Page 241 - Beholding Liberty!

The Greek Revolution
and European diplomacy
Antonis Klapsis
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of the Peloponnese
THE GEOPOLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
The Greek Revolution took place during the period when the European diplomatic system was adjusting after the floodtide of Napoleonic Wars. The Friendly Society (Filiki Etaireia) was established in the autumn of 1814, almost simultaneously with the convocation of the Vienna Conference, within the context of which Napoleon’s rivals sought to replace the regime that had preceded the French Revolution. In June of 1815, the definitive defeat of Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo confirmed their total victory. The Holy Alliance the political offspring of Tsar Alexan- der I, gathered the most conservative forces – Russia, Austria and Prussia. Comprising more a declaration of the similar views held by their respective leaders, rather than a literal diplomatic agreement with strategic content, the Holy Alliance would, in the immediately following years, prove to be a guardian of the monarchy’s legality, its main mission being to suppress any revolu- tionary action that would threaten the ruling class.
The negative international juncture for the revolutionary plans of the members of the Friendly Society, as it was being shaped in the second half of the 1810 decade, were counterbalanced, albeit partially, by the decline of the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the 18th century, the Otto- man Empire continued to rule in the broader geographical area of the Eastern Mediterranean, retaining extensive possessions in the Balkans, the Near and Middle East, as well as in North Africa. However, under the surface of its territorial power, the multinational state of the sultan now demonstrated visible signs of corruption. The long period of Ottoman acquisitions had been decisively halted in 1698 after defeat by the Austrian forces and the signing, in the following year, of the Treaty of Karlowitz. After that, the Ottoman Empire entered into a long period of introversion which brought to the surface all the economic and administrative problems that plagued the anachronistic Ottoman state.
Nevertheless, despite its inherent weaknesses, the Ottoman Empire continued to constitute a factor to be reckoned with in the shaping of geopolitical stability, mainly owing to its control over land and sea traffic, on the one hand from Europe to Asia, and on the other from Russia to the warm waters of the Mediterranean. This geographical factor permitted the Ottoman state to retain its unity, and to avoid partition by the Great Powers, precisely because such a development would threaten to upset the balance of power in the broader region. In other words, the possibili- ty of the absorption of large sections of the Ottoman Empire by Austria and Russia pushed Great Britain and France to assume the role of unofficial protectors of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, thus creating the nucleus of the Eastern Question: could the Sultan’s state remain, not
Konstantinos Volanakis
The naval Battle of Navarino after Garneray, 1882
oil on canvas
Hellenic Maritime Museum, Piraeus
241