The Greek War of Independence was a conflict which was fought between 1821 and 1829 by Greek revolutionaries seeking to liberate Greece from Turkish Ottoman rule. Greece had been conquered by the Ottomans in the fifteenth century and remained part of their empire for nearly 400 years. But by the early nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire was in terminal decline after years of political, social and technological stagnation. The Orthodox Christian Greeks were the first people of the Balkans to launch a major revolt to free themselves of Muslim rule. They were supported during the 1820s by Britain, Russia and France. In the aftermath of the fighting the London Protocol of 1830 led to international recognition of Greek independence. Political chaos followed the war in Greece and in 1832, in a somewhat bizarre development, a monarchy was established to rule Greece, with Prince Otto of the House of Wittelsbach in Bavaria in Germany chosen to become King Otto I of Greece. The war led to considerable migration of ethnic Greeks from the Ottoman Empire into newly independent Greece and of Muslims from Greece into the borders of the Ottoman Empire.[1]
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Greek War of Independence chronology of events
Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries the Ottoman Empire grew from being a small Turkish state in Anatolia in western Turkey to control most of the Eastern Mediterranean. This included all of the Balkans from Hungary south to Greece. In 1683 the Turks had even nearly captured Vienna. Over four centuries of Ottoman rule many people across the Balkans converted to Islam and adopted the cultural traits of the Turks. Many others though were firm in their resolve to continue as Greek Orthodox Christians and to retain their national identities as Greeks, Serbs, Bulgars and the like. Hence, when the Ottoman Empire entered a period of rapid decline from the middle of the eighteenth century onwards, independence movements soon emerged in places like Greece and revolts against Ottoman rule followed soon after.[2] For instance, in 1770 and 1771 a major revolt had occurred in the Peloponnese and on the island of Crete led by Alexey Orlov. It was ultimately unsuccessful, but it foreshadowed the Balkan independence movements of the nineteenth century.[3]
In 1814 a secret society of Greek nationalists known as the Filiki Eteria, meaning ‘the society of friends’, was formed by Greek exiles living in Odessa. They planned to liberate their homeland from Turkish rule and in February 1821 finally launched an insurrection in what is now Romania. They called on their fellow Greeks in Greece itself to join the cause and the Maniots did so in the Peloponnese in March that year. Further local uprisings followed in the months after that in the Attic region, Macedonia, on Crete and on several of the other Greek islands. The following year they declared the establishment of a Hellenic Republic, but by then the Ottomans were coordinating their response and a bitter war would follow.[4]
The Greek War of Independence lasted for eight and a half years with intense fighting across mainland Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea as the Ottomans attempted to reestablish control over the region. The fighting would eventually result in quarter of a million dead and wounded. What turned the tide of the conflict and resulted in Greek victory was the intervention of Russia, Britain and France on the side of the Greek rebels from 1827 onwards. Through the London Protocol of 1830, which built on earlier agreements in the 1820s, the Ottomans acknowledged Greece’s independence.[5]
This did not bring peace to the fragmented region. The war had seen numerous local groups of rebels establish their own parliaments and governments in regions like the Peloponnese and on islands like Samos and Crete and in the aftermath of the war the new country was riven by internal tensions. In an effort to ameliorate the situation the great powers of Europe established Otto, the seventeen-year old Prince of the House of Wittelsbach in Bavaria in Germany, as King Otto I of Greece, ushering in a Kingdom of Greece which would last down to 1973 with a brief interruption during the interwar period. Greek independence inspired further independence movements against Ottoman rule in the Balkans in Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and other regions in the decades that followed.[6]
Extent of migration during and after the Greek War of Independence
The war created a great degree of enmity between Orthodox Greek Christians and Muslim Turks. Owing to this, once it ended and Greek independence was formalized in 1830, a wave of migration occurred between the new Greek state and the Ottoman Empire. For instance, Athens and other Greek cities had substantial communities of Muslims by the early nineteenth century. Many of these people now left their homes and migrated towards Constantinople and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. There was also traffic in the other direction, with many Greeks leaving cities like Constantinople, Izmir and Ayvalik to relocated to Athens, the Peloponnese and some of the Aegean islands which had come under Greek rule.[7]
Demographic impact of the Greek War of Independence
The demographic impact of the migration which occurred in the aftermath of the Greek War of Independence was substantial. It involved the movement of hundreds of thousands of people. Yet, at the same time, it was eclipsed by further waves of migration between Greece and Turkey over the century that followed, notably in the mid-1920s at the end of the Greco-Turkish War, a migration which involved some two million people. Therefore, while the migration which followed the Greek War of Independence was significant, the more lasting impact was in setting a precedent for future waves of migration between the two nations well into the twentieth century.[8]
Relevant collections
The following table presents historical record collections on MyHeritage with a high volume of results indicating Greece as the place of birth:
| Name of collection | Number of records | Number of results |
| U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007 | 240,605,123 | 99,163 |
| Ellis Island and Other New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 | 113,554,317 | 274,296 |
| 1900 United States Federal Census | 76,460,854 | 8,731 |
| 1910 United States Federal Census | 92,639,466 | 101,566 |
| 1920 United States Federal Census | 107,445,111 | 161,606 |
| 1930 United States Federal Census | 125,150,767 | 172,066 |
| 1940 United States Federal Census | 134,282,495 | 161,593 |
| 1950 United States Federal Census | 159,401,661 | 162,681 |
| United States World War I Draft Registrations, 1917-1918 | 24,870,511 | 123,850 |
See also
Explore more about the Greek War of Independence
- Greece, Electoral Rolls and Male Registers, 1856-1950 record collection on MyHeritage
- Greece, Corfu Vital Records, 1841-1932 record collection on MyHeritage
- Greece, Sparta Marriages 1835-1935 record collection on MyHeritage
- Greece, Farmers Census, 1856 record collection on MyHeritage
- Greece’s Top 5 Types of Genealogy Records at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- The History of the Greek War of Independence at Greek Reporter
References
- ↑ Mark Mazower, The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe (London, 2021).
- ↑ https://www.worldhistory.org/Ottoman_Empire/
- ↑ https://greekherald.com.au/culture/the-orlov-revolt-what-you-need-to-know-about-greeces-first-revolt-against-the-ottoman-empire/
- ↑ https://greekreporter.com/2023/03/17/filiki-eteria-sparked-greek-independence/
- ↑ https://200years.mfa.gr/en/international-treaties-en/
- ↑ https://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Person/en/OttoOfGreece.html
- ↑ D. Özkan Pantazis, ‘Migrations, Exodus, and Resettlement during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830)’, in Y. Cartledge and A. Varnava (eds.), New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence (London, 2022), pp. 109–127.
- ↑ https://merip.org/2013/06/the-greek-turkish-population-exchange/