Page 125 - Beholding Liberty!

The involvement of these European powers did not spring out of nowhere. It was the offspring of the so-called Eastern Issue that was related to the overthrow of the balances brought about by the constant strengthening of Russia and the concerns created by this reversal over a long period would challenge other European powers, given also the continued concern over the power of the Ottoman Empire. It was also the offspring of a large, hitherto unknown international phenomenon, that of Philhellenism.
The significant and multi-faceted movement of Philhellenism was based on the fact that the west- ern European peoples, since the period of the Renaissance, regarded themselves as intellectual offspring of the ancient Roman and Greek culture that they admired and were taught, to inspire them to act on the basis of its principles. The revolution of the Greeks, descendants of these sig- nificant ancestors, touched their soul and they felt that it was also their own hope for success. Since their governments, after the Napoleonic wars ended in 1815, were hostile to any disturbance and upheaval in this troubled continent, they created committees of support for the Greeks which, among other things, included the goal of changing their country’s policy in favor of the Greeks. Members of the these committees were mainly highly educated people, therefore they also had a high social status, men but also women, without this ruling out the instances of countries – such as e.g. Switzerland or the various German states – in which the Philhellenic movement also acquired supporters among the lower and less educated classes. Switzerland and Germany proved to be the top supporters of Philhellenism; however the committees, which in reality played the most timely role, were those of the Parisians and Londoners since they were in the heart of the political power of Europe and could influence developments as a whole.
The main task of the philhellenic committees of Europe and America was to collect funds, clothing and medications for the Greeks; to publish articles in support of them; to reply through the press to articles and political animosities against the struggle of the Greeks, and to facilitate movement into the revolutionary regions by armed men who stated their interest in assisting the Greeks on the battlefield. It has been calculated that, of these armed men, a total of approximately 1200 individuals reached the battlefield of the war, one third of whom lost their lives either in battles or from illness. Most were Germans, one way or another, since the Germans as a nation showed the greatest readiness to stand up firmly with the Greeks during the difficult period of their rebirth. In addition to the Germans, also supporting the Greeks were French, English, Italian, Swiss, Por- tuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Danish and Swedish fighters – plus a total of 16 Americans, despite the enormous distance of thousands of kilometers to cross the Atlantic Ocean that sepa- rated the two regions.
These armed Europeans and Americans came, as a rule, with good intentions, although most of them were strongly disappointed with what they saw, with the result that some of them, not only abandoned the revolutionary regions, but also, upon returning to their homelands, wrote articles and essays against the Greeks. In their essays, they described the Greeks as selfish, thieving, blus- tering, crude, blood-thirsty, penny-pinching, unreliable, two-faced who, in addition, fought in what they regarded as a primitive way, that of a war of thieves, instead of the regular way in which they themselves were accustomed to waging war.
The last point is of particular significance since, in fact, the Greek Revolution went ahead, until the end, with small groups of armed men, with armed gangs under the leadership of a chieftain who held the armed men back in his mob, granting them wages and loot. There was even a question as to whether-- owing to the fierce reaction of dozens of local chieftains, old and young -- the Revolution
1821-1830: the arduous course of a Revolution 125