History Of Modern Greece
This article discusses the history of modern Greece, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Accession to Independence
The Congress of Vienna had established a geopolitical status quo in Europe. However, it did not take into account the national aspirations. Various nationalities, included in multi-ethnic states and conscious of their difference with the dominant nationality, were seeking their independence. This was the case for the Greeks, included in the Ottoman Empire since the beginning of the XV century.
When an initial wave through Europe at the turn of the 1820s, Greece rose against the Turks. March 25 (Greek national holiday today), 1821, the Archbishop of Patras , Germanos raised the standard of freedom. This was the beginning of the Greek War of Independence.
After a series of early victories, a first National Assembly met at Epidaurus and claimed independence January 12, 1822. The Assembly passed a constitutional democratic government that creates the first General of Greece, but did not eliminate local governments. It justifies the Revolution, which she describes as "National Revolution". The cons-Ottoman attack was merciless: Massacre of Chios and Psara destruction. Especially, the Sultan called upon his vassal of Egypt, Mehmet Ali sent his son Ibrahim Pasha. The latter went to the Greek insurgents almost all of the country.
In 1827, independent Greece was reduced to Hydra and Nafplion. However, the Russians , not without ulterior political and geostrategic, did not abandon their fellow Greek Orthodox. In Western countries, the fate of the Greeks, as outlined by the writings of Francis Pouqueville in 1805, had moved the philhellenes, such as Lord Byron or Chateaubriand. France , UK and Russia intervened in favor of the Greeks: The naval battle of Navarino ( October 20, 1827). It is the prelude to a Russo-Turkish war which broke out a few months later. Turkey was defeated and forced by the Treaty of Adrianople (September 14, 1829) to recognize the independence of Greece. There is a conference in London (1830), who decides on a Greek independent state. Greece was declared independent. The Ottoman Empire did not recognize this fact until 1832, when the new state boundaries are not yet drawn.
The Bavarian monarchy
The powers who had lent their aid to Greece in its struggle for independence , France , UK and Russia stood to reap the benefits of their intervention. The political and economic life of the country passed very quickly under the control of States that s'autoproclamrent "Protecting Powers."
One of their first decisions was to deny the Greeks free to choose their diet and their head of state. While the Third National Assembly met in Troezen opted for a republic, led by Ioannis Kapodistrias , the Protecting Powers imposed monarchy and the second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto , as sovereign.
He arrived in Greece on board a British warship. He was accompanied by 4000 soldiers Bavarian, a Council of Regency (it was minor) and Bavarian Bavarian architects who undertook to redraw Athens chosen as the new capital. Then began the period of Xenocrates. The head of government, Ludwig von Armansperg , a Bavarian, was particularly hated.
Otto initially ruled in an authoritarian manner, establishing an absolute monarchy by divine right, and denying the constitution promised. The country was still modernized reorganization (or organization for short) of the administration of justice, a regular army, church and education (creation of the first University of Greece (1837)). This policy was facilitated by loans and many outweigh the Protecting Powers granted to Greece. These loans, as well as the direct intervention of Embassies in politics (the creation of political parties called the French party , party English or Russian party ), meant that Greece was largely ruled from London, Paris or St. Petersburg. But if the Protecting Powers were able to agree to support the independence of Greece, they differed on the direction to take him next. Above all, Russia was seeking to use Greece's attempt to dismantle the Ottoman Empire (to ensure access to Russia warm seas), while the United Kingdom wanted to maintain the integrity of it (at least until he is ready to replace it).
Greece enlisted in the war-Egyptian turquo alongside Mehmet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, who wanted to separate permanently from Istanbul. Military spending literally ruined the country. The Protecting Powers imposed humiliating conditions over the settlement of external debt.
From the first to the second Constitution (1843-1862)
The military defeats in the war-turquo Egyptian conditions imposed by the Protecting Powers and the discontent of the veterans of the Revolutionary War out of power by Xenocrates led the coup of 3 September 1843.
This insurrection, peaceful, consisted almost entirely of the respectful request addressed to the sovereign Otho have the magnanimity to grant a constitution. Gen. Dimitrios Kallergis , commander of the garrison of Athens , accompanied by a dense crowd went to the palace to file the application of the constitution promised by Otto when he was sitting on his throne. The king yielded.
If Greece was endowed with a constitution (called 1843) , it does not, however, worked in a parliamentary fashion. King, supported by Ioannis Kolet , his Prime Minister, ruled most of the time against the elected majority in the chamber.
In addition, the game of Protecting Powers had not stopped. Their divisions went even more profound ( Crimean War 1854-1855). Moreover, the problem of external debt was still outstanding and served as a pretext for foreign intervention. In 1850, the United Kingdom began a naval blockade of Greece. This blockade was increased during the Crimean War. Similarly, France and the United Kingdom occupied the Piraeus during the conflict. The occupation lasted until 1859, that is to say, until the establishment of an Audit Committee of the Kingdom.
In February 1861, a student Aristeidis Dosios attempted to assassinate Queen Amalia. He was sentenced to death but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on the intervention of the sovereign. If Dosios in some quarters became a national hero , his attempted assassination revived some sympathy for the queen and the royal couple.
The following year, a coup took place in Athens while the rulers were the royal visit in the Peloponnese. Otto and Amalia, on the advice of the Ambassadors of Protecting Powers, Greece had to flee aboard a British warship.
A referendum, unofficial, took place. He asked what the Greeks new sovereign they wanted to give. They chose the second son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom , Prince Alfred , who received 230,016 votes out of 244,202 votes cast. William of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg , second son of the future Christian IX of Denmark , not collected meanwhile only 6 votes. Prince Alfred was however rejected by the protecting powers: he was indeed part of the ruling family of one of them. So they chose, after much procrastination, the Danish prince who was finally elected by the Greek National Assembly under the name George I.
In compensation, the United Kingdom will restore the Ionian Islands to Greece.
Modernization?
The coup of 1862 and the election of George I were accompanied by the establishment of a new constitution in 1864. She extended the freedoms granted in 1844, but the king retained immense power, partly because the constitution was still very vague about it, mostly in foreign policy. Politics under George I was practically the same as during the reign of Otho.
The economic and social circumstances of Greece: agriculture dominant and low industrialization was that the public service through the development of the state, became the main employer. The number of officers per capita was then the highest in Europe. As in most countries ( France of Guizot or USA for example) in the nineteenth century, these items were not available by competition, but protection. They were often distributed by the elected (the Greek Parliament also had a proportionately large number of members) in exchange for votes and / or political services rendered. The elections were so hotly contested, as beyond the political power, is also playing jobs. A stable government could not exist under these conditions: between 1870 and 1875, we witnessed four parliamentary elections and 9 changes of government (and administration).
"Big Idea", "National Schism" and "Great Catastrophe"
The " Big Idea "(Megali Idea) is the desire to unite all the Greek populations in the Greek State. The ultimate goal was the reconquest of the historic capital and Orthodoxy: Constantinople.
The " National Schism "refers to the political break between King Constantine I , and his pro-German Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos , pro-Agreement during the First World War. The result was first the creation of a second government installed in Thessaloniki by Eleftherios Venizelos. Then he was made a change in sovereign Constantine was succeeded by his second son Alexander in 1917. At his death, Constantine ascended the throne in 1920. He was ousted in 1922 by a coup. His eldest son George succeeded him. He ruled a little over a year before taking a leave of indefinite duration. In 1924, the First Greek Republic was proclaimed.
All these policy changes were in fact more or less tied to the First World War , which began earlier and ends later for Greece. Indeed, the Balkan wars began in 1912. The First World War continued until 1923. The Treaty of Sevres was a step forward for Greece on the path of the Great Idea. Greece attempted to impose on the Ottoman Empire all clauses relating to the Asia Minor. She then knocked on Turkey Mustafa Kemal , who had just taken over from the moribund Ottoman Empire. Atatrk took advantage of this war to win. The Treaty of Lausanne , which sanctioned the Greek military defeat in Asia Minor led the "Great Catastrophe".
To avoid any resumption of hostilities and to limit any future animosity between Greeks and Turks, it was decided in Lausanne an exchange of populations to the mix. The present Greeks in Turkey were to leave for Greece and the Turks in Greece were to leave for Turkey. This caused many tragedies. Displaced persons, mostly from the lower classes, had to leave their birthplace and ultimately their country (land of their ancestors). He was also very difficult to determine who was Greek and Turkish which was: it was decided that religion would be the definition of nationality. An Orthodox, even if only spoke Turkish, Greek was considered and moved to Greece. A Muslim was considered Turkish. A total of 1.2 million "Greeks left Turkey and 500,000" Turks left Greece. This caused a huge influx of population in Greece: Piraeus experienced such a massive urban explosion. Nothing had been planned to accommodate such a large amount of refugees, the living conditions of the latter were very precarious time.
From the Second Republic in the Second World War
Civil War and Dictatorship
Democratization
Bibliography
- Journey to the Morea, Constantinople, Albania, and in several other parts of the Ottoman Empire (Paris, 1805, 3 vols. In-8), translated into English and German, reproduced online at Gallica
- Greece Travel (Paris, 1820-1822, 5 vols. 8vo, 2 nd ed.: 1826-1827, 6 vols. In-8). ( Online )
- History of the regeneration of Greece (Paris, 1824, 4 vols. In-8), translated into many languages. ( Original version in French
- Richard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge UP, Cambridge, 1992. ( ISBN 0521378303 )
- Contogeorgis Georges , History of Greece. Coll. European nations, Hatier, 1992. ( ISBN 2218038412 )
- Constantine Tsoucalas, Greece's independence to colonels., Maspero, Paris, 1970. ( ISBN 0140522778 ) (for the original English version)
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