Greek Revolution

The Greek revolution was a war from the Greeks against the rule of the Ottomans for independence of the Greek republic. The war took place from 1821 until the 21st of September 1829. Greece was supported in its goal of independence by countries like France, Great- Britain, and Russia.

To get into the topic, first, you need to know back in the day Turkey and Greece didn’t exist in the way we know it nowadays. There were the Byzantine Empire (nowadays Greece) and the Ottoman Empire (nowadays Turkey). The Ottoman Empire managed to expand its territory and win against the Byzantine. One important event was the capture of the Byzantine capital Constantinople 1453. Since that day, the ottoman had a lot of power and established many things. During the time, the Greek population was a minority but they still wanted to become independent over the years. However, they did not really archive it until the 19th century…

…Especially the secret society called “Filiki Etaira” (Friendship covenant) was intended and planning independence of Greece for a long period. But still, the Greek minority wasn’t in accordance with the plans and it was considered impossible. The group planned a revolution in three different places for the 25th of March 1821. They wanted to confuse the Ottoman Empire as well as in order to archive much success. Nevertheless, it didn’t work out in the way it was planned before. For example, instead of attacking Turks by the Romanians in Moldavia, they destroyed the houses of the Greek Phanariots. Moreover, they couldn’t capture the town of Constantinople successfully.

But they were lucky on the island Peloponnese. On the island, they could conquer some towns and disperse the people of the island. The ottomans reacted to the event with a counterattack on the island Chios afterwards. The first Greek National Assembly was convened in Nea Epidavros. The revolution started. The situation between the two enemies got tensed but was unchanged until 1825 due to many reasons. From 1825 the final stage consisted of attacking each other. The Ottomans were militarily supported by Egyptian armed forces led by Mehmet Ali. They recaptured the port of Navoariono which was basically the failure of the revolution.

However, many European Great Powers were dissatisfied with the certain situation and wanted to prevent sovereignty of Egypt and Greece by the leader Mohammed Ali. The solution for this was sending fleets to the island. In October 1827 they managed to destroy the enemy fleets belonging to Egypt and the Ottoman. Also, the Byzantine Empire was supported by Russia and caused a war between the Ottoman so-called “Russo-Turkish War” (1828-1830). The sultan surrendered and due to the “London Protocol” Greece was appointed as an independent and Greek kingdom.

Otto of Greece became the first king of Greece and the country became a monarchy. He archived to drive foundations. However, for a certain time the king refused the Greek population civil rights and other things were criticized by him during the time. He had to abdicate his leadership. The successor George I of Greece could extend the state of Greece.

Sources:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griechische_Revolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_War_of_Independence