25TH MARCH 1821

Lord Byron by an Unknown Artist

In Greece, each 25^th of March we celebrate the anniversary of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Turks, which was a successful war of independence against the invaders, during the years 1821-1830.     Much later, Greece was helped by Russia, Britain and France whom we sincerely thank for their valuable assistance while the Turks were helped by Egypt, Algeria, Tripolitania and Tunis. Greece had been under the Ottoman rule for nearly 400 years and was unfortunately considered a province of Turkey.


A secret organisation called Filliki Etairia was founded with the aim of liberating Greece.  The organisation planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities and Constantinople with the surrounding area.  The revolution was organised to start and, actually, did start on the 25th March 1821, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Orthodox Christians. 


By October 1821, the Greeks under Theodorus Kolokotronis had captured Tripolitsa, which was then the capital of the Peloponnese.  The revolt was soon followed in other parts of the country, like Crete, Macedonia and Central Greece.  Also, the Greek navy battled successfully against the Turkish armada and sunk many of their ships with the help of their allies, Russia, France and Britain who had sent warships to help the Greek navy against the Ottoman and Egyptian flotillas. 

When an occupied nation decides to revolt in order to achieve its freedom, many issues are raised for such actions, because they do not affect only the conquered and conquerors, but also have enormous repercussions on all neighbouring countries. 

Therefore, the Greek war of independence is a multidimensional matter which did not, only, concern the two countries, Greece and Turkey, but the rest of the European states as well.  For this reason, the Greek war of independence was examined in the broader way in connection with the other European lands, like their economic, totalitarian and colonial interests and plans, their experiences during recent wars, and how all these factors intermingled.


Let us not forget, that the 19th century was a revolutionary period in all spheres of life.  Democracy, like the French, Greek and Mexican Revolutions, human and civil rights, the abolition of slavery, nationalism, the "Islamic gunpowder empires" were dissolved.  But also, the industrial revolution which made certain countries and their citizens rich and demanding.  Therefore, unfortunately,  imperialism grew and flourished, so most of South and South-East Asia and the whole of Africa were under colonial rule.




(I wish to thank ERT, SKAI TV Greece, FRANCE 24, Kathimerini, Estia, le Figaro and Wikipedia for their valuable information for this post.)

Greek Revolution Scenes

Le Massacre de Chios par Eugene de la Croix