(E. M. W.)
b.Post-Classical: 146B.C.-A.D.1800
I.The Period of Roman Rule.—(i.)Greece under the Republic(146-27B.C.). After the collapse of the Achaean League (q.v.) the Senate appointed a commission to reorganize Greece as a Roman dependency. Corinth, the chief centre of resistance, was destroyed and its inhabitants sold into slavery. In addition to this act of exemplary punishment, which may perhaps have been inspired in part by the desire to crush a commercial competitor, steps were taken to obviate future insurrections. The national and cantonal federations were dissolved, commercial intercourse between cities was restricted, and the government transferred from the democracies to the propertied classes, whose interests were bound up with Roman supremacy. In other respects few changes were made in existing institutions. Some favoured states like Athens and Sparta retained their full sovereign rights ascivitates liberae, the other cities continued to enjoy local self-government. The ownership of the land was not greatly disturbed by confiscations, and though a tribute upon it was levied, this impost may not have been universal. General powers of supervision were entrusted to the governor of Macedonia, who could reserve cases of high treason for his decision, and in case of need send troops into the country. But although Greece was in theprovinciaof the Macedonian proconsul, in the sense of belonging to his sphere of command, its status was in fact more favourable than that of other provincial dependencies.
This settlement was acquiesced in by the Greek people, who had come to realize the hopelessness of further resistance. The internal disorder which was arising from the numerous disputes about property rights consequent upon the political revolutions was checked by the good offices of the historian Polybius, whom the Senate deputed to mediate between the litigants. The pacification of the country eventually became so complete that the Romans withdrew the former restrictions upon intercourse and allowed some of the leagues to revive. But its quiet was seriously disturbed during the first Mithradatic War (88-84B.C.), when numerous Greek states sided with Mithradates (q.v.). The success which the invader experienced in detaching the Greeks from Rome is partly to be explained by the skilful way in which his agents incited the imperialistic ambitions of prominent cities like Athens, partly perhaps by his promises of support to the democratic parties. The result of the war was disastrous to Greece. Apart from the confiscations and exactions by which the Roman general L. Cornelius Sulla punished the disloyal communities, the extensive and protracted campaigns left Central Greece in a ruinous condition. During the last decades of the Roman republic European Greece was scarcely affected by contemporary wars nor yet exploited by Roman magistrates in the same systematic manner as most other provinces. Yet oppression by officials who traversed Greece from time to time and demanded lavish entertainments and presentations in the guise ofviaticumoraurum coronariumwas not unknown. Still greater was the suffering produced by the rapacity of Roman traders and capitalists: it is recorded that Sicyon was reduced to sell its most cherished art treasures in order to satisfy its creditors. A more indirect but none the less far-reaching drawback to Greek prosperity was the diversion of trade which followed upon the establishment of direct communication between Italy and the Levant. The most lucrative source of wealth which remained to the European Greeks was pasturage in large domains, an industry which almost exclusively profited the richer citizens and so tended to widen the breach between capitalists and the poorer classes, and still further to pauperize the latter. The coast districts and islands also suffered considerably from swarms of pirates who, in the absence of any strong fleet in Greek waters, were able to obtain a firm footing in Crete and freely plundered the chief trading places and sanctuaries; the most notable of such visitations was experienced in 69B.C.by the island of Delos. This evil came to an end with the general suppression of piracy in the Mediterranean by Pompey (67B.C.), but the depopulation which it had caused in some regions is attested by the fact that the victorious admiral settled some of his captives on the desolated coast strip of Achaea.
In the conflict between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Greeks provided the latter with a large part of his excellent fleet. In 48B.C.the decisive campaign of the war was fought on Greek soil, and the resources of the land were severely taxed by the requisitions of both armies. As a result of Caesar’s victory at Pharsalus, the whole country fell into his power; the treatment which it received was on the whole lenient, though individual cities were punished severely. After the murder of Caesar the Greeks supported the cause of Brutus (42B.C.), but were too weak to render any considerable service. In 39B.C.the Peloponnese for a short time was made over to Sextus Pompeius. During the subsequent period Greece remained in the hands of M. Antonius (Mark Antony), who imposed further exactions in order to defray the cost of his wars. The extensive levies whichhe made in 31B.C.for his campaign against Octavian, and the contributions which his gigantic army required, exhausted the country’s resources so completely that a general famine was prevented only by Octavian’s prompt action after the battle of Actium in distributing supplies of grain and evacuating the land with all haste. The depopulation which resulted from the civil wars was partly remedied by the settlement of Italian colonists at Corinth and Patrae by Julius Caesar and Octavian; on the other hand, the foundation of Nicopolis (q.v.) by the latter merely had the effect of transferring the people from the country to the city.
(ii.)The Early Roman Empire(27B.C.-A.D.323).—Under the emperor Augustus Thessaly was incorporated with Macedonia; the rest of Greece was converted into the province of Achaea, under the control of a senatorial proconsul resident at Corinth. Many states, including Athens and Sparta, retained their rights as free and nominally independent cities. The provincials were encouraged to send delegates to a communal synod (κοινὸν τῶν Ἀχαίων) which met at Argos to consider the general interests of the country and to uphold national Hellenic sentiment; the Delphic amphictyony was revived and extended so as to represent in a similar fashion northern and central Greece.
Economic conditions did not greatly improve under the empire. Although new industries sprang up to meet the needs of Roman luxury, and Greek marble, textiles and table delicacies were in great demand, the only citiesSocial conditions.which regained a really flourishing trade were the Italian communities of Corinth and Patrae. Commerce languished in general, and the soil was mainly abandoned to pasturage. Though certain districts retained a measure of prosperity,e.g.Thessaly, Phocis, Elis, Argos and Laconia, huge tracts stood depopulated and many notable cities had sunk into ruins; Aetolia, Acarnania and Epirus never recovered from the effects of former wars and from the withdrawal of their surviving inhabitants into Nicopolis. Such wealth as remained was amassed in the hands of a few great landowners and capitalists; the middle class continued to dwindle, and large numbers of the people were reduced to earning a precarious subsistence, supplemented by frequent doles and largesses.
The social aspect of Greek life henceforward becomes its most attractive feature. After a long period of storm and stress, the European Hellenes had relapsed into a quiet and resigned frame of mind which stands in sharp contrast on the one hand with the energy and ability, and on the other with the vulgar intriguing of their Asiatic kinsmen. Seeing no future before them, the inhabitants were content to dwell in contemplation amid the glories of the past. National pride was fostered by the undisguised respect with which the leading Romans of the age treated Hellenic culture. And although this sentiment could degenerate into antiquarian pedantry and vanity, such as finds its climax in the diatribes of Apollonius of Tyana against the “barbarians,” it prevented the nation from sinking into some of the worst vices of the age. A healthy social tone repressed extravagant luxury and the ostentatious display of wealth, and good taste long checked the spread of gladiatorial contests beyond the Italian community of Corinth. The most widespread abuse of that period, the adulation and adoration of emperors, was indeed introduced into European Greece and formed an essential feature of the proceedings at the Delphic amphictyony, but it never absorbed the energies of the people in the same way as it did in Asia. In order to perpetuate their old culture, the Greeks continued to set great store by classical education, and in Athens they possessed an academic centre which gradually became the chief university of the Roman empire. The highest representatives of this type of old-world refinement are to be found in Dio Chrysostom and especially in Plutarch of Chaeroneia (q.v.).
The relations between European Greece and Rome were practically confined to the sphere of scholarship. The Hellenes had so far lost their warlike qualities that they supplied scarcely any recruits to the army. They retained too much local patriotism to crowd into the official careers of senators or imperial servants. Although in the 1st centuryA.D.the astute Greek man of affairs and theGraeculus esuriensof Juvenal abounded in Rome, both these classes were mainly derived from the less pure-blooded population beyond the Aegean.
The influx of Greek rhetoricians and professors into Italy during the 2nd and 3rd centuries was balanced by the large number of travellers who came to Greece to frequent its sanatoria, and especially to admire its works of art; the abundance in which these latter were preserved is strikingly attested in the extant record of Pausanias (aboutA.D.170).
The experience of the Greeks under their earliest governors seems to have been unfortunate, for inA.D.15 they petitioned Tiberius to transfer the administration to an imperial legate. This new arrangement was sanctioned, butRoman administration.only lasted tillA.D.44, when Claudius restored the province to the senate. The proconsuls of the later 1st and 2nd centuries were sometimes ill qualified for their posts, but cases of oppression are seldom recorded against them. The years 66 and 67 were marked by a visit of the emperor Nero, who made a prolonged tour through Greece in order to display his artistic accomplishments at the various national festivals. In return for the flattering reception accorded to him he bestowed freedom and exemption from tribute upon the country. But this favour was almost neutralized by the wholesale depredations which he committed among the chief collections of art. A scheme for cutting through the Corinthian isthmus and so reviving the Greek carrying trade was inaugurated in his presence, but soon abandoned.
As Nero’s grant of self-government brought about a recrudescence of misplaced ambition and party strife, Vespasian revoked the gift and turned Achaea again into a province, at the same time burdening it with increased taxes. In the 2nd century a succession of genuinely phil-Hellenic emperors made serious attempts to revive the nation’s prosperity. Important material benefits were conferred by Hadrian, who made a lengthy visit to Greece. Besides erecting useful public works in many cities, he relieved Achaea of its arrears of tribute and exempted it from various imposts. In order to check extravagance on the part of the free cities, he greatly extended the practice of placing them under the supervision of imperial functionaries known ascorrectores. Hadrian fostered national sentiment by establishing a new pan-Hellenic congress at Athens, while he gave recognition to the increasing ascendancy of Hellenic culture at Rome by his institution of the Athenaeum.
In the 3rd century the only political event of importance was the edict of Caracalla which threw open the Roman citizenship to large numbers of provincials. Its chief effect in Greece was to diminish the preponderance of the wealthy classes, who formerly had used their riches to purchase the franchise and so to secure exemption from taxation. The chief feature of this period is the renewal of the danger from foreign invasions. Already in 175 a tribe named Costoboci had penetrated into central Greece, but was there broken up by the local militia. In 253 a threatened attack was averted by the stubborn resistance of Thessalonica. In 267-268 the province was overrun by Gothic bands, which captured Athens and some other towns, but were finally repulsed by the Attic levies and exterminated with the help of a Roman fleet.
(iii.)The Late Roman Empire.—After the reorganization of the empire by Diocletian, Achaea occupied a prominent position in the “diocese” of Macedonia. Under Constantine I. it was included in the “prefecture” of Illyricum. It was subdivided into the “eparchies” of Hellas, Peloponnesus, Nicopolis and the islands, with headquarters at Thebes, Corinth, Nicopolis and Samos. Thessaly was incorporated with Macedonia. A complex hierarchy of imperial officials was now introduced and the system of taxation elaborated so as to yield a steady revenue to the central power. The levying of the land-tax was imposed upon theδεκάπρωτοιor “ten leading men,” who, like the Latindecuriones, were entrusted henceforth with the administration in most cities. The tendency to reduce all constitutions to the Roman municipal pattern became prevalent under the rulers of this period, and the greater number of them was stereotypedby the general regulations of the Codex Theodosianus (438). Although the elevation of Constantinople to the rank of capital was prejudicial to Greece, which felt the competition of the new centre of culture and learning and had to part with numerous works of art destined to embellish its privileged neighbour, the general level of prosperity in the 4th century was rising. Commercial stagnation was checked by a renewed expansion of trade consequent upon the diversion of the trade routes to the east from Egypt to the Euxine and Aegean Seas. Agriculture remained in a depressed condition, and many small proprietors were reduced to serfdom; but the fiscal interests of the government called for the good treatment of this class, whose growth at the expense of the slaves was an important step in the gradual equalization of the entire population under the central despotism which restored solidarity to the Greek nation.
This prosperity received a sharp set-back by a series of unusually severe earthquakes in 375 and by the irruption of a host of Visigoths under Alaric (395-396), whom the imperial officers allowed to overrun the whole land unmolested and the local levies were unable to check. Though ultimately hunted down in Arcadia and induced to leave the province, Alaric had time to execute systematic devastations which crippled Greece for several decades. The arrears of taxation which accumulated in consequence were remitted by Theodosius II. in 428.
The emperors of the 4th century made several attempts to stamp out by edict the old pagan religion, which, with its accompaniment of festivals, oracles and mysteries, still maintained an outward appearance of vigour, and, along with the philosophy in which the intellectual classes found comfort, retained the affection of the Greeks. Except for the decree of Theodosius I. by which the Olympian games were interdicted (394), these measures had no great effect, and indeed were not rigorously enforced. Paganism survived in Greece till about 600, but the interchange of ideas and practices which the long-continued contact with Christianity had effected considerably modified its character. Hence the Christian religion, though slow in making its way, eventually gained a sure footing among a nation which accepted it spontaneously. The hold of the Church upon the Greeks was strengthened by the judicious manner in which the clergy, unsupported by official patronage and often out of sympathy with the Arian emperors, identified itself with the interests of the people. Though in the days when the orthodox Church found favour at court corruption spread among its higher branches, the clergy as a whole rendered conspicuous service in opposing the arbitrary interferences of the central government and in upholding the use of the Hellenic tongue, together with some rudiments of Hellenic culture.
The separation of the eastern and western provinces of the empire ultimately had an important effect in restoring the language and customs of Greece to their predominant position in the Levant. This result, however, was long retarded by the romanizing policy of Constantine and his successors. The emperors of the 5th and 6th centuries had no regard for Greek culture, and Justinian I. actively counteracted Hellenism by propagating Roman law in Greece, by impairing the powers of the self-governing cities, and by closing the philosophical schools at Athens (529). In course of time the inhabitants had so far forgotten their ancient culture that they abandoned the name of Hellenes for that of Romans (Rhomaioi). For a long time Greece continued to be an obscure and neglected province, with no interests beyond its church and its commercial operations, and its culture declined rapidly. Its history for some centuries dwindles into a record of barbarian invasions which, in addition to occasional plagues and earthquakes, seem to have been the only events found worthy of record by the contemporary chroniclers.
In the 5th century Greece was only subjected to brief raids by Vandal pirates (466-474) and Ostrogoths (482). In Justinian’s reign irruptions by Huns and Avars took place, but led to no far-reaching results. The emperor had endeavoured to strengthen the country’s defences by repairing the fortifications of cities and frontier posts (530), but his policy of supplanting the local guards by imperial troops and so rendering the natives incapable of self-defence was ill-advised; fortunately it was never carried out with energy, and so the Greek militias were occasionally able to render good service against invaders.
Towards the end of the century mention is made for the first time of an incursion by Slavonic tribes (581). These invaders are to be regarded as merely the forerunners of a steady movement of immigration by which a considerableSlavonic immigrations.part of Greece passed for a time into foreign hands. It is doubtful how far the newcomers won their territory by force of arms; in view of the desolation of many rural tracts, which had long been in progress as a result of economic changes, it seems probable that numerous settlements were made on unoccupied land and did not challenge serious opposition. At any rate the effect upon the Greek population was merely to accelerate its emigration from the interior to the coastland and the cities. The foreigners, consisting mainly of Slovenes and Wends, occupied the mountainous inland, where they mostly led a pastoral life; the natives retained some strips of plain and dwelt secure in their walled towns, among which the newly-built fortresses of Monemvasia, Corone and Calamata soon rose to prosperity. The Slavonic element, to judge by the geographical names in that tongue which survive in Greece, is specially marked in N.W. Greece and Peloponnesus; central Greece appears to have been protected against them by the fortress-square of Chalcis, Thebes, Corinth and Athens. For a long time the two nations dwelt side by side without either displacing the other. The Slavs were too rude and poor, and too much distracted with cantonal feuds, to make any further headway; the Greeks, unused to arms and engrossed in commerce, were content to adopt a passive attitude. The central government took no steps to dislodge the invaders, until in 783 the empress Irene sent an expedition which reduced most of the tribes to pay tribute. In 810 a desperate attempt by the Slavs to capture Patrae was foiled; henceforth their power steadily decreased and their submission to the emperor was made complete by 850. A powerful factor in their subjugation was the Greek clergy, who by the 10th century had christianized and largely hellenized all the foreigners save a remnant in the peninsula of Maina.
II.The Byzantine Period.—In the 7th century the Greek language made its way into the imperial army and civil service, but European Greece continued to have little voice in the administration. The land was divided into four “themes” under a yearly appointed civil and military governor. Imperial troops were stationed at the chief strategic points, while the natives contributed ships for naval defence. During the dispute about images the Greeks were the backbone of the image-worshipping party, and the iconoclastic edicts of Leo III. led to a revolt in 727 which, however, was easily crushed by the imperial fleet; a similar movement in 823, when the Greeks sent 350 ships to aid a pretender, met with the same fate. The firm government of the Isaurian dynasty seems to have benefited Greece, whose commerce and industry again became flourishing. In spite of occasional set-backs due to the depredations of pirates, notably the Arab corsairs who visited the Aegean from the 7th century onwards, the Greeks remained the chief carriers in the Levant until the rise of the Italian republics, supplying all Europe with its silk fabrics.
In the 10th century Greece experienced a renewal of raids from the Balkan tribes. The Bulgarians made incursions after 929 and sometimes penetrated to the Isthmus; but they mostly failed to capture the cities, and in 995 their strength was broken by a crushing defeat on the Spercheius at the hands of the Byzantine army. Yet their devastations greatly thinned the population of northern Greece, and after 1084 Thessaly was occupied without resistance by nomad tribes of Vlachs. In 1084 also Greece was subjected to the first attack from the new nations of the west, when the Sicilian Normans gained a footing in the Ionian islands. The same people made a notable raid upon the seaboard of Greece in 1145-1146, and sacked the cities of Thebes and Corinth. The Venetians also appear as rivals ofthe Greeks, and after 1122 their encroachments in the Aegean Sea never ceased.
In spite of these attacks, the country on the whole maintained its prosperity. The travellers Idrīsī of Palermo (1153) and Benjamin of Tudela (1161) testify to the briskness of commerce, which induced many foreign merchants to take up their residence in Greece. But this prosperity revived an aristocracy of wealth which used its riches and power for purely selfish ends, and under the increasing laxity of imperial control thearchontesor municipal rulers often combined with the clergy in oppressing the poorer classes. Least of all were these nobles prepared to become the champions of Greece against foreign invaders at a time when they alone could have organized an effectual resistance.
III.The Latin Occupation and Turkish Conquest.—The capture of Constantinople and dissolution of the Byzantine empire by the Latins (1204) brought in its train an invasion of Greece by Frankish barons eager for new territory. The natives, who had long forgotten the use of arms and dreaded no worse oppression from their new masters, submitted almost without resistance, and only the N.W. corner of Greece, where Michael Angelus, a Byzantine prince, founded the “despotat” of Epirus, was saved from foreign occupation. The rest of the country was divided up between a number of Frankish barons, chief among whom were the dukes of Achaea (or Peloponnese) and “grand signors” of Thebes and Athens, the Venetians, who held naval stations at different points and the island of Crete, and various Italian adventurers who mainly settled in the Cyclades. The conquerors transplanted their own language, customs and religion to their new possessions, and endeavoured to institute the feudal system of land-tenure. Yet recognizing the superiority of Greek civil institutions they allowed the natives to retain their law and internal administration and confirmed proprietors in possession of their land on payment of a rent; the Greek church was subordinated to the Roman archbishops, but upheld its former control over the people. The commerce and industry of the Greek cities was hardly affected by the change of government.
Greek history during the Latin occupation loses its unity and has to be followed in several threads. In the north the “despots” of Epirus extended their rule to Thessaly and Macedonia, but eventually were repulsed by the Asiatic Greeks of Nicaea, and after a decisive defeat at Pelagonia (1259) reduced to a small dominion round Iannina. Thessaly continued to change masters rapidly. Till 1308 it was governed by a branch line of the Epirote dynasty. When this family died out it fell to the Grand Catalan Company; in 1350 it was conquered along with Epirus by Stephen Dushan, king of Servia. About 1397 it was annexed by the Ottoman Turks, who after 1431 also gradually wrested Epirus from its latest possessors, the Beneventine family of Tocco (1390-1469).
The leading power in central Greece was the Burgundian house de la Roche, which established a mild and judicious government in Boeotia and Attica and in 1261 was raised to ducal rank by the French king Louis IX. A conflict with the Grand Catalan Company resulted in a disastrous defeat of the Franks on the Boeotian Cephissus (1311) and the occupation of central Greece by the Spanish mercenaries, who seized for themselves the barons’ fiefs and installed princes from the Sicilian house of Aragon as “dukes of Athens and Neopatras” (Thessaly). After seventy-five years of oppressive rule and constant wars with their neighbours the Catalans were expelled by the Peloponnesian baron Nerio Acciaiuoli. The new dynasty, whose peaceful government revived its subjects’ industry, became tributary to the Turks about 1415, but was deposed by Sultan Mahommed II., who annexed central Greece in 1456.
The conquest of the Peloponnese was effected by two French knights, William Champlitte and Geoffrey Villehardouin, the latter of whom founded a dynasty of “princes of all Achaea.” The rulers of this line were men of ability, who controlled their barons and spiritual vassals with a firm hand and established good order throughout their province. The Franks of the Morea maintained as high a standard of culture as their compatriots at home, while the natives grew rich enough from their industry to pay considerable taxes without discontent. The climax of the Villehardouins’ power was attained under Prince William, who subdued the last independent cities of the coast and the mountaineers of Maina (1246-1248). In 1259, however, the same ruler was involved in the war between the rulers of Epirus and Nicaea, and being captured at the battle of Pelagonia, could only ransom himself by the cession of Laconia to the restored Byzantine empire. This new dependency after 1349 was treated with great care by the Byzantine monarchs, who sought to repress the violence of the local aristocracies by sending their kinsmen to govern under the title of “despots.” On the other hand, with the extinction of the Villehardouin dynasty the Frankish province fell more and more into anarchy; at the same time the numbers of the foreigners were constantly dwindling through war, and as they disdained to recruit them by intermarriage, the preponderance of the native element in the Morea eventually became complete. Thus by 1400 the Byzantines were enabled to recover control over almost the whole peninsula and apportion it among several “despots.” But the mutual quarrels of these princes soon proved fatal to their rule. Already in the 14th century they had employed Albanians and the Turkish pirates who harried their coasts as auxiliaries in their wars. The Albanians largely remained as settlers, and the connexion with the Turks could no longer be shaken off. In spite of attempts to fortify the Isthmus (1415) an Ottoman army penetrated into Morea and deported many inhabitants in 1423. An invasion of central Greece by the despot Constantine was punished by renewed raids in 1446 and 1450. In 1457 the despot Thomas withheld the tribute which he had recently stipulated to pay, but was reduced to obedience by an expedition under Mahommed II. (1458). A renewed revolt in 1459 was punished by an invasion attended with executions and deportations on a large scale, and by the annexation of the Morea to Turkey (1460).
IV.The Turkish Dominion till 1800.—Under the Ottoman government Greece was split up into sixsanjaksor military divisions: (1) Morea, (2) Epirus, (3) Thessaly, (4) Euboea, Boeotia and Attica, (5) Aetolia and Acarnania, (6) the rest of central Greece, with capitals at Nauplia, Jannina, Trikkala, Negropont (Chalkis), Karlili and Lepanto; further divisions were subsequently composed of Crete and the islands. In eachsanjaka number of fiefs was apportioned to Turkish settlers, who were bound in return to furnish some mounted men for the sultan’s army, the total force thus held in readiness being over 7000. The local government was left in the hands of the archontes or primates in each community, who also undertook the farming of the taxes and the policing of their districts. Law was usually administered by the Greek clergy. The natives were not burdened with large imposts, but the levying of the land-tithes was effected in an inconvenient fashion, and the capitation-tax, to which all Christians were subjected was felt as a humiliation. A further grievance lay in the requisitions of forced labour which the pashas were entitled to call for; but the most galling exaction was the tribute of children for the recruiting of the Janissaries (q.v.), which was often levied with great ruthlessness. The habitual weakness of the central government also left the Greeks exposed to frequent oppression by the Turkish residents and by their own magistrates and clergy. But the new rulers met with singularly little opposition. The dangerous elements of the population had been cleared away by Mahommed’s executions; the rest were content to absorb their energies in agriculture and commerce, which in spite of preferential duties and capitulations to foreign powers largely fell again into the hands of Greeks. Another important instrument by which the people were kept down was their own clergy, whom the Turkish rulers treated with marked favour and so induced to acquiesce in their dominion.
In the following centuries Greece was often the theatre of war in which the Greeks played but a passive part. Several wars with Venice (1463-79, 1498-1504) put the Turks in possession of the last Italian strongholds on the mainland. But theissue was mainly fought out on sea; the conflicts which had never ceased in the Aegean since the coming of the Italians now grew fiercer than ever; Greek ships and sailors were frequently requisitioned for the Turkish fleets, and the damage done to the Greek seaboard by the belligerents and by fleets of adventurers and corsairs brought about the depopulation of many islands and coast-strips. The conquest of the Aegean by the Ottomans was completed by 1570; but Venice retained Crete till 1669 and never lost Corfu until its cession to France in 1797.
In 1684 the Venetians took advantage of the preoccupation of Turkey on the Danube to attack the Morea. A small mercenary army under Francesco Morosini captured the strong places with remarkable ease, and by 1687 had conquered almost the whole peninsula. In 1687 the invaders also captured Athens and Lepanto; but the former town had soon to be abandoned, and with their failure to capture Negropont (1688) the Venetians were brought to a standstill. By the peace of Karlowitz (1699) the Morea became a possession of Venice. The new rulers, in spite of the commercial restrictions which they imposed in favour of their own traders, checked the impoverishment and decrease of population (from 300,000 to 86,000) which the war had caused. By their attempts to cooperate with the native magistrates and the mildness of their administration they improved the spirit of their subjects. But they failed to make their government popular, and when in 1715 the Ottomans with a large and well-disciplined army set themselves to recover the Morea, the Venetians were left without support from the Greeks. The peninsula was rapidly recaptured and by the peace of Passarowitz (1718) again became a Turkish dependency. The gaps left about this time in the Greek population were largely made up by an immigration from Albania.
The condition of the Greeks in the 18th century showed a great improvement which gave rise to yet greater hopes. Already in the 17th century the personal services of the subjects had been commuted into money contributions, and since 1676 the tribute of children fell into abeyance. The increasing use of Greek officials in the Turkish civil service, coupled with the privileges accorded to the Greek clergy throughout the Balkan countries, tended to recall the consciousness of former days of predominance in the Levant. Lastly, the education of the Greeks, which had always remained on a comparatively high level, was rapidly improved by the foundation of new schools and academies.
The long neglect which Greece had experienced at the hands of the European Powers was broken in 1764, when Russian agents appeared in the country with promises of a speedy deliverance from the Turks. A small expedition under Feodor and Alexis Orloff actually landed in the Morea in 1769, but failed to rouse national sentiment. Although the Russian fleet gained a notable victory off Chesme near Chios, a heavy defeat near Tripolitza ruined the prospects of the army. The Albanian troops in the Turkish army subsequently ravaged the country far and wide, until in 1779 they were exterminated by a force of Turkish regulars. In 1774 a concession, embodied in the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, by which Greek traders were allowed to sail under the protection of the Russian flag, marked an important step in the rehabilitation of the country as an independent power. Greek commerce henceforth spread swiftly over the Mediterranean, and increased intercourse developed a new sense of Hellenic unity. Among the pioneers who fostered this movement should be mentioned Constantine Rhigas, the “modern Tyrtaeus,” and Adamantios Coraës (q.v.), the reformer of the Greek tongue. The revived memories of ancient Hellas and the impression created by the French revolution combined to give the final impulse which made the Greeks strike for freedom. By 1800 the population of Greece had increased to 1,000,000, and although 200,000 of these were Albanians, the common aversion to the Moslem united the two races. The military resources of the country alone remained deficient, for thearmatolior local militias, which had never been quite disbanded since Byzantine times, were at last suppressed by Ali Pasha of Iannina and found but a poor substitute in the klephts who henceforth spring into prominence. But at the first sign of weakness in the Turkish dominion the Greek nation was ready to rise, and the actual outbreak of revolt had become merely a question of time.
Authorities.—General: G. Finlay,History of Greece(ed. Tozer, Oxford, 1877), especially vols. i., iv., v.; K. Paparrhigopoulos,Ἱστορία τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ ἔθνους(4th ed., Athens, 1903), vols. ii.-v.;Histoire de la civilisation hellénique(Paris, 1878); R. v. Scala,Das Griechentum seit Alexander dem Grossen(Leipzig and Vienna, 1904); and specially W. Miller,The Latins in the Levant(1908).Special—(a) The Roman period: Strabo, bks. viii.-x.; Pausanias,Descriptio Graeciae; G. F. Hertzberg,Die Geschichte Griechenlands unter der Herrschaft der Römer(Halle, 1866-1875); Sp. Lampros,Ἱστορία τῆς Ἑλλάδος(Athens, 1888 sqq.), vol. iii.; A. Holm,History of Greece(Eng. trans., London, 1894-1898). vol. iv., chs. 19, 24, 26, 28 seq.; Th. Mommsen,The Provinces of the Roman Empire(Eng. trans., London, 1886, ch. 7); J. P. Mahaffy,The Greek World under Roman Sway, from Polybius to Plutarch(London, 1890); W. Miller, “The Romans in Greece” (Westminster Review, August 1903, pp. 186-210); L. Friedländer, “Griechenland unter den Römern” (Deutsche Rundschau, 1899, pp. 251-274, 402-430). (b) The Byzantine and Latin periods: G. F. Hertzberg,Geschichte Griechenlands seit dem Absterben des antiken Lebens(Gotha, 1876-1879), vols. i., ii.; C. Hopf,Geschichte Griechenlands im Mittelalter(Leipzig, 1868); J. A. Buchon,Histoire des conquêtes et de l’établissement des Français dans les États de l’ancienne Grèce(Paris, 1846); G. Schmitt,The Chronicle of Morea(London, 1904); W. Miller, “The Princes of the Peloponnese” (Quarterly Review, July 1905, pp. 109-135); D. Bikelas,Seven Essays on Christian Greece(Paisley and London, 1890);La Grèce byzantine et moderne(Paris, 1893), pp. 1-193. (c) The Turkish and Venetian periods: Hertzberg,op. cit., vol. iii.; K. M. Bartholdy,Geschichte Griechenlands von der Eroberung Konstantinopels(Leipzig, 1870), bks. i. and ii., pp. 1-155; K. N. Sathas,Τουρκοκρατουμένη Ἑλλάς(Athens, 1869); W. Miller, “Greece under the Turks” (Westminster Review, August and September 1904, pp. 195-210, 304-320;English Historical Review, 1904, pp. 646-668); L. Ranke, “Die Venetianer in Morea” (Historisch-politische Zeitschrift, ii. 405-502). (d) Special subjects: Religion. E. Hatch,The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church(London, 1890). Ethnology. J. P. Fallmerayer,Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters(Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1830); S. Zampelios,Περὶ πηγῶν νεοελληνικῆς ἐθνότητος(Athens, 1857); A. Philippson, “Zur Ethnographie des Peloponnes” [Petermann’s Mitteilungen36 (1890), pp. 1-11, 33-41]; A. Vasiljev, “Die Slaven in Griechenland” [Vizantijsky Vremennik, St Petersburg, 5 (1898), pp. 404-438, 626-670].See alsoRoman Empire, Later;Athens.
Authorities.—General: G. Finlay,History of Greece(ed. Tozer, Oxford, 1877), especially vols. i., iv., v.; K. Paparrhigopoulos,Ἱστορία τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ ἔθνους(4th ed., Athens, 1903), vols. ii.-v.;Histoire de la civilisation hellénique(Paris, 1878); R. v. Scala,Das Griechentum seit Alexander dem Grossen(Leipzig and Vienna, 1904); and specially W. Miller,The Latins in the Levant(1908).
Special—(a) The Roman period: Strabo, bks. viii.-x.; Pausanias,Descriptio Graeciae; G. F. Hertzberg,Die Geschichte Griechenlands unter der Herrschaft der Römer(Halle, 1866-1875); Sp. Lampros,Ἱστορία τῆς Ἑλλάδος(Athens, 1888 sqq.), vol. iii.; A. Holm,History of Greece(Eng. trans., London, 1894-1898). vol. iv., chs. 19, 24, 26, 28 seq.; Th. Mommsen,The Provinces of the Roman Empire(Eng. trans., London, 1886, ch. 7); J. P. Mahaffy,The Greek World under Roman Sway, from Polybius to Plutarch(London, 1890); W. Miller, “The Romans in Greece” (Westminster Review, August 1903, pp. 186-210); L. Friedländer, “Griechenland unter den Römern” (Deutsche Rundschau, 1899, pp. 251-274, 402-430). (b) The Byzantine and Latin periods: G. F. Hertzberg,Geschichte Griechenlands seit dem Absterben des antiken Lebens(Gotha, 1876-1879), vols. i., ii.; C. Hopf,Geschichte Griechenlands im Mittelalter(Leipzig, 1868); J. A. Buchon,Histoire des conquêtes et de l’établissement des Français dans les États de l’ancienne Grèce(Paris, 1846); G. Schmitt,The Chronicle of Morea(London, 1904); W. Miller, “The Princes of the Peloponnese” (Quarterly Review, July 1905, pp. 109-135); D. Bikelas,Seven Essays on Christian Greece(Paisley and London, 1890);La Grèce byzantine et moderne(Paris, 1893), pp. 1-193. (c) The Turkish and Venetian periods: Hertzberg,op. cit., vol. iii.; K. M. Bartholdy,Geschichte Griechenlands von der Eroberung Konstantinopels(Leipzig, 1870), bks. i. and ii., pp. 1-155; K. N. Sathas,Τουρκοκρατουμένη Ἑλλάς(Athens, 1869); W. Miller, “Greece under the Turks” (Westminster Review, August and September 1904, pp. 195-210, 304-320;English Historical Review, 1904, pp. 646-668); L. Ranke, “Die Venetianer in Morea” (Historisch-politische Zeitschrift, ii. 405-502). (d) Special subjects: Religion. E. Hatch,The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church(London, 1890). Ethnology. J. P. Fallmerayer,Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters(Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1830); S. Zampelios,Περὶ πηγῶν νεοελληνικῆς ἐθνότητος(Athens, 1857); A. Philippson, “Zur Ethnographie des Peloponnes” [Petermann’s Mitteilungen36 (1890), pp. 1-11, 33-41]; A. Vasiljev, “Die Slaven in Griechenland” [Vizantijsky Vremennik, St Petersburg, 5 (1898), pp. 404-438, 626-670].
See alsoRoman Empire, Later;Athens.
(M. O. B. C.)
c.Modern History: 1800-1908.
At the beginning of the 19th century Greece was still under Turkish domination, but the dawn of freedom was already breaking, and a variety of forces were at work which prepared the way for the acquisition of nationalThe decadence of Turkey.independence. The decadence of the Ottoman empire, which began with the retreat of the Turks from Vienna in 1683, was indicated in the 18th century by the weakening of the central power, the spread of anarchy in the provinces, the ravages of the janissaries, and the establishment of practically independent sovereignties or fiefs, such as those of Mehemet of Bushat at Skodra and of Ali Pasha of Tepelen at Iannina; the 19th century witnessed the first uprisings of the Christian populations and the detachment of the outlying portions of European Turkey. Up to the end of the 18th century none of the subject races had risen in spontaneous revolt against the Turks, though in some instances they rendered aid to the sultan’s enemies; the spirit of the conquered nations had been broken by ages of oppression. In some of the remoter and more mountainous districts, however, the authority of the Turks had never been completely established; in Montenegro a small fragment of the Serb race maintained its independence; among the Greeks, the Mainotes in the extreme south of the Morea and the Sphakiote mountaineers in Crete had never been completely subdued. Resistance to Ottoman rule was maintained sporadically in the mountainous districts by the Greekklephtsor brigands, the counterpart of the Slavonichaiduks, and by the pirates of the Aegean; thearmatolesor bodies of Christian warriors, recognized by the Turks as a local police, often differed little in their proceedings from the brigands whom they were appointed to pursue.
Of the series of insurrections which took place in the 19th century, the first in order of time was the Servian, which broke out in 1804; the second was the Greek, which began in 1821. In both these movements the influence ofRussian influence.Russia played a considerable part. In the case of the Servians Russian aid was mainly diplomatic, in that of the Greeks it eventually took a more material form. Since the days of Peter the Great, the eyes of Russia had been fixed on Constantinople, the great metropolis of the Orthodox faith. The policy of inciting the Greek Christians to revolt against their oppressors, which was first adopted in the reign of the empress Anna, was put into practical operation by the empress Catharine II., whose favourite, Orlov, appeared in the Aegean with a fleet in 1769 and landed in the Morea, where he organized a revolt. The attempt proved a failure; Orlov re-embarked, leaving the Greeks at the mercy of the Turks, and terrible massacres took place at Tripolitza, Lemnos and elsewhere. By the treaty of Kutchuk-Kainarji (July 21, 1774) Russia obtained a vaguely-defined protectorate over the Orthodox Greek subjects of Turkey, and in 1781 she arrived at an arrangement with Austria, known as the “Greek project,” for a partition of Turkish territory and the restoration of the Byzantine empire under Constantine, the son of Catharine II. The outbreak of the French Revolution distracted the attention of the two empires, but Russia never ceased to intrigue among the Christian subjects of Turkey. A revolt of the inhabitants of Suli in 1790 took place with her connivance, and in the two first decades of the 19th century her agents were active and ubiquitous.
The influence of the French Revolution, which pervaded all Europe, extended to the shores of the Aegean. The Greeks, who had hitherto been drawn together mainly by a common religion, were now animated by the sentimentGreek revolutionary activity.of nationality and by an ardent desire for political freedom. The national awakening, as in the case of the other subject Christian nations, was preceded by a literary revival. Literary and patriotic societies, the Philhellenes, the Philomousi, came into existence; Greek schools were founded everywhere; the philological labours of Coraës, which created the modern written language, furnished the nation with a mode of literary expression; the songs of Rhigas of Velestino fired the enthusiasm of the people. In 1815 was founded the celebratedPhiliké Hetaerea, or friendly society, a revolutionary organization with centres at Moscow, Bucharest, Triest, and in all the cities of the Levant; it collected subscriptions, issued manifestos, distributed arms and made preparations for the coming insurrection. The revolt of Ali Pasha of Iannina against the authority of the sultan in 1820 formed the prelude to the Greek uprising; this despot, who had massacred the Greeks by hundreds, now declared himself their friend, and became a member of the Hetaerea. In March 1821 Alexander Ypsilanti, a former aide-de-camp of the tsar Alexander I., and president of the Hetaerea, entered Moldavia from Russian territory at the head of a small force; in the same month Archbishop Germanos of Patras unfurled the standard of revolt at Kalavryta in the Morea.
For the history of the prolonged struggle which followed seeGreek War of Independence. The warfare was practically brought to a close by the annihilation of the Egyptian fleet at Navarino by the fleets of Great Britain, FranceIndependence of Greece.and Russia on the 20th of October 1827. Nine months previously, Count John Capo d’Istria (q.v.), formerly minister of foreign affairs of the tsar Alexander, had been elected president of the Greek republic for seven years beginning on January 18, 1828. By the protocol of London (March 22, 1829) the Greek mainland south of a line drawn from the Gulf of Arta to the Gulf of Volo, the Morea and the Cyclades were declared a principality tributary to the sultan under a Christian prince. The limits drawn by the protocol of London were confirmed by the treaty of Adrianople (September 14, 1829), by which Greece was constituted an independent monarchy. The governments of Russia, France and England were far from sharing the enthusiasm which the gallant resistance of the Greeks had excited among the peoples of Europe, and which inspired the devotion of Byron, Cochrane, Sir Richard Church, Fabvier and other distinguished Philhellenes; jealousies prevailed among the three protecting powers, and the newly-liberated nation was treated in a niggardly spirit; its narrow limits were reduced by a new protocol (February 3, 1830), which drew the boundary line at the Aspropotamo, the Spercheios and the Gulf of Lamia. Capo d’Istria, whose Russian proclivities and arbitrary government gave great offence to the Greeks, was assassinated by two members of the Mavromichalis family (October 9, 1831), and a state of anarchy followed. Before his death the throne of Greece had been offered to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, afterwards king of the Belgians, who declined it, basing his refusal on the inadequacy of the limits assigned to the new kingdom and especially the exclusion of Crete.
By the convention of London (May 7, 1832) Greece was declared an independent kingdom under the protection of Great Britain, France and Russia with Prince Otto, son of King Louis I. of Bavaria, as king. The frontierKing Otto.line, now traced from the Gulf of Arta to the Gulf of Lamia, was fixed by the arrangement of Constantinople (July 21, 1832). King Otto, who had been brought up in a despotic court, ruled absolutely for the first eleven years of his reign; he surrounded himself with Bavarian advisers and Bavarian troops, and his rule was never popular. The Greek chiefs and politicians, who found themselves excluded from all influence and advancement, were divided into three factions which attached themselves respectively to the three protecting powers. On the 15th of September 1843 a military revolt broke out which compelled the king to dismiss the Bavarians and to accept a constitution. A responsible ministry, a senate nominated by the king, and a chamber elected by universal suffrage were now instituted. Mavrocordatos, the leader of the English party, became the first prime minister, but his government was overthrown at the ensuing elections, and a coalition of the French and Russian parties under Kolettes and Metaxas succeeded to power. The warfare of factions was aggravated by the rivalry between the British and French ministers, Sir Edmond Lyons and M. Piscatory; King Otto supported the French party, and trouble arose with the British government, which in 1847 despatched warships to enforce the payment of interest on the loan contracted after the War of Independence. A British fleet subsequently blockaded the Peiraeus in order to obtain satisfaction for the claims of Pacifico, a Portuguese Jew under British protection, whose house had been plundered during a riot. On the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Turkey in 1853 the Greeks displayed sympathy with Russia; armed bands were sent into Thessaly, and an insurrection was fomented in Epirus in the hope of securing an accession of territory. In order to prevent further hostile action on the part of Greece, British and French fleets made a demonstration against the Peiraeus, which was occupied by a French force during the Crimean War. The disappointment of the national hopes increased the unpopularity of King Otto, who had never acquiesced in constitutional rule. In 1862 a military revolt broke out, and a national assembly pronounced his deposition. The vacant throne was offered by the assembly to Duke Nicholas of Leuchtenberg, a cousin of the tsar, but the mass of the people desired a constitutional monarchy of the British type; a plebiscite was taken, and Prince Alfred of England was elected by an almost unanimous vote. The three protecting powers, however, had bound themselves to the exclusion of any member of their ruling houses. In the following year Prince William George of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, whom the British government had designated as a suitable candidate, was elected by the National Assembly with the title “George I., king of the Hellenes.” Under the treaty of London (July 13, 1863) the change of dynasty was sanctioned by the three protecting powers, Great Britain undertaking to cede to Greece the seven Ionian Islands, which since 1815 had formed a commonwealth under British protection.
On the 29th of October 1863 the new sovereign arrived in Athens, and in the following June the British authorities handed over the Ionian Islands to a Greek commissioner. King George thus began his reign under the mostAccession of George I.favourable auspices, the patriotic sentiments of the Greeks being flattered by the acquisition of new territory. He was, however, soon confronted with constitutional difficulties; party spirit ran riot at Athens, the ministries which he appointed proved short-lived, his counsellor, Count Sponneck, became the object of violent attacks, and at the end of 1864 he was compelled to accept an ultra-democratic constitution, drawn up by the National Assembly. This, the sixth constitution voted since the establishment of the kingdom, is that which is still in force. In the following year Count Sponneck left Greece, and the attention of the nation was concentrated on the affairs of Crete. The revolution which broke out in that island received moral and material support from the Greek government, with the tacit approval of Russia; military preparations were pressed forward at Athens, and cruisers were purchased, but the king, aware of the inability of Greece to attain her ends by warlike means, discouraged a provocative attitude towards Turkey, and eventually dismissed the bellicose cabinet of Koumoundouros. The removal of a powerful minister commanding a large parliamentary majority constituted an important precedent in the exercise of the royal prerogative; the king adopted a similar course with regard to Delyannes in 1892 and 1897. The relations with the porte, however, continued to grow worse, and Hobart Pasha, with a Turkish fleet, made a demonstration off Syra. The Cretan insurrection was finally crushed in the spring of 1869, and a conference of the powers, which assembled that year at Paris, imposed a settlement of the Turkish dispute on Greece, but took no steps on behalf of the Cretans. In 1870 the murder of several Englishmen by brigands in the neighbourhood of Athens produced an unfavourable impression in Europe; in the following year the confiscation of the Laurion mines, which had been ceded to a Franco-Italian company, provoked energetic action on the part of France and Italy. In 1875, after an acute constitutional crisis, Charilaos Trikoupes, who but ten months previously had been imprisoned for denouncing the crown in a newspaper article, was summoned to form a cabinet. This remarkable man, the only great statesman whom modern Greece has produced, exercised an extraordinary influence over his countrymen for the next twenty years; had he been able to maintain himself uninterruptedly in power during that period, Greece might have escaped a long succession of misfortunes. His principal opponent, Theodore Delyannes, succeeded in rallying a strong body of adherents, and political parties, hitherto divided into numerous factions, centred around these two prominent figures.
In 1877 the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War produced a fever of excitement in Greece; it was felt that the quarrels of the party leaders compromised the interests of the country, and the populace of Athens insisted on theNew frontier, 1881.formation of a coalition cabinet. The “great” or “oecumenical” ministry, as it was called, now came into existence under the presidency of the veteran Kanares; in reality, however, it was controlled by Trikoupes, who, recognizing the unpreparedness of the country, resolved on a pacific policy. The capture of Plevna by the Russians brought about the fall of the “oecumenical” ministry, and Koumoundouros and Delyannes, who succeeded to power, ordered the invasion of Thessaly. Their warlike energies, however, were soon checked by the signing of the San Stefano Treaty, in which the claims of Greece to an extension of frontier were altogether ignored. At the Berlin congress two Greek delegates obtained a hearing on the proposal of Lord Salisbury. The congress decided that the rectification of the frontier should be left to Turkey and Greece, the mediation of the powers being proposed in case of non-agreement; it was suggested, however, that the rectified frontier should extend from the valley of the Peneus on the east to the mouth of the Kalamas, opposite the southern extremity of Corfu, on the west. In 1879 a Greco-Turkish commission for the delimitation met first at Prevesa, and subsequently at Constantinople, but its conferences were without result, the Turkish commissioners declining the boundary suggested at Berlin. Greece then invoked the arbitration of the powers, and the settlement of the question was undertaken by a conference of ambassadors at Berlin (1880). The line approved by the conference was practically that suggested by the congress; Turkey, however, refused to accept it, and the Greek army was once more mobilized.Itwas evident, however, that nothing could be gained by an appeal to arms, the powers not being prepared to apply coercion to Turkey. By a convention signed at Constantinople in July 1881, the demarcation was entrusted to a commission representing the six powers and the two interested parties. The line drawn ran westwards from a point between the mouth of the Peneus and Platamona to the summits of Mounts Kritiri and Zygos, thence following the course of the river Arta to its mouth. An area of 13,395 square kilometres, with a population of 300,000 souls, was thus added to the kingdom, while Turkey was left in possession of Iannina, Metzovo and most of Epirus. The ceded territory was occupied by Greek troops before the close of the year.
In 1882 Trikoupes came into power at the head of a strong party, over which he exercised an influence and authority hitherto unknown in Greek political life. With the exception of three brief intervals (May 1885 to MayTrikoupes and Delyannes.1886, October 1890 to February 1892, and a few months in 1893), he continued in office for the next twelve years. The reforms which he introduced during this period were generally of an unpopular character, and were loudly denounced by his democratic rivals; most of them were cancelled during the intervals when his opponent Delyannes occupied the premiership. The same want of continuity proved fatal to the somewhat ambitious financial programme which he now inaugurated. While pursuing a cautious foreign policy, and keeping in control the rash impetuosity of his fellow-countrymen, he shared to the full the national desire for expansion, but he looked to the development of the material resources of the country as a necessary preliminary to the realization of the dreams of Hellenism. With this view he endeavoured to attract foreign capital to the country, and the confidence which he inspired in financial circles abroad enabled him to contract a number of loans and to better the financial situation by a series of conversions. Under a stable, wise, and economical administration this far-reaching programme might perhaps have been carried out with success, but the vicissitudes of party politics and the periodical outbursts of national sentiment rendered its realization impossible. In April 1885 Trikoupes fell from power, and a few months later the indignation excited in Greece by the revolution of Philippopolis placed Delyannes once more at the head of a warlike movement. The army and fleet were again mobilized with a view to exacting territorial compensation for the aggrandizement of Bulgaria, and several conflicts with the Turkish troops took place on the frontier. The powers, after repeatedly inviting the Delyannes cabinet to disarm, established a blockade of Peiraeus and other Greek ports (8th May 1886), France alone declining to cooperate in this measure. Delyannes resigned (11th May) and Trikoupes, who succeeded to power, issued a decree of disarmament (25th May). Hostilities, however, continued on the frontier, and the blockade was not raised till 7th June. Trikoupes had now to face the serious financial situation brought about by the military activity of his predecessor. He imposed heavy taxation, which the people, for the time at least, bore without murmuring, and he continued to inspire such confidence abroad that Greek securities maintained their price in the foreign market. It was ominous, however, that a loan which he issued in 1890 was only partially covered. Meanwhile the Cretan difficulty had become once more a source of trouble to Greece. In 1889 Trikoupes was grossly deceived by the Turkish government, which, after inducing him to dissuade the Cretans from opposing the occupation of certain fortified posts, issued a firman annulling many important provisions in the constitution of the island. The indignationin Greece was intense, and popular discontent was increased by the success of the Bulgarians in obtaining theexequaturof the sultan for a number of bishops in Macedonia. In the autumn of 1890 Trikoupes was beaten at the elections, and Delyannes, who had promised the people a radical reform of the taxation, succeeded to power. He proved unequal, however, to cope with the financial difficulty, which now became urgent; and the king, perceiving that a crisis was imminent, dismissed him and recalled Trikoupes. The hope of averting national bankruptcy depended on the possibility of raising a loan by which the rapid depreciation of the paper currency might be arrested, but foreign financiers demanded guarantees which seemed likely to prove hurtful to Greek susceptibilities; an agitation was raised at Athens, and Trikoupes suddenly resigned (May 1893). His conduct at this juncture appears to have been due to some misunderstandings which had arisen between him and the king. The Sotiropoulos-Rhalles ministry which followed effected a temporary settlement with the national creditors, but Trikoupes, returning to power in the autumn, at once annulled the arrangement. He now proceeded to a series of arbitrary measures which provoked the severest criticism throughout Europe and exposed Greece to the determined hostility of Germany. A law was hastily passed which deprived the creditors of 70% of their interest, and the proceeds of the revenues conceded to the monopoly bondholders were seized (December 1893). Long negotiations followed, resulting in an arrangement which was subsequently reversed by the German bondholders. In January 1895 Trikoupes resigned office, in consequence of a disagreement with the crown prince on a question of military discipline. His popularity had vanished, his health was shattered, and he determined to abandon his political career. His death at Cannes (11th April 1896), on the eve of a great national convulsion, deprived Greece of his masterly guidance and sober judgment at a critical moment in her history.
His funeral took place at Athens on 23rd April, while the city was still decorated with flags and garlands after the celebration of the Olympic games. The revival of the ancient festival, which drew together multitudes of GreeksNationalist agitation, 1896.from abroad, led to a lively awakening of the national sentiment, hitherto depressed by the economic misfortunes of the kingdom, and a secret patriotic society, known as theEthniké Hetaerea, began to develop prodigious activity, enrolling members from every rank of life and establishing branches in all parts of the Hellenic world. The society had been founded in 1894, by a handful of young officers who considered that the military organization of the country was neglected by the government; its principal aim was the preparation of an insurrectionary movement in Macedonia, which, owing to the activity of the Bulgarians and the reconciliation of Prince Ferdinand with Russia, seemed likely to be withdrawn for ever from the domain of Greek irredentism. The outbreak of another insurrection in Crete supplied the means of creating a diversion for Turkey while the movement in Macedonia was being matured; arms and volunteers were shipped to the island, but the society was as yet unable to force the hand of the government, and Delyannes, who had succeeded Trikoupes in 1895, loyally aided the powers in the restoration of order by advising the Cretans to accept the constitution of 1896. The appearance of strong insurgent bands in Macedonia in the summer of that year testified to the activity of the society and provoked the remonstrances of the powers, while the spread of its propaganda in the army led to the issue of a royal rescript announcing grand military manœuvres, the formation of a standing camp, and the rearmament of the troops with a new weapon (6th December). The objects of the society were effectually furthered by the evident determination of the porte to evade the application of the stipulated reforms in Crete; the Cretan Christians lost patience, and indignation was widespread in Greece. Emissaries of the society were despatched to the island, and affairs were brought to a climax by an outbreak at Canea on 4th February 1897. The Turkish troops fired on the Christians, thousands of whom took refuge on the warships of the powers, and a portion of the town was consumed by fire.
Delyannes now announced that the government had abandoned the policy of abstention. On the 6th two warships were despatched to Canea, and on the 10th a torpedo flotilla, commanded by Prince George, left PeiraeusCretan crisis, 1897.amid tumultuous demonstrations. The ostensible object of these measures was the protection of Greek subjects in Crete, and Delyannes was still anxious to avoid a definite rupture with Turkey, but the Ethniké Hetaerea had found means to influence several members of the ministry and to alarm the king. Prince George, who had received orders to prevent the landing of Turkish reinforcements on the island, soon withdrew from Cretan waters owing to the decisive attitude adopted by the commanders of the international squadron. A note was now addressed by the government to the powers, declaring that Greece could no longer remain a passive spectator of events in Crete, and on the 13th of February a force of 1500 men, under Colonel Vassos, embarked at Peiraeus. On the same day a Greek warship fired on a Turkish steam yacht which was conveying troops from Candia to Sitia. Landing near Canea on the night of the 14th, Colonel Vassos issued a proclamation announcing the occupation of Crete in the name of King George. He had received orders to expel the Turkish garrisons from the fortresses, but his advance on Canea was arrested by the international occupation of that town, and after a few engagements with the Turkish troops and irregulars he withdrew into the interior of the island. Proposals for the coercion of Greece were now put forward by Germany, but Great Britain declined to take action until an understanding had been arrived at with regard to the future government of Crete. Eventually (2nd March) collective notes were addressed to the Greek and Turkish governments announcing the decision of the powers that (1) Crete could in no case in present circumstances be annexed to Greece; (2) in view of the delays caused by Turkey in the application of the reforms, Crete should be endowed with an effective autonomous administration, calculated to ensure it a separate government, under the suzerainty of the sultan. Greece was at the same time summoned to remove its army and fleet within the space of six days, and Turkey was warned that its troops must for the present be concentrated in the fortified towns and ultimately withdrawn from the island. The action of the powers produced the utmost exasperation at Athens; the populace demanded war with Turkey and the annexation of Crete, and the government drew up a reply to the powers in which, while expressing the conviction that autonomy would prove a failure, it indicated its readiness to withdraw some of the ships, but declined to recall the army. A suggestion that the troops might receive a European mandate for the preservation of order in the island proved unacceptable to the powers, owing to the aggressive action of Colonel Vassos after his arrival. Meanwhile troops, volunteers and munitions of war were hurriedly despatched to the Turkish frontier in anticipation of an international blockade of the Greek ports, but the powers contented themselves with a pacific blockade of Crete, and military preparations went on unimpeded.
While the powers dallied, the danger of war increased; on 29th March the crown prince assumed command of the Greek troops in Thessaly, and a few days later hostilities were precipitated by the irregular forces of the EthnikéWar with Turkey.Hetaerea, which attacked several Turkish outposts near Grevena. According to a report of its proceedings, subsequently published by the society, this invasion received the previous sanction of the prime minister. On 17th April Turkey declared war. The disastrous campaign which followed was of short duration, and it was evident from the outset that the Greeks had greatly underrated the military strength of their opponents (seeGreco-Turkish War). After the evacuation of Larissa on the 24th, great discontent prevailed at Athens; Delyannes was invited by the king to resign, but refusing to do so was dismissed (29th April). His successor, Rhalles, after recalling the army from Crete (9th May) invoked the mediationof the powers, and an armistice was concluded on the 19th of that month. Thus ended an unfortunate enterprise, which was undertaken in the hope that discord among the powers would lead to a European war and the dismemberment of Turkey. Greek interference in Crete had at least the result of compelling Europe to withdraw the island for ever from Turkish rule. The conditions of peace put forward by Turkey included a war indemnity of £10,000,000 and the retention of Thessaly; the latter demand, however, was resolutely opposed by Great Britain, and the indemnity was subsequently reduced to £4,000,000. The terms agreed to by the powers were rejected by Rhalles; the chamber, however, refused him a vote of confidence and King George summoned Zaimes to power (October 3). The definitive treaty of peace, which was signed at Constantinople on the 6th of December, contained a provision for a slight modification of the frontier, designed to afford Turkey certain strategical advantages; the delimitation was carried out by a commission composed of military delegates of the powers and representatives of the interested parties. The evacuation of Thessaly by the Turkish troops was completed in June 1898. An immediate result of the war was the institution of an international financial commission at Athens, charged with the control of certain revenues assigned to the service of the national debt. The state of the country after the conclusion of hostilities was deplorable; the towns of northern Greece and the islands were crowded with destitute refugees from Thessaly; violent recriminations prevailed at Athens, and the position of the dynasty seemed endangered. A reaction, however, set in, in consequence of an attempt to assassinate King George (28th February 1898), whose great services to the nation in obtaining favourable terms from the powers began to receive general recognition. In the following summer the king made a tour through the country, and was everywhere received with enthusiasm. In the autumn the powers, on the initiative of Russia, decided to entrust Prince George of Greece with the government of Crete; on 26th November an intimation that the prince had been appointed high commissioner in the island was formally conveyed to the court of Athens, and on 21st December he landed in Crete amid enthusiastic demonstrations (seeCrete).
In April 1899 Zaimes gave way to Theotokes, the chief of the Trikoupist party, who introduced various improvements in the administration of justice and other reforms including a measure transferring the administration of theMacedonian troubles.army from the minister of war to the crown prince. In May 1901 a meeting took place at Abbazia, under the auspices of the Austro-Hungarian government, between King George and King Charles of Rumania with a view to the conclusion of a Graeco-Rumanian understanding directed against the growth of Slavonic, and especially Bulgarian, influence in Macedonia. The compact, however, was destined to be short-lived owing to the prosecution of a Rumanian propaganda among the semi-Hellenized Vlachs of Macedonia. In November riots took place at Athens, the patriotic indignation of the university students and the populace being excited by the issue of a translation of the Gospels into modern Greek at the suggestion of the queen. The publication was attributed to Panslavist intrigues against Greek supremacy over the Orthodox populations of the East, and the archbishop of Athens was compelled to resign. Theotokes, whose life was attempted, retired from power, and Zaimes formed a cabinet. In 1902 the progress of the Bulgarian movement in Macedonia once more caused great irritation in Greece. Zaimes, having been defeated at the elections in December, resigned, and was succeeded by Delyannes, whose popularity had not been permanently impaired by the misfortunes of the war. Delyannes now undertook to carry out extensive economic reforms, and introduced a measure restoring the control of the army to the ministry of war. He failed, however, to carry out his programme, and, being deserted by a section of his followers, resigned in June 1903, when Theotokes again became prime minister. The new cabinet resigned within a month owing to the outbreak of disturbances in the currant-growing districts, and Rhalles took office for the second time (July 8). The Bulgarian insurrection in Macedonia during the autumn caused great excitement in Athens, and Rhalles adopted a policy of friendship with Turkey (seeMacedonia). The co-operation of the Greek party in Macedonia with the Turkish authorities exposed it to the vengeance of the insurgents, and in the following year a number of Greek bands were sent into that country. The campaign of retaliation was continued in subsequent years.
In December Rhalles, who had lost the support of the Delyannist party, was replaced by Theotokes, who promulgated a scheme of army reorganization, introduced various economies and imposed fresh taxation. In DecemberMurder of Delyannes.the government was defeated on a vote of confidence and Delyannes once more became prime minister, obtaining a considerable majority in the elections which followed (March 1905), but on the 13th of June he was assassinated. He was succeeded by Rhalles, who effected a settlement of the currant question and cultivated friendly relations with Turkey in regard to Macedonia.
In the autumn anti-Greek demonstrations in Rumania led to a rupture of relations with that country. In December the ministry resigned owing to an adverse vote of the chamber, and Theotokes formed a cabinet. The new government, as a preliminary to military and naval reorganization, introduced a law directed against the candidature of military officers for parliament. Owing to obstruction practised by the military members of the chamber a dissolution took place, and at the subsequent elections (April 1906) Theotokes secured a large majority. In the autumn various excesses committed against the Greeks in Bulgaria in reprisal for the depredations of the Greek bands in Macedonia caused great indignation in Greece, but diplomatic relations between the two countries were not suspended. On the 26th of September Prince George, who had resigned the high commissionership of Crete, returned to Athens; the designation of his successors was accorded by the protecting powers to King George as a satisfaction to Greek national sentiment (seeCrete). The great increase in the activity of the Greek bands in Macedonia during the following spring and summer led to the delivery of a Turkish note at Athens (July 1907), which was supported by representations of the powers.
In October 1908 the proclamation by the Cretan assembly of union with Greece threatened fresh complications, the cautious attitude of the Greek government leading to an agitation in the army, which came to a head in 1909. On the 18th of July a popular demonstration against his Cretan policy led to the resignation of Theotokes, whose successor, Rhalles, announced a programme of military and economical reform. The army, however, took matters into its own hands, and on the 23rd of August Rhalles was replaced by Mavromichales, the nominee of the “Military League.” For the next six months constitutional government was practically superseded by that of the League, and for a while the crown itself seemed to be in danger. The influence of the League, however, rapidly declined; army and navy quarrelled; and a freshcoup d’étatat the beginning of 1910 failed of its effect, owing to the firmness of the king. On the 7th of February Mavromichales resigned, and his successor, Dragoumis, accepting the Cretan leader Venezelo’s suggestion of a national assembly, succeeded in persuading the League to dissolve (March 29) on receiving the king’s assurance that such an assembly would be convened. On the 31st, accordingly, King George formally proclaimed the convocation of a national assembly to deal with the questions at issue.