Page 121 - Beholding Liberty!

1821-1830:
the arduous course
of a Revolution
Maria D. Euthymiou
Professor of History, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The Greek Revolution began in Vlachia and Moldavia on 22 February 1821.1 The result was the emergence of a bunch of factors that led its protagonists to a major decision. Four centuries of Ottoman rule over the Greeks, accompanied by the absolute power of the sultan; plus the rise of the Orthodox Russia, thus sharing the same religious denomination, waged an obstinate and victorious war from the 18th century on, against the nation of a different religion and with the major nternal problems of the Ottoman Empire; ideological agitation and the political resolutions of democracy and freedom that originated in the powerful West and were spreading to the rest of the world – including the Balkans – the tradition of anti-Ottoman actions by the Greeks, the most recent period being that of the Orlofika, in 1770, which tested the endurance of both sides even though the Greek side had experienced defeat and its related disasters; the development of Greek commerce and shipping, which made them competitive on both land and sea, while at the same time permitting them to have social, political, economic, ideological and intellectual experiences from other regions, mainly European ones, in which they established colonies, communities, church- es, schools, periodicals and newspapers.
This latter parameter, in turn, brought about the two following decisive developments: first, in 1814 it provided a number of Greek merchants with the opportunity and ideological equipment to estab- lish a secret movement, called the Filiki Etairia (Friendly Society), in Odessa in Southern Russia in order to prepare for the Nation’s Struggle, and second, it strengthened the self-confidence of the Greeks, a required cornerstone for the outbreak and success of the forthcoming conflict. Precisely as described by Spyridon Trikoupis, a scholar and politician of the 1821 Revolution, in the Preface to the History that he published after the struggle ended: “Impossible to retain unchanged the political positions of two nations inhabiting one and the same space when one ruler remains still, while the other makes progress. The political change of these nations has for years made it rather certain, although these nations have different origins, support different religions, speak a different language, and live far from any other related mixture, they are regarded mutually as sacrilegious and despised. This was the position of both Turks and Greeks toward others.”2
The course of the Revolution in the Danubian principalities – under the leadership of Alexandros Ypsilantis, an officer in the tsar’s army – proved to be relatively unsuccessful with the result that he soon experienced its harsh end, in late September of 1821. Meanwhile, in March of 1821, the Revolution had already broken out in the southern Balkans, in the Peloponnese, Mainland Greece, and the islands of the Argosaronic Gulf, and would spread gradually to Crete, Macedonia, Halkidiki, Samothrace, and Thessaly. The Turks halted the revolutionary activity with extensive slaughter in the last five places and prevented revolutionary movements in other places, such as Cyprus, Kydod- nies, etc., while, during the terrible spring of 1821, they transformed Constantinople, Smyrna and other cities of the Empire into a field of violence and death for the Greeks. On the contrary, the
View of the Acropolis
(part) illustration in the edition
of Louis Dupré, Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople, Paris 1825 Library of the Hellenic Parliament
1. The Greek Revolution was fortunate to have been studied from the beginning by Greek and foreign historians and scholars. The fullest and most authoritative account of events during the nine years of this irresolute war can
be found in about 3,000 pages
of volumes 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the emblematic work by Apostolos Vakalopoulos, Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού [History of Modern Hellenism], which was published in Thessaloniki between
1970 and 1980.
2. Spyridon Trikoupis, Ιστορία
της Ελληνικής Επαναστάσεως [History of the Greek Revolution], 2nd ed., Vol. Ι, London 1860.
121