- 17 Mar 2021 20:57
#15161610
Greeting PoFo,
As the official bicentennial approaches on the 25th of March of 2021 I would like to share a couple of things that I have come to understand through my reading of history.
The Greek war of independence is taken to have begun on the 25th of March 1821, of course this date -like most of these dates- is only a placeholder. The Maniots had declared their most recent revolution on the 17th of March 1821, the 25th has been chosen for 2 reasons 1) due to its religious(and thus neutral) significance celebrating the Madonna and 2) because more importantly the 25th marks the more generalised character of the revolution, spreading to Constantinople, Romania, Moldavia, Macedonia, Crete and several islands at various dates near the time so the 25th is taken as a compromise between them.
The first professional Greek army and navy and all the money of the revolutionaries were spent in Romania & Moldavia(the Danubian Principalities), that was the primary target from where the plan was to descent down to Constantinople, unite with the Maniots of the Peloponnese on the way and replace the Ottomans but maintain the Empire, the Phanariotes had managed to take over almost full control of the Ottoman government and were already ruling over the Danubian Principalities, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch was also the Ethnarch(Supreme Leader of all Orthodox people) of the Orthodox and it was just a matter of crowning a new King. Secrecy and stealth were paramount to the mission as that privileged position of the Phanari(Lantern, the Greek neighbourhood in the City) could not be maintained in the event word of the revolution spread to the ears of the Sultan which it did. Alexander Ypsilantis was arrested by the Austrians. The revolutionaries were ambushed and the professional army crushed, the small navy though eluded them and eventually grew into a force to be reckoned with.
The navy now a permanent block in the Aegean for Ottoman supplies along with the spread of other revolts distracting the Ottoman army permitted the Maniots of the Peloponnese to take over the island and then proceed to Athens and the outskirts of continental Greece. Meanwhile, in Constantinople the Phanariote heads now decorated the City so this plan was no longer feasible as the Ottomans proceeded to clear out the Greeks from the government and replace them with Jews & Armenians. The focus now shifted from trying to take over the Empire to carve out a space out of it. The most developed Greek urban centres were in Anatolia in Smyrne and Constantinople and the majority of the Greek population lived along the coast of Asia Minor and the Black sea.
As these populations were not incorporated until 100 years later in 1920-22 during the Turkish war of independence and in 1955(Istanbul pogrom), they did not play a formative role in the establishment of the modern Greek state which meant that the first modern Greek university was located outside the nascent state of Greece in Smyrne and the modern state was founded by the Maniots who were warriors rather than the Polites or Smyrniots who were bourgeoisie. This led to constant civil wars as the warriors warred with no end.
As the official bicentennial approaches on the 25th of March of 2021 I would like to share a couple of things that I have come to understand through my reading of history.
The Greek war of independence is taken to have begun on the 25th of March 1821, of course this date -like most of these dates- is only a placeholder. The Maniots had declared their most recent revolution on the 17th of March 1821, the 25th has been chosen for 2 reasons 1) due to its religious(and thus neutral) significance celebrating the Madonna and 2) because more importantly the 25th marks the more generalised character of the revolution, spreading to Constantinople, Romania, Moldavia, Macedonia, Crete and several islands at various dates near the time so the 25th is taken as a compromise between them.
The first professional Greek army and navy and all the money of the revolutionaries were spent in Romania & Moldavia(the Danubian Principalities), that was the primary target from where the plan was to descent down to Constantinople, unite with the Maniots of the Peloponnese on the way and replace the Ottomans but maintain the Empire, the Phanariotes had managed to take over almost full control of the Ottoman government and were already ruling over the Danubian Principalities, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch was also the Ethnarch(Supreme Leader of all Orthodox people) of the Orthodox and it was just a matter of crowning a new King. Secrecy and stealth were paramount to the mission as that privileged position of the Phanari(Lantern, the Greek neighbourhood in the City) could not be maintained in the event word of the revolution spread to the ears of the Sultan which it did. Alexander Ypsilantis was arrested by the Austrians. The revolutionaries were ambushed and the professional army crushed, the small navy though eluded them and eventually grew into a force to be reckoned with.
The navy now a permanent block in the Aegean for Ottoman supplies along with the spread of other revolts distracting the Ottoman army permitted the Maniots of the Peloponnese to take over the island and then proceed to Athens and the outskirts of continental Greece. Meanwhile, in Constantinople the Phanariote heads now decorated the City so this plan was no longer feasible as the Ottomans proceeded to clear out the Greeks from the government and replace them with Jews & Armenians. The focus now shifted from trying to take over the Empire to carve out a space out of it. The most developed Greek urban centres were in Anatolia in Smyrne and Constantinople and the majority of the Greek population lived along the coast of Asia Minor and the Black sea.
As these populations were not incorporated until 100 years later in 1920-22 during the Turkish war of independence and in 1955(Istanbul pogrom), they did not play a formative role in the establishment of the modern Greek state which meant that the first modern Greek university was located outside the nascent state of Greece in Smyrne and the modern state was founded by the Maniots who were warriors rather than the Polites or Smyrniots who were bourgeoisie. This led to constant civil wars as the warriors warred with no end.
EN EL ED EM ON
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...