Greece: history to 1919

For the history of ancient Greece see Greece, ancient.

Byzantine and Ottoman periods Roman rule had been established in Greece during the 2nd century BC. By the closing years of the 4th century AD incursions of Gothic raiders were beginning to sweep over Greece, leaving destruction in their wake. However, following the fall of Rome in the later 5th century Greece remained part of the surviving Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. Much of Greece was temporarily lost by the Byzantines to Slavonic invaders in the 7th and 8th centuries, but was later recovered. In 1204 the crusaders sacked the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and established a Latin Empire. After this there were Greek kingdoms in Salonika and Epirus in the north, and Western-ruled kingdoms in Achaea and Athens in the south, with Venice ruling most of the islands.

During the 14th and 15th centuries Greece fell under the rule of the Ottoman Turks (see Turkey: history to 1923), the conquest being complete by 1460. Except for the years 1686–1715, when the Peloponnese was occupied by the Venetians, Greece remained Turkish until the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1821. However, the strength of the Orthodox Church meant that the Greeks continued to cling to their Christian faith and to their sense of national identity.

The struggle for independence In 1814 a society of young Greek patriots, called the Hetairia, was formed in Odessa. The objects of this society were ostensibly literary, but were really political, and it was this society that was largely instrumental in fanning the flames of rebellion against Ottoman rule. The educated classes of other European countries, nurtured in the glories of classical Greece, were increasingly sympathetic to the Greek national cause.

Open revolt against Turkish rule broke out in 1821. Yusuf Pasha defeated the insurgents at Galatz (Galati), and in the same year the ‘sacred battalion’ under Jordaki was annihilated. But in the Peloponnese the cause of freedom had greater success. In 1823 a constitution covering the whole of Greece was adopted by the National Assembly convened at Astros. Turkey made a last desperate effort to crush the revolt, and in 1825 an Egyptian army, under Ibrahim Pasha, was dispatched to the Peloponnese. Only outside intervention saved the Greeks from renewed Turkish subjugation. In the decisive engagement of Navarino (October 1827) the British, French, and Russians destroyed the combined Turkish and Egyptian fleets.

Independence established By the protocol of 1830 Greece was declared an independent kingdom and its boundaries were defined. The arrangement was in many respects unsatisfactory to the Greeks: it excluded Acarnania from Greek territory, together with a great part of Aetolia and Thessaly; a Turkish barrier interrupted communications between Greece and the Ionian Islands; and the Turks held on to Crete and Samos. The new state included only one-third of the Greeks under Ottoman rule.

The liberated state was at first governed by a national assembly, but the president, Capo D'Istrias, assumed autocratic powers, and was later assassinated. Subsequently the major European powers offered the throne of Greece to Prince (later King) Leopold of Belgium, but he refused it. The crown was next given to Otto I, son of Ludwig I of Bavaria, in 1832, but his despotic rule provoked a rebellion in 1843, which set up a parliamentary government, and another in 1862, when he was deposed. George, second son of the king of Denmark, was then chosen king of Greece as George I, and the Ionian Islands, at that time under British protection, were ceded unconditionally to the kingdom.

Further struggles with Turkey Relations with Turkey were embittered by the Greeks' desire to recover Macedonia, Crete, and other Turkish territories with Greek populations. By the Berlin Congress of 1878 (see Berlin, Congress of) Greece was promised a modification of its frontier, and in 1881 a readjustment was accepted. Greece acquired Thessaly, and part of Epirus. The allocation was not considered sufficient by the Greeks, who demanded Crete, and a war with Turkey began in 1897. The war was short-lived, and disastrous to the Greeks, and on the intervention of the major European powers an armistice was concluded. By the Treaty of Constantinople (1898) Greece was forced to pay an indemnity, to submit to the readjustment of its frontiers, and to accept the control of the European powers in financial affairs. But Crete was granted autonomy under a Greek prince.

The movement in Crete to break away from Turkish rule and unite with Greece continued, with Eleuthérios Venizelos prominent among the Greek nationalists in Crete. In May 1910 a Cretan assembly was set up and Venizelos became president of the provisional government. Later in the year he was elected to the Greek parliament, and in October became premier, being summoned to Greece by the Military League that had seized power in 1909. He set to work to form a Balkan league strong enough to withstand Turkey. A Serbian–Bulgarian treaty was followed by a Greek–Bulgarian treaty, and in the First Balkan War (also known as the War of Liberation; 1912–13) the strength of the league was proved by the complete collapse of the Turks. In May 1913 Crete was ceded to Greece by the Treaty of London, which ended the war between Turkey and the Balkan states. When, however, the alliance was broken by the resentment of Bulgaria, Greece received still further extensions of territory by the Treaty of Bucharest, which ended the Second Balkan War (1913).

Greece in World War I In 1913 George I of Greece was assassinated by a fanatic, and was succeeded by his son, Constantine I. When World War I broke out in 1914 Greece remained neutral, but the differences between the neutralist king and his pro-Allied cabinet caused Venizelos to resign the premiership in March 1915. The nation was split between royalists and Venizelists, and towards the end of 1916 Venizelos set up a provisional government in Salonika and endeavoured to recruit a Greek army to aid the Allies in the offensive that the Allied commander Gen Sarrail launched against the Bulgarians during August.

In June 1917 France and Britain, who had guaranteed the Greek constitution, decided to act in their capacity of ‘protecting powers’. An ultimatum and a display of force secured the abdication of Constantine in favour of his second son, Alexander, and Constantine left Greece. Venizelos was officially recalled to power, and Greece entered the war on the side of the Allies. (See also World War I.)

For the history of Greece after World War I, see Greece.