Page 127 - Beholding Liberty!

was active in the Peloponnese fighting the last battles against Ibrahim, clearing roads and cities of corpses and ruins, planning new cities, identifying wealth-producing resources for the new state, and making maps of smaller and larger geographical regions.
The activity of the French mission was followed carefully by Ioannis Kapodistrias, the outstanding Corfiot diplomat of the Ionian Islands and of the Tsar’s court to which he was elected in 1827, by the National Assembly of Troizina, Governor of a country undergoing changes. Kapodistrias had reached Nafplio and Aegina in January of 1828, in order to throw himself with passion and dedica- tion into the recovery of a country decimated by war. The reinstatement of farming, dealing with theft and piracy, saving the wandering thousands of orphans and sick people, opening small indus- tries and commerce, and organizing education were his top priorities. However, the most urgent of all was the duty to present the official recognition of the country, with borders containing the largest possible amount of Sterea and not limited to the Peloponnese and the Isthmus of Corinth, as seemed to be planned. For this reason, as one of the most experienced diplomats of his time, knew that for Greece the diplomatic aspect – which in essence, the three protecting powers held in their hands – should be supported with military actions in mainland Greece (Sterea Ellas) to make it obvious that the Greeks claimed the region decisively thus giving them more positive results in international diplomatic discussions and decisions.
Regarding this fact, Kapodistrias decided to support military men in mainland Greece (Sterea Ellas) who distinguished themselves; among them were Richard Church and Dimitrios Ypsilantis. These actions covered the years 1828 and 1829; the final battle in the Struggle was in the region of Petra in Boiotia, in the autumn of 1829. That is, in the same year that Russia clashed once again with the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, among other things, as the great victory, and demanded that the sultan recognize small autonomous Greece, which the sultan, under the weight of his painful loss, accepted. At precisely this point, England, the most powerful global force of the period, in order to show its policy and diplomatic superiority everywhere, including the eastern Mediterranean, decid- ed to impose the independence of Greece, thus humiliating Russia.
Thanks to the struggles of the Greeks, their endurance and persistence, the diplomatic ability of Kapodistrias, but also thanks to the active involvement of the Great European Powers, Greece acquired international recognition in 1830 and internationally recognized borders in 1832. It was the first independent national state of the Balkans and the first region of the Ottoman Empire to have broken away from it and to become independent. Greece was a pioneer in the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean, since it was not simply the first national state in the region that was recognized as such internationally, but it also presented itself, from the beginning, as bound ideo- logically, politically, economically and diplomatically with humanity’s most advanced, powerful and vanguard countries of the period, i.e. western Europe and the USA. And, in particular, with the most powerful of them all, the greatest force in the world at that time, England.
With these pioneering steps, but also within the poisonous climate of internal conflicts and civil disturbances, Greece began its steps – with its Governor having time only to enjoy the country’s independence and not its expanded borders, since he was killed, murdered by Greek hands in Naf- plion, in September of 1831.
A new national state had begun its life in the Southern Balkans. It was the beginning of a long course that continues ceaselessly up to the present day.
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