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GREEK INDEPENDENCE, WAR OF
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See also:GREEK See also:INDEPENDENCE, See also:WAR OF , the name given to the See also:great rising of the Greek subjects of the See also:sultan against the See also:Ottoman domination, which began in 1821 and ended in 1833 with the See also:establishment of the See also:independent See also:kingdom of See also:Greece. The circumstances that led to the insurrection and the See also:general See also:diplomatic situation by which its fortunes were from See also:time to time affected are described elsewhere (see GREECE: See also:History; See also:TURKEY: History). The See also:present See also:article is confined to a description of the general See also:character and See also:main events of the war itself. If we exclude the abortive invasion of the Danubian principalities by See also:Prince See also: The war was begun by the Greeks without definite See also:plan and without any generally recognized leadership. The force with Outbreak which Germanos marched from Kalavryta against of the See also:Patras was composed of peasants armed with scythes, insurrec- clubs and slings, among whom the " See also:primates " exer- tion. cised a somewhat honorary authority. The See also:town itself was destroyed and those of its Mussulman inhabitants who could not See also:escape into the citadel were massacred; but the citadel remained in the hands of the Turks till 1828. Mean- , while, in the See also:south, leaders of another See also:stamp had appeared: Petros, See also:bey of the See also:Maina (q.v.) See also:chief of the Mavromichales, who at the head of his See also:clan attacked See also:Kalamata and put the Mussulman inhabitants to the See also:sword; and Kolokotrones, a notable brigand once in the service of the Ionian See also:government, who—fortified by a See also:vision of the Virgin—captured Karytaena and slaughtered its infidel population. Encouraged by these successes the revolt spread rapidly; within three See also:weeks there was not a Mussulman See also:left in the open country, and the remnants of the once dominant class were closely besieged in the fortified towns by hosts of See also:wild peasants and brigands. The flames of revolt now spread across the See also:Isthmus of See also:Corinth: See also:early in April the Christians of Dervenokhoria See also:rose, and the whole of See also:Boeotia and See also:Attica quickly followed suit; at the beginning of May the Mussulman inhabitants of See also:Athens were blockaded in .the See also:Acropolis. In the Morea, meanwhile, a few Mussulman fortresses still held out : Coron, Modon, See also:Navarino, Patras, See also:Nauplia, Monemvasia, See also:Tripolitsa. One by one they See also:fell, and everywhere were repeated the same scenes of butchery. The horrors culminated in the See also:capture of Tripolitsa, the See also:capital of the vilayet. In See also:Sept-ember this was taken by See also:storm; Kolokotrones rode in See also:triumph to the citadel over streets carpeted with the dead; and the crowning triumph of the Cross was celebrated by a See also:cold-blooded See also:massacre of 2000 prisoners of all ages and both sexes. This completed the success of the insurrection in the Morea, where only Patras, Nauplia, and one or two lesser fortresses remained to the Turks. Meanwhile, See also:north of the Isthmus, the fortunes of war had been less one-sided. In the See also:west Khurshid's See also:lieutenant, See also:Omar Vrioni (a Mussulman Greek of the See also:race of the Palaeologi), had inflicted a See also:series of defeats on the insurgents, recaptured Levadia, and on the 3oth of See also:June relieved the Acropolis; but the rout of the troops which Mahommed Pasha was bringing to his aid by the Greeks in the See also:defile of See also:Mount See also:Oeta, and the See also:news of the fall of Tripolitsa, forced him to See also:retreat, and the See also:campaign of 1821 ended with the retirement of the Turks into See also:Thessaly. The See also:month of April had witnessed the revolt of the See also:principal Greek islands, Spetsae on the 7th, Psara on the 23rd, See also:Hydra on the 28th and See also:Samos on the 3oth. Their fleets were divided into squadrons, of which one, under.Tombazes, was deputed to See also:watch for the entrance of the Ottomans into the archipelago, while the other under Andreas See also:Miaoulis (q.v.) sailed to See also:blockade Patras and watch the coasts of See also:Epirus. At sea, as on See also:land, the Greeks opened the campaign with hideous atrocities, almost their first exploit being the capture of a See also:vessel carrying to See also:Mecca the sheik-ul-See also:Islam and his See also:family, whom they murdered with every See also:aggravation of See also:outrage. These inauspicious beginnings, indeed, set the whole See also:tone of the war, which was frankly one of mutual extermination. On both sides the combatants were barbarians, without discipline or competent organization. At sea the Genecharacter ra/ Greeks rapidly See also:developed into See also:mere pirates, and even of me war. Miaoulis, for all his high character and courage, was often unable to prevent his captains from sailing See also:home at See also:critical moments, when pay or See also:booty failed. On land the presence of a few educated Phanariots, such as Demetrios Ypsilanti or Alexander See also:Mavrocordato, Was powerless to inspire the See also:rude hordes with any sense of See also:order or of humanity in warfare; while every See also:lull in the fighting, due to a temporary check to the Turks, was the signal for internecine conflicts due to the rivalry of leaders who, with rare exceptions, thought more of their See also:personal See also:power and profit than of the cause of Greece. This cause, indeed, was helped more by the impolitic See also:reprisals of the Turks than by the heroism of the insurgents. All . Europe stood aghast at the news of the See also:execution of Tarictsh the See also:Patriarch Gregorios of See also:Constantinople (April 22, reprisals. 1821) and the wholesale massacres that followed, culminating as these did in the extermination of the prosperous community of Scio (See also:Chios) in March 1822. The cause of Greece was now that of Christendom, of the See also:Catholic and See also:Protestant West, as of the Orthodox See also:East. European Liberalism, too, gagged and fettered under Metternich's Europe " See also:system," recognized in the Greeks the champions and the of its own cause; while even conservative states- rising men, schooled in the memories of See also:ancient Hellas, Pmtsm. . eais saw in the struggle a fight of See also:civilization against barbarism. This latter belief, which was, moreover, flattering to their vanity, the Greek leaders were astute enough to See also:foster; the propaganda of Adamantios Coraes (q.v.) had done its See also:work; and wily brigands, like See also:Odysseus of Ithaka, assuming the See also:style and trappings of antiquity, posed as the champions of classic culture against the See also:barbarian. All Europe, then, hailed with joy the exploit of See also:Constantine See also:Kanaris, who on the See also:night of June 18—19 succeeded in steering a See also:fire-See also:ship among the Turkish See also:squadron off Scio, and burned the See also:flag-ship of the capudan-pasha with 3000 souls on See also:board. Meanwhile Sultan Mahmud, now wide awake to the danger, had been preparing for a systematic effort to suppress the rising. The threatened See also:breach with See also:Russia had been avoided by Metternich's See also:influence on the tsar Alexander; the See also:death of Ali of lannina had set See also:free the army of Khurshid Pasha, who now, as seraskier of See also:Rumelia, was charged with the task of reducing the Morea. In the See also:spring of 1822 two Turkish armies advanced southwards: one, under Omar Vrioni, along the coast of Western Hellas, the other, under All, pasha of See also:Drama (Dramali), through Boeotia and Attica. Omar was held in check by the mud Expedi- ramparts of See also:Missolonghi; but Dramali, after exacting See also:Lion of fearful vengeance for the massacre of the Turkish Drama'', See also:garrison of the Acropolis at Athens, crossed the 1821. Isthmus and with the over-confidence of a conquering barbarian advanced to the See also:relief of the hard-pressed garrison of Nauplia. He crossed the perilous defile of Dervenaki unopposed; and at the news of his approach most.of the members of the Greek government assembled at See also:Argos fled in panic terror. Demetrios Ypsilanti, however, with a few See also:hundred men joined the Mainote Karayanni in the See also:castle of See also:Larissa, which crowns the acropolis of ancient Argos. This held Dramali in check, and gave Kolokotrones time to collect an army. The Turks, in the See also:absence of the fleet which was to have brought them supplies, were forced to retreat (See also:August 6); the Greeks, inspired with new courage, awaited them in the pass of Dervenaki, where the undisciplined Ottoman See also:host, thrown into confusion by an See also:avalanche of boulders hurled upon them, was annihilated. In Western Greece the campaign had an outcome scarcely less disastrous for the Turks. The death of All of Iannina had been followed by the suppression of the insurgent Suliotes and the advance of Omar Vrioni southwards to Missolonghi; but the town held out gallantly, a Turkish surprise attack, on the 6th of See also:January 1823, was beaten off, and Omar Vrioni had to abandon the See also:siege and retire northwards over the pass of Makrynoros. The victorious outcome of the See also:year's fighting had a disastrous effect upon the Greeks. Their victories had been due mainly to the guerilla See also:tactics of the leaders of the type of See also:Civil war Kolokotrones; Mavrocordato, whose character and among the Greeks. antecedents had marked him out as the natural head of the new Greek See also:state, in spite of his successful See also:defence of Missolonghi, had been discredited by failures else-where; and the Greeks thus learned to despise their civilized advisers and. to underrate the importance of discipline. The temporary removal of the See also:common peril, moreover, let loose all the sectional and personal jealousies, which even in See also:face of the enemy had been with difficulty restrained, and the year 1823 witnessed the first civil war between the Greek parties. These internecine feuds might easily have proved fatal to the cause of Greece. In the Archipelago Hydriotes and Spetsiotes were at daggers See also:drawn; the men of Psara were at open war with those of Samos; all semblance of discipline and cohesion had vanished from the See also:Creek fleet. Had Khosrev, the new Ottoman See also:admiral, been a See also:man of enterprise, he might have regained the command of the sea and, with it, that of the whole situation. But the See also:fate of his predecessor had filled him with a lively terror of Kanaris and his fire-ships; he contented himself with a cruise See also:round the coasts of Greece, and was happy Campaign to return to safety under the guns of the See also:Dardanelles of 1823. 1823. without having accomplished anything beyond throwing supplies and troops into Caron, Modon and Patras. On land, meanwhile, the events of the year before practically repeated themselves. In the west an army of Mussulman and Catholic Albanians, under Mustai Pasha, advanced southwards. On the night of the 21st of August occurred the celebrated exploit of Marko See also:Botzaris and his Suliotes: a successful surpriseattack on the See also:camp of the Ottoman vanguard, in which the Suliote See also:leader fell. The See also:jealousy of the Aetolian See also:militia for the Suliotes, however, prevented the victory being decisive; and Mustai advanced to the siege of Anatoliko, a little town in the lagoons near Missolonghi. Here he was detained until, on the iith of See also:December, he was forced to raise the siege and retire northwards. His colleague, Yussuf Pasha, in East Hellas fared no better; here, too, the Turks gained some initial successes, but in the end the harassing tactics of Kolokotrones and his guerilla bands forced them back into the See also:plain of the Kephissos. At the end of the year the Greeks were once more free to renew their internecine feuds. Just when these feuds were at their height, in the autumn of 1823, the most famous of the Philhellenes who sacrificed themselves for the cause of Greece, See also:Lord See also:Byron, arrived in Greece. The year 1824 was destined to be a fateful one for the Greek cause. The large loans raised in Europe, the first See also:instalment of which Byron had himself brought over, while providing the Greeks with the sinews of war, provided second them also with fresh material for strife. To the 1ivil war, 1824. struggle for power was added a struggle for a See also:share of this booty, and a second civil war See also:broke out, Kolokotrones leading the attack on the forces of the government. Early in 1825 the government was victorious; Kolokotrones was in See also:prison; and Odysseus, the See also:hero of so many exploits and so many crimes, who had ended by turning traitor and selling his services to the Turks, had been captured, imprisoned in the Acropolis, and finally assassinated by his former lieutenant Gouras (See also:July 16, 1824). But a new and more terrible danger now threatened Greece. Sultan Mahmud, despairing of sup-pressing the insurrection by his own power, had reluctantly summoned to his aid Mehemet All, pasha of Egypt, whose well-equipped fleet and disciplined army were now thrown into the See also:scale against the Greeks. Already, tion of in June 1823, the pasha's son-in-See also:law Hussein Bey A ~hemet had landed in See also:Crete, and by April of the following year had reduced the insurgent islanders to submission. Crete now became the See also:base of operations against the Greeks. On the 19th of June Hussein appeared before Kasos, a See also:nest of pirates of evil reputation, which he captured and destroyed. The same See also:day the See also:Egyptian fleet, under See also:Ibrahim Pasha, sailed from See also:Alexandria. Khosrev, too, emboldened by this new sense of support, ventured to sea, surprised and destroyed Psara (July 2), and planned an attack on Samos, which was defeated by Miaoulis and his fire-ships (August 16, 17). On the 1st of See also:September, however, Khosrev succeeded in effecting a junction with Ibrahim off Budrun, and two indecisive engagements followed with the See also:united Greek fleet on the 5th and loth. The See also:object of Ibrahim was to reach Suda See also:Bay with his transports, which the Greeks should at all See also:costs have prevented. A first See also:attempt was defeated by Miaoulis on the 16th of See also:November, and Ibrahim was compelled to retire and See also:anchor off See also:Rhodes; but the Greek admiral was unable to keep his fleet together, the See also:season was far advanced, his captains were clamouring for arrears of pay, and the Greek fleet sailed for Nauplia, leaving the sea unguarded. On the 5th of December Ibrahim again set See also:sail, and reached Suda without striking a See also:blow. Here he completed his preparations, and, on the 24th of See also:February 1825, landed at Modon in the Morea with a force of 4000 See also:regular See also:infantry and 500 See also:cavalry. The rest followed, without the Greeks making any effort to intercept them. The conditions of the war were now completely changed. The Greeks, who had been squandering the See also:money provided by the loans in every sort of senseless extravagance, affected to despise the Egyptian invaders, but they were soon undeceived. On the 21st of March Ibrahim had laid siege to Navarino, and after some delay a Greek force under Skourti, a Hydriote sea-See also:captain, was sent to its relief. The Greeks had in all some 7000 men, Suliotes, Albanians, armatoli from Rumelia, and some irregular Bulgarian and Vlach cavalry. On the 19th of April they were met by Ibrahim in the Mores. defile of Makrynoros, which the Greeks had left undefended, and on the 7th of May opened the second siege of Missolonghi. For twelve months the population held out, re-pulsing the attacks of the enemy, refusing every offer of See also:honour-able See also:capitulation. This resistance was rendered possible by the Greek command of the sea, Miaoulis from time to time entering the lagoons with supplies; it came to an end when this command was lost. In September 1825 Ibrahim, at the order of the sultan, had joined Reshid before the town; piecemeal the outlying forts and defences now fell, until the garrison, reduced by See also:starvation and disease, determined to See also:hazard all on a final sortie. This took See also:place on the night of the 22nd of April 1826; but a mistaken order threw the ranks of the Greeks into disorder, and the Turks entered the town See also:pell-mell with the retreating See also:crowd. Only a remnant of the defenders succeeded in gaining the forests of Mount Zygos, where most of them perished.
The fall of Missolonghi, followed as this was by the submission of many of the more notable chiefs, left Reshid free to turn his See also:attention to East Hellas, where Gouras had been ruling as a practically independent chief and in the spirit of a brigand. The peasants of the open country welcomed the Turks as deliverers, and Reshid's conciliatory policy facilitated his march to Athens, which fell at the first See also:assault on the 25th of August, siege being at once laid to the Acropolis, where Gouras and his troops had taken See also:refuge. Round this the war now centred; for all recognized that its fall would involve that of the cause of Greece. In these straits the Greek government entrusted the supreme command of the troops to See also:Karaiskakis, an old See also:retainer of Ali of Iannina, a See also:master of the See also:art of guerilla war, and, above all, a man of dauntless courage and devoted patriotism. A first attempt to relieve the Acropolis, with the assistance of some disciplined troops under the See also:French See also:Colonel Fabvier, was defeated at Chaidari by the Turks. The garrison of the Acropolis was hard pressed, and the death of Gouras (See also:October 13th) would have ended all, had not his heroic wife taken over the command and inspired the defenders with new courage. For months the siege dragged on, while Karaiskakis fought with varying success in the mountains, a final victory at Distomo (February 1827) over Omar Vrioni securing the restoration to the Greek cause of all continental Greece, except the towns actually held by the Turks.
It was at this juncture that the Greek government, reinforced by a fresh See also:loan from Europe, handed over the chief command
at sea to Lord Cochrane (See also:earl of See also:Dundonald, q.v.), and Cochrane that of the land forces to General (afterwards See also:Sir
and
See also: Cochrane and Church at once concentrated their energies on the task of relieving the Acropolis. Already, on the 5th of February, General See also:Gordon had landed and entrenched himself on the See also: See also:English See also:officers, who in vain tried to rally them, themselves only just escaped by scrambling into their boats and putting off to the war-vessels, whose guns checked the pursuit and enabled a remnant of the fugitives to escape. Church held Munychia till the 27th, when he sent instructions for the garrison of the Acropolis to surrender. On the 5th of June the remnant of the defenders marched out with the honours of war, and continental Greece was once more in the power of the Turks. Had Reshid at once advanced over the Isthmus, the Morea also must have been subdued; but he was jealous of Ibrahim, and preferred to return to Iannina to consolidate his conquests. The fate of Greece was now in the hands of the Powers, who after years of diplomatic wrangling had at last realized that intervention was necessary if Greece was to be saved for European civilization. The worst enemy of the Greeks was their own incurable spirit of See also:faction; in the very crisis of their fate, during the siege of Missolonghi, See also:rival presidents and rival assemblies struggled for supremacy, and a third civil war had only been prevented by the arrival of Cochrane and Church. Under their influence a new See also:National See also:Assembly met at Troezene in March 1827 and elected as See also:president See also:Count See also:Capo d' See also:Istria (q.v.), formerly See also:Russian See also:minister for See also:foreign affairs; at the same time a new constitution was promulgated which, when the very See also:life of the insurrection seemed on the point of flickering out, set forth the full ideal of See also:Pan-Hellenic dreams. Anarchy followed; war of Rumeliotes against Moreotes, of chief against chief; rival factions bombarded each other from the two forts at Nauplia over the stricken town, and in derision of the impotent government. Finally, after months of inaction, Ibrahim began once more his systematic devastation of the country. To put a stop to this the Powers decided to intervene by means of a See also:joint demonstration of their fleets, in order to enforce an See also:armistice and compel Ibrahim to evacuate the Morea (Treaty of See also:London, July 6, 1827). The refusal of Ibrahim to obey, without See also:special instruction from the sultan, led to the entrance of the allied British, French and Russian fleet into the See also:harbour of Navarino and the See also:battle of the loth of October 1827 (see NAVARINO). This, and the two See also:campaigns of the Russo-Turkish war of 2828-29, decided the issue. Ibrahim at Krommydi with 2000 regular infantry, 400 cavalry and four guns. The Greek entrenchments were stormed at the point of the See also:bayonet by Ibrahim's fellahin at the first onset; the defenders broke and fled, leaving 600 dead on the See also: 8). The same population indeed appears to have preceded them 1853) ; J. See also:Philemon, ,2^o4pwv ioropucbv irepi ri7s 'EXX vnKiis laavaeraaews on the mainland of Greece, for there are similar place-names in See also:Caria (Athens, 1859), in four parts: (I) History of the Hetaeria Philike, and in Greece which have no See also:etymology in Greek. Thus the endings (2) The heralding of the 1var and the rising under Ypsilanti,(3 and 4). of words like See also:Parnassus and See also:Halicarnassus seem identical, and the The insurrection in Greece to 1822, with many documents. Of great common ending of place-names in -cv8os, Kbpis8os, HpoiflaacvBos, &c., value also are the 29 volumes of See also:Correspondence and Papers of Sir seems to be the same in origin with the common ending of See also:Asiatic Richard Church, now in the British Museum (Add See also:MSS. 36,543- names in -nda, Alinda, Karyanda, &c. Probably the earliest portion 36,571). Among these is a Narrative by Church of the war in Greece of Asia Minor to be colonized by the Greeks was the north-west, to during his See also:tenure of the command (vols. xxi.-See also:xxiii., Nos. 36,563- which came settlers from Thessaly, when the early inhabitants were 36,565), which contains the material for correcting many errors re- driven out by the Thesprotians, who later controlled Thessaly. The See also:pea ted in most works on the war, notably the strictures of See also:Finlay and name See also:Aeolis, which after times gave to the N.W. of Asia Minor, others on Church's conduct before Athens. For further references was the old name for Thessaly (Hdt. vii, 176). These Thesprotians see the bibliography appended to W. See also:Alison See also:Phillips's See also:chapter on were of the same stock as the See also:Dorians, to whose invasion of the " Greece and the See also:Balkan See also:Peninsula " in the See also:Cambridge See also:Modern Peloponnese the later See also:migration, which carried the See also:Ionians to Asia History, x. 803. (W. A. P.) and the Cypriot Greeks to See also:Cyprus, in all See also:probability was due. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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