# 15
History of Greece
Ottoman rule (15th century – 1821)
When the Ottomans arrived, two Greek migrations occurred.
The first migration entailed the Greek intelligentsia migrating to Western Europe and influencing the advent of the Renaissance.
The second migration entailed Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettling in the mountains.
The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion.
The Greeks living in the plains during Ottoman domination were either Christians who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule or Crypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Greek Orthodox faith). Some Greeks became Crypto-Christians to avoid heavy taxes and at the same time express their identity by maintaining their ties to the Greek Orthodox Church.
However, Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians were deemed Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks, even if they didn't adopt Turkish language.
The Battle of Navarino, on October 1827, marked the effective end of Ottoman rule in Greece.
Modern Greek state (1821–)
In the early months of 1821, the Greeks declared their independence but did not achieve it until 1829.
The Great Powers first shared the same view concerning the necessity of preserving the status quo of the Ottoman Empire, but soon changed their stance. Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause, including Lord Byron.
On 20 October 1827, a combined British, French and Russian naval force destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian armada.
The Russian minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek, returned home as President of the new Republic.
The first capital of the independent Greece was Aigina (1828–1829) and the second was Nafplio (1828–1834).
After his assassination the European powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy; the first King, Otto, came from Bavaria and the second, George I, from Denmark. King Otto, in 1934 transfered the capital to Athens.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ionian Islands were returned by Britain upon the arrival of the new King George I in 1863 and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans.
As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 Epirus, southern Macedonia, Crete and the Aegean Islands were annexed into the Kingdom of Greece.
Another enlargement followed in 1947, when Greece annexed the Dodecanese Islands from Italy.
Modernization
In the late 19th century modernization transformed the social structure of Greece.
The population grew rapidly, putting heavy pressure on the system of small farms with low productivity.
Overall the density of population more than doubled from 41 persons per square mile in 1829 to 114 in 1912.
One response was emigration to the United States, with a quarter million people leaving between 1906 and the start of the World War in 1914.
Entrepreneurs found numerous business opportunities in the retail and restaurant sectors of American cities; some sent money back to their families, others returned with hundreds of dollars, enough to purchase a farm or a small business in the old village.
The urban population tripled from 8 percent in 1853 to 24 percent in 1907.
Athens grew from a village of 6000 people in 1834, when it became the capital, to 63,000 in 1879, 111,000 in 1896, and 167,000 in 1907.
In Athens and other cities men arriving from rural areas set up workshops and stores, creating a middle class. They joined with bankers, professional men, university students, and military officers, to demand reform and modernization of the political and economic system.
Athens became the center of the merchant marine which quadrupled in size from 250,000 tons in 1875 to more than 1,000,000 tons in 1915.
As the cities modernized, businessmen adopted the latest styles of West European architecture.
The territorial evolution of Kingdom of Greece until 1947.
National Heroes Of Greece
Portrait of Dimitris Plapoutas
General Demetrios Karatassos
Ioannis Kapodistrias
Ιωάννης Καποδίστριας
Governor of Greece
Ioannis Kapodistrias Ιωάννης Καποδίστριας | |
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| Governor of Greece |
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