Greek Nationalism - The Resurgence of the Greek State

Until being conquered by the Macedonians by Philip II, and subsequently until being conquered by the Romans, Greece was the center of Western thought in the Classical age. Liberal Western ideals of the Republic, freedoms, and government came from Greece. But after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire to the Ottomans, Greece became a nearly continuously rebellious state inside the Ottoman Empire.

The Church, the Enlightenment, the Rise of Nationalism, and the Love of Classic Greece

The Greek Orthodox church helped to maintain a Greek identity. Although Orthodox Christians were granted the right to practice their religion in the Ottoman Empire (something much different than the policies of Europe before the Enlightenment), Orthodox citizens were considered to be substandard to the Muslim population, as is the happenstance with most states with an official religion.

Greeks that profited from shipping in the Mediterranean and other business ventures sent their children to the universities in Western Europe, where the Enlightenment was in full swing. An affect of the Enlightenment ideals on the populace was the strong Nationalistic movement. The sons of the once great Greek Empire did not take kindly to being mulled in with the large Arabic and Turkish Ottoman Empire.

Strong bands of thieves and rebels in the mountains of the Greek mainland, called klepths, routinely attacked trade routes. In order to fend off these attacks, the Ottomans armed the Christians to defend the countryside. (Now seriously... when is it ever a good idea to arm your opposition? You'd think world leaders would have at least dusted off a history book....) The Christians and the klephts joined forces (gee... that's never happened before) and became a social class of their own.

Then, in 1820, war came. The Ottomans were weakened by the expansion of Catherine the Great's Russia, which took the Crimea and local lands around the north of the Black Sea from the Ottomans. This gave the rebellious Greeks more of a chance to establish a successful rebellion (like I've said earlier, they rebelled a lot. Rebellion in Greece at the time was as common as political squabbling in Congress in our time).

Alexander Ypsilantis took an army of Christians from the Balkans across the mountains and called for all Christians to rebel against the Muslim Ottomans. Ypsilantis claimed he had the power of the Russians on his side (who seemed to be pretty well versed at beating the Ottomans, quite like how the Germans seem to do well at beating the French).

It's here that I'll shorten the hub from being a million pages long. Military success was frequent for the rebels in the beginning of the war. So much so that they could set up their own government that governed autonomously from the Ottomans without much resistance. But infighting among the leaders of the rebellion put the main general in prison and weakened the strength of the revolutionaries. Egypt also stepped into the war with promise of new lands inside the Ottoman Empire. The Greeks eventually beat back the Egyptians after a brief period of Egyptian military success.The Egyptian and Turkish army faced severe casualties in mainland Greece.

Greek Victory

European powers didn't think that a fragmentation of Ottoman states would benefit the power struggle in Europe. Tipping the scales might put one power with a more strategic advantage than the other states. But with a change in leadership, the idea of a separate Greek state became more plausible. Unsuccessful negotiations meant to mediate between the Greeks and Ottomans, along with Egyptian plans to send a fleet to destroy the Greek one, let to the British, French, and Russian navies joining the Greeks.

When the Egyptian fleet thought that the British led negotiators reneged on their promises, they put forth a plan to annihilate the Greeks from the Peloponnese. When French, Russian, and British ships sailed into a Turkish harbor to take shelter from a storm, the Turkish-Egyptian fleet attacked, but was completely destroyed.

The Greek army then seized as much territory as it could before there was enough time to coordinate a cease fire. The European coalition troops then moved in to help expel Ottoman troops from the region.

Win the War, Now Keep Your Independence

Greece had autonomy from the Ottomans after expelling troops from Peloponnese. They did not have, however, a grant of independence from the Ottomans. After negotiations, Greece attained its independence and became a monarchy, with Prince Otto of Bavaria being named king. A constitution was drafted and approved. Greece controlled lands south of Thessaly and Macedonia, including some islands (but, at the time, not Crete). They maintained their independence from 1832 on and was the site of brutal violence in both world wars.