Page 124 - Beholding Liberty!

The last Communion
of the Greeks
in Missolonghi, 1826 lithograph after a drawing
by Auguste Raffet (1804-1860) and print by François
de Villain (active ca. 1820-40)
124 BEHOLDING LIBERTY!
1825. Despite the dramatic efforts of the Greeks to prevent anything bad from happening when the enemy armies landed, the difficulties caused by the civil war had given the enemies valuable time to succeed in their goal and capture rapidly, virtually shattering most Greek resistance, while the greater part of the Peloponnese moved gradually toward western Greece, the gateway to which was the city of Missolonghi. Thus would begin the second siege of Missolonghi, which would make the city famous for the dignity and bravery with which it fell, after a year-long stubborn defense, and its departure from the besieged city in April of 1826.
The fall of Missolonghi would open the road for Ottoman soldiers to attack Athens. This city of the eastern Mainland, and its famous castle on the Acropolis, were besieged by Turkish troops for a year; they finally succeeded in occupying it at the end of May 1827, having first defeated the Greeks in the battle of Anala- tos in Faliro, one day after the death of Georgios Karaiskakis from his injury on 23 April 1827.
The fall of Athens and Missolonghi, in late spring of 1827, had left all of mainland Greece at the mercy of the Turks, at the same time as the Peloponnese also seemed to be in a difficult position after the victories of Ibrahim. At this crucial point of the Struggle that threatened the very existence of the Greek revolution, the three powers – which, after England’s gradual change of stance in favor of the Greeks in 1823, had become involved diplomatically on the side of the Greeks – decided to act in conjunction in order to protect them from possible Turkish slaughter. Thus, in October of 1827, a united fleet of Russian, English and French ships clashed with the fleet of Ibrahim at Nava- rino, in the gulf of Pylos, and defeated it. After that, the involvement of England, France and Russia in the Greek issue became more decisive and resulted in the creation of an independent Greek state, with the Protocol of London, in February of 1830. The border of this new state, of “Hellas” was expected to be at about the height of Lamia, but in 1832, under the next treaty, the borders were redrawn further north, to the benefit of the Greeks, to the line of the Ambrakiko-Pagasitiko.