Peloponnese, the Karaiskakis in central Greece, Miaoulis and Sachtouris sea Ibrahim Pasha then began to deport Greeks in Egypt, which alienated the sympathy French and caused the building committee activity Philhellenes.

Europe's determination to intervene more broadly then took the scale. The Russian continued its policy to weaken the Ottoman Empire. She insisted on solidarity Orthodox foothold in the Balkans. The United Kingdom felt that he could not remain neutral if he wanted to remain present in the region diplomatically. The France which had long obeyed Metternich as she tried to forget the Revolution and Napoleon , changed policy now. X Charles , heir to the throne of France, considered the intervention in Greece as a moral obligation to come and rescue the Christian Greek.

The new Russian tsar, Nicolas ^I. , decided to take the initiative, he sent an ultimatum to Mahmud II in March 1826. The Sultan gave way. The Convention of Akkerman (October 1826) gave the Russians commercial benefits throughout the empire, and especially the right of protection on Moldova , the Wallachia and Serbia. This success led to the Russian reaction of the United Kingdom in July 1827 suggested that mediation British, Russian and French between Greeks and Turks. The Greeks were no longer in a position to refuse: they controlled more than Nafplion and Hydra. Sultan, by cons, rejected it. The three powers then threatened to intervene militarily. They concentrated their fleets to Navarino where an incident led to the destruction of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet (October 1827).
Meanwhile, a French expeditionary force landed in the Morea and obtained the departure of Ibrahim Pasha. Russian troops invaded and seized the Romanian provinces of Erzurum, eastern Turkey, and Adrianople in the West (August 1829). To avoid taking Constantinople by Russian troops, the United Kingdom obtained a diplomatic settlement. The Sultan had already surrendered and signed the Treaty of Adrianople (September 14, 1829) with Russia. This treaty was completed in February 1830 by the London Conference: the Greek independence was proclaimed and guaranteed by the great powers. The new state consisted of the Peloponnese, southern Rumelia (the border would Arta to Volos) and islands.

In May 1827, the National Assembly Troezen had written constitution and elected a third Ioannis Kapodistrias president. He ruled from January 1828 until his assassination in Nafplio , 9 October 1831. The three powers had proposed in 1830 the throne of Greece to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. But the latter, near Kapodistrias who had described the difficulties in steering the young state, refused, especially as the Greeks refused the constitutional arrangements he wanted. Leopold also became in 1831 the first king of Beles. It then chooses the young Otto of Wittelsbach , the second son, then aged 17, King of Bavaria , Louis ^I. This choice was approved Aug. 8, 1832 in Nafplion.

Notes

Chronology

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