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118-605: Crete took part in the Greek War of Independence , but the local uprising was suppressed with the aid of Muhammad Ali of Egypt . The island remained under Egyptian control until 1840, when it was restored to full Ottoman authority. After the Cretan Revolt (1866–1869) and especially the Pact of Halepa in 1878, the island received significant autonomy, but Ottoman violations of the autonomy statutes and Cretan aspirations for eventual union with

236-613: A fait accompli , Ypsilantis remained in Iaşi and ordered the executions of several pro-Ottoman Moldavians. In Bucharest , where he arrived in early April after some weeks delay, he decided that he could not rely on the Wallachian Pandurs to continue their Oltenian -based revolt and assist the Greek cause. The Pandur leader was Tudor Vladimirescu , who had already reached the outskirts of Bucharest on 16 March [ N.S. 28 March] . In Bucharest,

354-564: A Phanariote serving in the Russian army as general and adjutant to Alexander, who accepted. The Filiki Eteria expanded rapidly and was soon able to recruit members in all areas of the Greek world and among all elements of the Greek society. In 1821, the Ottoman Empire mainly faced war against Persia and more particularly the revolt by Ali Pasha in Epirus, which had forced the vali (governor) of

472-557: A force of 2,000 Maniots under the command of Petros Mavromichalis advanced on the Messenian town of Kalamata , where they united with troops under Theodoros Kolokotronis , Nikitaras and Papaflessas ; Kalamata fell to the Greeks on 23 March. In Achaia , the town of Kalavryta was besieged on 21 March, and in Patras conflicts lasted for many days. The Ottomans launched sporadic attacks towards

590-792: A heavy defeat. The Great Powers dispatched a multinational naval force, the International Squadron , to Crete in February 1897 and forced the Greek Army to abandon the island. It also bombarded Cretan insurgent forces, placed sailors and marines ashore and instituted a blockade of Crete and key ports in Greece, which ended organised combat on the island by late March 1897. Meanwhile, the International Squadron's senior admirals formed an "Admirals Council", which temporarily governed Crete pending

708-519: A member of the ultra-rich Mavrocordatos family, three monks and a priest of the Orthodox church, and three ordinary Greeks accused of planning to poison the city's water supply. In the city of Smyrna (modern İzmir, Turkey), which until 1922 was a mostly Greek city, Ottoman soldiers drawn from the interior of Anatolia on their way to fight in either Greece or Moldavia/Wallachia, staged a pogrom in June 1821 against

826-690: A position of supreme power in the Empire. It was during the Köprülü era that the Ottoman Empire reached its largest geographic expansion across Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa. In Ottoman legal theory, the Sultan was supposed to conduct affairs of state exclusively via the Grand Vizier, but in reality, this arrangement was often circumvented. As the Ottomanist Colin Imber writes, the sultan "had closer contact with

944-571: A precedent for the Greeks, when Peter appealed to Orthodox Christians to join the Russians and rise against the Turks to fight for " faith and homeland ". The Russo-Turkish wars of Catherine II (1762–1796) made the Greeks consider their emancipation with the aid of Russia. An independence movement in Peloponnesus (Morea) was incited by Russian agents in 1769, and a Greek flotilla under Lambros Katsonis assisted

1062-515: A provincial elite, though not a social class, whose members would muster under a common goal. As the armatoloi' s position gradually turned into a hereditary one, some captains took care of their armatolik as their personal property. A great deal of power was placed in their hands and they integrated in the network of clientelist relationships that formed the Ottoman administration. Some managed to establish exclusive control in their armatolik , forcing

1180-591: A resolution of the Cretan uprising and eventually decided that Crete should become an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire. The International Squadron forced the Ottoman troops to depart Crete in November 1898. Rural Turks and Bashibazuks (irregular Turkish troops), goaded by the appointment of Stylianos M. Alexiou as the first Christian director of the Revenue Service , on 6 September 1898 (25 August 1898 according to

1298-414: A semi-independent parliamentary state within the Ottoman Empire under an Ottoman governor, who had to be a Christian. A number of the senior "Christian Pashas", including Photiades Pasha and Kostis Adosidis Pasha, ruled the island in the 1880s and presided over a parliament in which liberals and conservatives contended for power. Disputes between the two powers, however, led to a further insurgency in 1889 and

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1416-545: A small fleet under Lambros Katsonis , which was a nuisance for the Ottoman navy; during the war klephts and armatoloi (guerilla fighters in mountainous areas) rose once again. At the same time, a number of Greeks enjoyed a privileged position in the Ottoman state as members of the Ottoman bureaucracy. Greeks controlled the affairs of the Orthodox Church through the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , as

1534-457: A strong state. Grand Viziers gained immense political supremacy in the later days of the Ottoman Empire. Power was centralized in the position of the Grand Vizier during the Köprülü era . Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was a powerful political figure during the reign of Mehmed IV, and was appointed to the office of Grand Vizier in 1656. He consolidated power within the position and sent the Sultan away from

1652-533: Is celebrated by Greeks around the world as independence day on 25 March. All Greek territory, except the Ionian Islands , the Mani Peninsula , and mountainous regions in Epirus, came under Ottoman rule in the 15th century. During the following centuries, there were Greek uprisings against Ottoman rule. Most uprisings began in the independent Greek realm of the Mani Peninsula , which was never conquered by

1770-426: Is sick and weak. Our generals are experienced, and all our fellow countrymen are full of enthusiasm. Unite, then, O brave and magnanimous Greeks! Let national phalanxes be formed, let patriotic legions appear and you will see those old giants of despotism fall themselves, before our triumphant banners. Michael Soutzos , then Prince of Moldavia and a member of Filiki Etaireia, set his guard at Ypsilantis' disposal. In

1888-534: The Constantinople Massacre of 1821 . The Orthodox Patriarch Gregory V was executed on 22 April 1821 on the orders of the Sultan despite his opposition to the revolt, which caused outrage throughout Europe and resulted in increased support for the Greek rebels. The Peloponnese , with its long tradition of resistance to the Ottomans, was to become the heartland of the revolt. In the early months of 1821, with

2006-525: The Danube . The death of Rigas fanned the flames of Greek nationalism; his nationalist poem, the "Thourios" (war-song), was translated into a number of Western European and later Balkan languages and served as a rallying cry for Greeks against Ottoman rule. Another influential Greek writer and intellectual was Adamantios Korais who witnessed the French Revolution. Korais' primary intellectual inspiration

2124-635: The Danubian Principalities , but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. These events urged Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821, the Maniots were first to declare war. In September 1821, the Greeks, under the leadership of Theodoros Kolokotronis , captured Tripolitsa . Revolts in Crete , Macedonia , and Central Greece broke out, but were suppressed. Greek fleets achieved success against

2242-617: The Danubian Principalities . In order to encourage the local Romanian Christians to join him, he announced that he had "the support of a Great Power", implying Russia. Two days after crossing the Prut, at Three Holy Hierarchs Monastery in Iași (Jassy) , the capital of Moldavia , Ypsilantis issued a proclamation calling all Greeks and Christians to rise up against the Ottomans: Fight for Faith and Fatherland! The time has come, O Hellenes. Long ago

2360-736: The Deccan had substantially weakened. Asaf Jah I, however, refused to grant Chauth to the Maratha Confederacy during its onset in 1718 and in 1721, after the nobility of the Mughal Empire had the two Sayyid Brothers assassinated. However, the Marathas had already expanded up to the Narmada River , and entrenched themselves in that region thereafter. Baji Rao I later instigated war by collecting Chauth in 1723, and trying to expand Maratha rule in

2478-762: The Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821 , was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire , Kingdom of France , and the Russian Empire , while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt . The war led to the formation of modern Greece , which would be expanded to its modern size in later years. The revolution

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2596-501: The Julian calendar then in use on Crete, which was 12 days behind the modern Gregorian calendar during the 19th century), as the new clerks were on their way to start work in the town customs house, attacked them and the British detachment escorting them. A Turkish mob rapidly spread throughout the town, as Cretan Greek houses and shops were pillaged and buildings were torched, particularly in

2714-613: The Kingdom of Greece led to the Cretan Revolt (1897–1898) and the Greco-Turkish War (1897) . Despite an Ottoman victory in the war, Crete became an autonomous state in 1898 because of intervention in favour of Greece by European powers and was united with Greece after the Balkan Wars . During the Cretan War (1645–1669) , Venice was pushed out of Crete by the Ottoman Empire . Most of

2832-509: The Mughal Empire during the reign of Akbar . Saadullah Khan , Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire during the reign of Shah Jahan made the biggest contribution to the organization and administration of the Mughal Empire, he is considered the best of the long line of Mughal Grand Viziers. During the reign of Aurangzeb, Ali Quli Khan was bestowed this title. Later general Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung became Grand Vizier, his fame as one of

2950-659: The Ottoman Empire , the Mughal Empire , the Sokoto Caliphate , the Safavid Empire and Cherifian Empire of Morocco . In the Ottoman Empire, the grand vizier held the imperial seal and could convene all other viziers to attend to affairs of the state; the viziers in conference were called " Kubbealtı viziers" in reference to their meeting place, the Kubbealtı ('under the dome') in Topkapı Palace . His offices were located at

3068-583: The Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea. Tensions developed among Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. The Ottoman Sultan called in Muhammad Ali of Egypt , who agreed to send his son, Ibrahim Pasha , to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gains. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and brought most of

3186-640: The Porte to try repeatedly, though unsuccessfully, to eliminate them. By the time of the War of Independence, powerful armatoloi could be traced in Rumeli , Thessaly, Epirus and southern Macedonia. To the revolutionary leader and writer Yannis Makriyannis , klephts and armatoloi —being the only available major military force on the side of the Greeks—played such a crucial role in the Greek revolution that he referred to them as

3304-726: The Sublime Porte . Today, the Prime Minister of Pakistan is referred to in Urdu as Wazir-e-azam , which translates literally to grand vizier. Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin in the Ottoman Empire. However, after there were troubles between the Turkish grand vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger and Sultan Mehmed II (who had him executed), there was a rise of slave administrators ( devshirme ). These were much easier for

3422-419: The hajduks ) that struck at Muslims and Christians alike. Defying Ottoman rule, the klephts were highly admired and held a significant place in popular lore. Responding to the klephts' attacks, the Ottomans recruited the ablest amongst these groups, contracting Christian militias, known as " armatoloi " ( Greek : αρματολοί ), to secure endangered areas, especially mountain passes. The area under their control

3540-558: The "yeast of liberty". Contrary to conventional Greek history, many of the klephts and armatoles participated at the Greek War of Independence according to their own militaristic patron-client terms. They saw the war as an economic and political opportunity to expand their areas of operation. Balkan bandits such as the klephts and armatoles glorified in nationalist historiography as national heroes—were actually driven by economic interests, were not aware of national projects, made alliances with

3658-489: The 1770s, which was crushed by the Ottomans after having limited success. After the suppression of the uprising, Muslim Albanians ravaged many regions of mainland Greece. However, the Maniots continually resisted Ottoman rule and defeated several Ottoman incursions into their region, the most famous of which was the invasion of 1770 . During the Second Russo-Turkish War , the Greek community of Trieste financed

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3776-573: The 19th century, the Grand Viziers came to assume a role more like that of the prime ministers of contemporary Western monarchies. Forty nine Grand Viziers of Albanian ethnicity served the empire during the Ottoman period and most of them were southern Albanians ( Tosks ). Bairam Khan was the Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire, who led the forces of Akbar to victory during the Second Battle of Panipat . Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak , Grand Vizier of

3894-481: The Christian and Muslim communities ran high. In 1866, the Cretan Revolt this began. The uprising, which lasted for three years, involved volunteers from Greece and other European countries, where it was viewed with considerable sympathy. Despite early successes of the rebels, who quickly confined the Ottomans to the northern towns, the uprising failed. Ottoman Grand Vizier A'ali Pasha personally assumed control of

4012-503: The Christian part of its population revolted several times against Ottoman rule . Revolts in 1841 and in 1858 secured some privileges, such as the right to bear arms, equality of Christian and Muslim worship and the establishment of Christian councils of elders with jurisdiction over education and customary law . Despite those concessions, the Christian Cretans maintained their ultimate aim of union with Greece, and tensions between

4130-539: The Cretan Christians and to a loss of any remaining acquiescence among them for continued Ottoman rule. When a small insurgency began in September 1895, it spread quickly, and by the summer of 1896 the Ottoman forces had lost military control of most of the island. The new uprising led to the dispatch of a Greek expeditionary force to the island, culminating in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 in which Greece suffered

4248-569: The Cretan Muslims. In 1834, however, a Cretan committee was set up in Athens to work for the union of the island with Greece. In 1840, Egypt was forced by Palmerston to return Crete to direct Ottoman rule. Mustafa Pasha angled unsuccessfully to become a semi-independent Prince of Greece, but the Christian Cretans instead of supporting him, rebelled and once more drove the Muslims temporarily into siege in

4366-541: The Cretan dialect. After the Ottoman conquest of 1669, a sizeable proportion of the population gradually converted to Islam. There were also Black Muslim Cretans of sub-Saharan African descent and named Halikoutes and Turkogifti (Turkish Gypsies). According to the 17th-century English diplomat and historian Paul Rycaut , the Orthodox population welcomed Ottomans as liberators from the "oppressive rule of Roman Catholic Italians" and "began to undergo conversion to Islam in substantial numbers". Contemporary estimates vary, but on

4484-657: The Deccan and beyond, causing the outbreak of the Later Mughal-Maratha Wars . Qamaruddin Khan was handpicked to be the Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire, by Asaf Jah I. He successfully repelled Baji Rao I during the Battle of Delhi (1737), and negotiated peace after the occupation of the Mughal Empire by the forces of Nader Shah . He fell in battle after being struck by a stray artillery shell, in battle against Afghan forces in

4602-657: The Egyptian army withdrew under pressure from a French expeditionary force . The Ottoman garrisons in the Peloponnese surrendered and the Greek revolutionaries retook central Greece. The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia allowing for the Russian army to move into the Balkans. This forced the Ottomans to accept Greek autonomy in the Treaty of Adrianople and semi-autonomy for Serbia and the Romanian principalities. After nine years of war, Greece

4720-464: The Elder reformed the role of the vizier in several ways. Several viziers before him held an equivalent, but differently named office; he was the first who held the position of "Grand Vizier", during the reign of Murad I . He was the first advisor with a military background – his forerunners had come from a more scholarly class of men. It is also significant that he was the first of a political family that, at

4838-472: The French Revolution and saw the democracy that came out of it. He spent a lot of his time convincing wealthy Greeks to build schools and libraries to further the education of Greeks. He believed that a furthering in education would be necessary for the general welfare and prosperity of the people of Greece, as well as the country. Korais' ultimate goal was a democratic Greece much like the Golden Age of Pericles. The Greek cause began to draw support not only from

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4956-422: The Greek exiles and culminated in the disastrous Battle of Dragashani and the destruction of the Sacred Band on 7 June [ N.S. 19 June] . Alexander Ypsilantis, accompanied by his brother Nicholas and a remnant of his followers, retreated to Râmnicu Vâlcea , where he spent some days negotiating with the Austrian authorities for permission to cross the frontier. Fearing that his followers might surrender him to

5074-484: The Greek revolt aroused widespread sympathy among the public, although at first it was met with lukewarm and negative reception from the Great Powers. Some historians argue that Ottoman atrocities were given wide coverage in Europe, while Greek atrocities tended to be suppressed or played down. The Ottoman massacres at Chios in 1822 inspired Eugène Delacroix 's famous painting Massacre of Chios ; other philhellenic works by Delacroix were inspired by Byron's poems. Byron,

5192-541: The Greek writers and intellectuals was Rigas Feraios . Deeply influenced by the French Revolution, Rigas was the first to conceive and organize a comprehensive national movement aiming at the liberation of all Balkan nations—including the Turks of the region—and the creation of a "Balkan Republic". Arrested by Austrian officials in Trieste in 1797, he was handed over to Ottoman officials and transported to Belgrade along with his co-conspirators. All of them were strangled to death in June 1798 and their bodies were dumped in

5310-405: The Greeks, leading Gordon to write: "3,000 ruffians assailed the Greek quarter, plundered the houses and slaughtered the people; Smyrna resembled a place taken by assault, neither age or sex being respected". When a local mullah was asked to give a fatwa justifying the murder of Christians by Muslims and refused, he too was promptly killed. The news of the revolution was greeted with dismay by

5428-405: The Italian Carbonari and profiting from their own experience as members of Freemasonic organizations, they founded in 1814 the secret Filiki Eteria ("Friendly Society") in Odessa , an important center of the Greek mercantile diaspora in Russia . With the support of wealthy Greek exile communities in Britain and the United States and with the aid of sympathizers in Western Europe, they planned

5546-410: The Italian states. Grand vizier Grand vizier ( Persian : وزيرِ اعظم , romanized :  vazîr-i aʾzam ; Ottoman Turkish : صدر اعظم , romanized :  sadr-ı aʾzam ; Turkish : sadrazam ) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world . It was first held by officials in the later Abbasid Caliphate . It was then held in

5664-449: The Morea, Hursid Pasha , and other local pashas to leave their provinces and campaign against the rebel force. At the same time, the Great Powers , allied in the " Concert of Europe " in opposition to revolutions in the aftermath of Napoleon I of France , were preoccupied with revolts in Italy and Spain . It was in this context that the Greeks judged the time ripe for their own revolt. The plan originally involved uprisings in three places,

5782-438: The Ottoman era. Throughout the 17th century, there was great resistance to the Ottomans in the Morea and elsewhere, as evidenced by revolts led by Dionysius the Philosopher . After the Morean War , the Peloponnese came under Venetian rule for 30 years, and remained in turmoil from then on and throughout the 17th century, as bands of klephts multiplied. The first great uprising was the Russian-sponsored Orlov Revolt of

5900-406: The Ottoman forces and launched a methodical campaign to retake the rural districts, which was combined with promises of political concessions , notably by the introduction of an Organic Law, which gave the Cretan Christians equal (in practice, because of their superior numbers, majority) control of local administration. His approach bore fruits, as the rebel leaders gradually submitted. By early 1869,

6018-415: The Ottoman history, the Grand Viziers have also been termed sadr-ı âlî ( صدر عالی , "sublime vizier"), vekil-ı mutlak ( وكیل مطلق , "absolute attorney"), sâhib-ı devlet ( صاحب دولت , "holder of the State"), serdar-ı ekrem ( سردار اكرم , "most noble [commander-in-]chief"), serdar-ı a’zam ( سردار اعظم , "grand [commander-in-]chief") and zât-ı âsafî ( ذات آصفی , "vizieral person"). Halil Pasha

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6136-485: The Ottoman invasions, such as Demetrios Chalkokondyles and Leonardos Philaras , began to call for the liberation of their homeland. Demetrius Chalcondyles called on Venice and "all of the Latins" to aid the Greeks against "the abominable, monstrous, and impious barbarian Turks". However, Greece was to remain under Ottoman rule for several more centuries. The Greek Revolution was not an isolated event; numerous failed attempts at regaining independence took place throughout

6254-399: The Ottomans and robbed Christians as much as Muslims. Nevertheless, they seldom robbed common folk, from whose ranks they came, and more often raided Turks, with whom they were separated by religion, nationality, and social class. They enjoyed the support of the generally oppressed common folk, as they were in opposition to established authority. A vast oral tradition of folk poetry attests to

6372-402: The Ottomans to stop executing Orthodox priests, which the Porte did not see fit to answer. In the summer of 1821, various young men from all over Europe began to gather in the French port of Marseilles to book a passage to Greece and join the revolution. The French philhellene Jean-François-Maxime Raybaud wrote when he heard of the revolution in March 1821, "I learnt with a thrill that Greece

6490-484: The Ottomans. In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends) was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. It planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese , the Danubian Principalities , and Constantinople . The insurrection was planned for 25 March 1821, the Orthodox Christian Feast of the Annunciation . However, the plans were discovered by the Ottoman authorities, forcing it to start earlier. The first revolt began on 21 February 1821 in

6608-426: The Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, Gregory V , was publicly hanged although he had condemned the revolution and preached obedience to the Sultan in his sermons. Since the revolution began in March, the Sublime Porte had executed at random various prominent Greeks living in Constantinople, such as the serving Dragoman of the Porte and two retired dragomans, a number of wealthy bankers and merchants, including

6726-474: The Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities and Constantinople. The mountains look on Marathon – And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone, I dream'd that Greece might yet be free For, standing on the Persians' grave, I could not deem myself a slave. ... Must we but weep o'er days more blest? Must we but blush? – Our fathers bled. Earth! render back from out thy breast A remnant of our Spartan dead! Of

6844-453: The Revolution was declared on 25 March 1821 ( N.S. 6 April) by Metropolitan Germanos of Patras, who raised the banner with the cross in the Monastery of Agia Lavra (near Kalavryta , Achaea ) although some historians question the historicity of the event. Some claim that the story first appears in 1824 in a book written by a French diplomat François Pouqueville, whose book is full of inventions. Historian David Brewer noted that Pouqueville

6962-483: The Russian fleet in the war of 1788–1792. The Greek revolts of the 18th century were unsuccessful but far larger than the revolts of previous centuries, and they laid the foundation for a national revolution. Revolutionary nationalism grew across Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries (including in the Balkans), due to the influence of the French Revolution . As the power of the Ottoman Empire declined, Greek nationalism began to assert itself. The most influential of

7080-479: The Tsar; Kapodistrias announced to Ypsilantis that his name had been struck off the army list and that he was commanded to lay down arms. Ypsilantis tried to ignore the letter, but Vladimirescu took this as the end of his alliance with the Eteria. A conflict erupted inside the camp and Vladimirescu was tried and put to death by the Eteria on 26 May [ N.S. 7 June] . The loss of their Romanian allies, followed by an Ottoman intervention on Wallachian soil, sealed defeat for

7198-446: The Turks also killed the metropolite of Crete, Gerasimos Pardalis, and five more bishops. As Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II had no army of his own available, he was forced to seek the aid of his rebellious vassal and rival, Muhammad Ali of Egypt , who sent an expedition to the island. In 1825, Muhammad Ali's son, Ibrahim, landed in Crete and began to massacre the majority-Greek community. Britain decided that Crete should not become part of

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7316-461: The Turks called it. They would go out in parties of fifty to a hundred, mounted on fleet horses, and scour the open country in search of Greek peasantry, who might from necessity or hardihood have ventured down upon the plains. After capturing some, they would give the poor creatures a certain distance to start ahead, hoping to escape, and then try the speed of their horses in overtaking them, the accuracy of their pistols in firing at them as they ran, or

7434-401: The Turks, he gave out that Austria had declared war on Turkey, caused a Te Deum to be sung in Cozia Monastery , and on pretext of arranging measures with the Austrian commander-in-chief, he crossed the frontier. However, the reactionary policies of the Holy Alliance were enforced by Francis II and the country refused to give asylum for leaders of revolts in neighboring countries. Ypsilantis

7552-457: The absence of the Ottoman governor of the Morea ( Mora valesi ) Hursid Pasha and many of his troops, the situation was favourable for the Greeks to rise against Ottoman occupation. The crucial meeting was held at Vostitsa (modern Aigion ), where chieftains and prelates from all over the Peloponnese assembled on 26 January. There, Papaflessas , a pro-revolution priest who presented himself as representative of Filiki Eteria , clashed with most of

7670-403: The area then known as Vezir Çarşı, the modern-day 25 August Street. Around 700 Cretan Greeks, 17 British soldiers, and the British Consul in Crete were killed. The Great Powers ordered the rapid trial and execution of the Muslim Cretan ringleaders of the riots. In the wake of the Candia massacre , the Great Powers decided that all Ottoman influence on Crete had to cease. On 6 November 1898, under

7788-433: The beginning of the uprising. All these were loosely besieged by local irregular forces under their own captains, since the Greeks lacked artillery. With the exception of Tripolitsa, all cities had access to the sea and could be resupplied and reinforced by the Ottoman fleet. Since May, Kolokotronis organized the siege of Tripolitsa, and, in the meantime, Greek forces twice defeated the Turks, who unsuccessfully tried to repulse

7906-460: The besiegers. Finally, Tripolitsa was seized by the Greeks on 23 September [ N.S. 5 October] , and the city was given over to the mob for two days. After lengthy negotiations, the Turkish forces surrendered Acrocorinth on 14 January 1822. The first regions to revolt in Central Greece were Phocis (24 March) and Salona (27 March). In Boeotia , Livadeia was captured by Athanasios Diakos on 31 March, followed by Thebes two days later. When

8024-442: The casting out of the Turks as the prelude to the revival of the Golden Age. Alexander Ypsilantis was elected as the head of the Filiki Eteria in April 1820 and took upon himself the task of planning the insurrection. His intention was to raise all the Christians of the Balkans in rebellion and perhaps force Russia to intervene on their behalf. On 22 February [ N.S. 6 March] , he crossed the river Prut with his followers, entering

8142-445: The city on hunting trips, thus stopping Mehmed's direct management over the state. Next, he forcibly removed any officers suspected of corruption; those who did not leave were executed. He also conducted campaigns against Venice and the Habsburgs, as well as quelling rebellions in Anatolia. On his deathbed five years later, he convinced Mehmed to appoint his son (Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha) as the next Grand Vizier, thus securing his dynasty

8260-445: The city while the revolutionaries, led by Panagiotis Karatzas , drove them back to the fortress. By the end of March, the Greeks effectively controlled the countryside, while the Turks were confined to the fortresses, most notably those of Patras (recaptured by the Turks on 3 April by Yussuf Pasha), Rio , Acrocorinth , Monemvasia , Nafplion and the provincial capital, Tripolitsa , where many Muslims had fled with their families at

8378-412: The civil leaders and members of the senior clergy, such as Metropolitan Germanos of Patras , who were sceptical and demanded guarantees about a Russian intervention. As news came of Ypsilantis' march into the Danubian Principalities, the atmosphere in the Peloponnese was tense, and by mid-March, sporadic incidents against Muslims occurred, heralding the start of the uprising. According to oral tradition,

8496-530: The collapse of the Pact of Halepa arrangements. The international powers, disgusted at what seemed to be factional politics, allowed the Ottoman authorities to send troops to the island and to restore order but did not anticipate that Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II would use that as a pretext to end the Halepa Pact Constitution and to rule the island by martial-law. Thatbaction led to international sympathy for

8614-648: The conservative leaders of Europe, committed to upholding the system established at the Congress of Vienna , but was greeted with enthusiasm by many ordinary people across Europe. After the execution of the Patriarch Gregory V, the Russian Emperor Alexander I broke off diplomatic relations with the Sublime Porte after his foreign minister Count Ioannis Kapodistrias sent an ultimatum demanding promises from

8732-589: The early 18th century and onwards, members of prominent Greek families in Constantinople, known as Phanariotes (after the Phanar district of the city), gained considerable control over Ottoman foreign policy and eventually over the bureaucracy as a whole. In times of militarily weak central authority, the Balkan countryside became infested by groups of bandits called " klephts " ( Greek : κλέφτες ) (the Greek equivalent of

8850-507: The emergent Christian commercial classes. Though subsequent Greek nationalist historiography has portrayed the Pasha as an oppressive figure, as reported by British and French consular observers, he seems to have been generally cautious and pro-British and to have tried harder to win the support of the Cretan Christians (having married the daughter of a priest and allowed her to remain Christian) than

8968-549: The end of Byzantine sovereignty. After that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans and Anatolia (Asia Minor) , with some exceptions. Orthodox Christians were granted some political rights under Ottoman rule, but they were considered inferior subjects. The majority of Greeks were called Rayah by the Turks, a name that referred to the large mass of non-Muslim subjects under the Ottoman ruling class . Meanwhile, Greek intellectuals and humanists, who had migrated west before or during

9086-441: The eve of the Greek War of Independence, up to 45% of the population of the island may have been Muslim. A large number of these were crypto-Christians , who converted back to Christianity; others fled Crete because of the unrest. By the last Ottoman census in 1881, Christians were 76% of the population, and Muslims (usually called "Turks" regardless of language, culture or ancestry) 24% of the population, but Muslims were over 60% in

9204-521: The higher clergy of the Orthodox Church was mostly of Greek origin. Thus, as a result of the Ottoman millet system , the predominantly Greek hierarchy of the Patriarchate enjoyed control over the Empire's Orthodox subjects (the Rum milleti ). The Greek Orthodox Church played a pivotal role in the preservation of national identity, the development of Greek society and the resurgence of Greek nationalism. From

9322-649: The island fell in the first years of the war, but the capital Candia ( Heraklion ) held out during a long siege , which lasted from 1648 to 1669, possibly the second-longest siege in history, two years shorter than the First Siege of Ceuta . The last Venetian outposts, the island fortresses of Souda , Gramvousa and Spinalonga , fell in the Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718) . There were significant rebellions against Ottoman rule, particularly in Sfakia . Daskalogiannis

9440-407: The island was again under Ottoman control. The island was made a vilayet with a special status with a firman dated 18 September 1867. During the Congress of Berlin in the summer of 1878, there was a further rebellion, which was halted quickly by the intervention of the British and the adaptation of the 1867-8 Organic Law into a constitutional settlement, known as the Pact of Halepa . Crete became

9558-440: The island was the scene of repeated hostilities. The Muslims were driven into the large fortified towns on the north coast, and it would appear that as many as 60% of them died from plague or famine there. The Cretan Christians also suffered severely by losing around 21% of their population. During the great massacre of Heraklion on 24 June 1821, remembered in the area as "the great ravage" ("ο μεγάλος αρπεντές", "o megalos arpentes"),

9676-421: The keenness of their sabres' edge in cutting off their heads". Those not cut down or shot down during the "Greek hunts" were impaled afterwards when captured. The initial Greek successes were soon put in peril after two subsequent defeats at the battles of Alamana and Eleftherohori against the army of Omer Vrioni . Another significant loss for the Greeks was the death of Diakos, a promising military leader, who

9794-512: The large Greek merchant diaspora in both Western Europe and Russia , but also from Western European Philhellenes . This Greek movement for independence was not only the first movement of national character in Eastern Europe, but also the first one in a non-Christian environment, like the Ottoman Empire. Feraios' martyrdom was to inspire three young Greek merchants: Nikolaos Skoufas , Emmanuil Xanthos , and Athanasios Tsakalov . Influenced by

9912-585: The meanwhile, Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople and the Synod had anathematized and excommunicated both Ypsilantis and Soutzos issuing many encyclicals, an explicit denunciation of the Revolution in line with the Orthodox Church's policy. Instead of directly advancing on Brăila , where he arguably could have prevented Ottoman armies from entering the Principalities, and where he might have forced Russia to accept

10030-403: The most celebrated philhellene of all, lent his name, prestige and wealth to the cause. Byron organized funds and supplies (including the provision of several ships), but died from fever at Missolonghi in 1824. Byron's death strengthened European sympathy for the Greek cause. His poetry, along with Delacroix's art, helped arouse European public opinion in favor of the Greek revolutionaries to

10148-461: The most greatest military leaders in the Mughal Empire would lead to his downfall when rogue generals executed him in a power struggle after the death of Aurangzeb. In 1718, Balaji Vishwanath , leader of the antagonistic Maratha Confederacy , secured the right to collect Chauth and Sardeshmukhi from the Subahs of the Mughal Empire by the rogue Vizier Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha , whose grip over

10266-477: The new Kingdom of Greece on its independence in 1830, evidently for fear that it would become a centre of piracy, as it had often been in the past, or a Russian naval base in the East Mediterranean. Rather than being included in the new Greek state, Crete was administered by an Albanian from Egypt, Mustafa Naili Pasha (known as Mustafa Pasha), whose rule attempted to create a synthesis of Muslim landowners and

10384-628: The orders of the Powers, the last Ottoman troops withdrew from the island, marking the end of 253 years of Ottoman rule. The Cretan State , autonomous but under the suzerainty of the Sultan and under international occupation, was established upon the arrival of its first High Commissioner , Prince George of Greece and Denmark , on 21 December 1898 (9 December according to the Julian calendar). Ottomans never transferred colonists to Crete, The Muslim Turkokritiki were of Cretan origin, mostly speaking exclusively

10502-472: The pages of the privy chamber, the kapi agha , the kizlar agha or with other courtiers than he did with the Grand Vizier, and these too could petition the sultan on their own or somebody else’s behalf. He might, too, be more inclined to take the advice of his mother, a concubine, or the head gardener at the helm of the royal barge, than of the Grand Vizier". After the Tanzimat period of the Ottoman Empire in

10620-517: The peninsula under Egyptian control by the end of that year. Despite a failed invasion of Mani , Athens also fell and revolutionary morale decreased. The three great powers —Russia, Britain, and France—decided to intervene, sending their naval squadrons to Greece in 1827. They destroyed the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino , and turned the tide in favor of the revolutionaries. In 1828,

10738-533: The people of Europe, fighting for their own rights and liberties, invited us to imitation ... The enlightened peoples of Europe are occupied in restoring the same well-being, and, full of gratitude for the benefactions of our forefathers towards them, desire the liberation of Greece. We, seemingly worthy of ancestral virtue and of the present century, are hopeful that we will achieve their defense and help. Many of these freedom-lovers want to come and fight alongside us ... Who then hinders your manly arms? Our cowardly enemy

10856-476: The point of no return, and led Western powers to intervene directly. Philhellenism made a notable contribution to romanticism , enabling the younger generation of artistic and literary intellectuals to expand the classical repertoire by treating modern Greek history as an extension of ancient history; the idea of a regeneration of the spirit of ancient Greece permeated the rhetoric of the Greek cause's supporters. Classicists and romantics of that period envisioned

10974-626: The rebellion. The society's basic objective was a revival of the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople as the capital, not the formation of a national state. In early 1820, Ioannis Kapodistrias , an official from the Ionian Islands who had become the joint foreign minister of Tsar Alexander I , was approached by the Society in order to be named leader but declined the offer; the Filikoi (members of Filiki Eteria) then turned to Alexander Ypsilantis ,

11092-409: The relations of the two men deteriorated dramatically; Vladimirescu's first priority was to assert his authority against the newly appointed prince Scarlat Callimachi , trying to maintain relations with both Russia and the Ottomans. At that point, Kapodistrias, the foreign minister of Russia, was ordered by Alexander I to send Ypsilantis a letter upbraiding him for misusing the mandate received from

11210-550: The revolution began, most of the Christian population of Athens fled to Salamis. Missolonghi revolted on 25 May, and the revolution soon spread to other cities of western Central Greece. The Ottoman commander in the Roumeli was the Albanian general Omer Vrioni who become infamous for his "Greek hunts" in Attica, which was described thus: "One of his favourite amusements was a 'Greek hunt' as

11328-559: The siege of the Acropolis. After a Greek force of 2,000 men managed to destroy at Vassilika a Turkish relief army on its way to Vrioni, the latter abandoned Attica in September and retreated to Ioannina . By the end of 1821, the revolutionaries had managed to temporarily secure their positions in Central Greece. The news that the Greeks had revolted sparked murderous fury all over the Ottoman Empire. In Constantinople, on Easter Sunday,

11446-400: The siege was won by Mehmed II , the Younger was executed for his opposition. After his death, the position of Grand Vizier was chosen nearly exclusively from the kul system. Often, the men who were chosen had a Byzantine or Balkan background. According to Gábor, this was usually a political move, designed to appease powerful European factions to Ottoman supremacy. In fact, it was easier for

11564-455: The sultan to control an enslaved and non-Turk administrator. In the Ottoman Empire, executing a Grand Vizier of Turkish origin (in the event they were rebellious) and an enslaved foreigner would also give rise to different reactions. Further, the devshirme were less subject to influence from court factions. From the very beginning, the Turcoman were a danger that undermined the Sultan's creation of

11682-519: The sultans to control, as compared to the free administrators of Turkish aristocratic origin. The term vizier was originally used in the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century AD. This position was later adopted by the Ottomans in the early 14th century, by the Seljuks of Anatolia. During the nascent phases of the Ottoman state , "vizier" was the only title used. The first of these Ottoman viziers who

11800-448: The sympathy they evoked and their reputation for patriotism. Some famous armatoles leaders were Odysseas Androutsos , Georgios Karaiskakis , Athanasios Diakos , Markos Botsaris and Giannis Stathas . Due to economic developments within and outside the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century, Greek merchants and sailors became affluent and generated the wealth necessary to found schools and libraries, and to pay for young Greeks to study at

11918-569: The three hundred grant but three, To make a new Thermopylae. Because of the Greek origin of so much of the West's classical heritage , there was tremendous sympathy for the Greek cause throughout Europe. Some wealthy Americans and Western European aristocrats, such as the renowned poet Lord Byron and later the American physician Samuel Howe , took up arms to join the Greek revolutionaries. In Britain there

12036-652: The three large towns on the north coast and Monofatsi. Christians were 93% of the population in 1923 of the districts of Crete. The remaining Muslims were forced to leave for Turkey in the population exchange by religion between Greece and Turkey. Sanjaks of Ottoman Crete in the 17th century: Sanjaks, circa 1876: Greek War of Independence Independence of Greece [REDACTED] Greek Revolutionaries [REDACTED]   Ottoman Empire 1822–1824 Greek civil wars of 1824–1825 Egyptian intervention (1825–1826) Great powers intervention (1827–1829) The Greek War of Independence , also known as

12154-451: The time, rivaled the Ottoman dynasty itself. Several of Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Elder's kin went on to hold the office of Grand Vizier in the decades following his death. Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger , the grandson of Pasha the Elder, was also highly influential in shaping the role of the Grand Vizier. During the reign of Mehmed II, the Younger opposed the siege of Constantinople and the ongoing hostilities with Christians. Two days after

12272-459: The towns. An Anglo-Ottoman naval operation, restored control in the island and Mustafa Pasha was confirmed as the governor of the island but under command from Constantinople. He remained there until 1851 when he was summoned to Constantinople, where, despite relatively advanced age (his early fifties) he had a successful career, he became grand vizier several times. After Greece had achieved its independence, Crete became an object of contention, as

12390-514: The universities of Western Europe. There they came into contact with the radical ideas of the European Enlightenment , the French Revolution and romantic nationalism. Educated and influential members of the large Greek diaspora, such as Adamantios Korais and Anthimos Gazis , tried to transmit these ideas back to the Greeks, with the double aim of raising their educational level and simultaneously strengthening their national identity. This

12508-440: The year 1748. After defeating Ahmad Shah Durrani , the new Mughal emperor, Ahmad Shah Bahadur , posted Safdarjung , Nawab of Oudh as Mughal Grand Vizier, Feroze Jung III as Mir Bakshi and Muin ul-Mulk (Mir Mannu) , the son of late Grand Vizier Qamaruddin Khan , as the governor of Punjab . Safdarjung 's efforts to defend the reign of Ahmad Shah Bahadur from treacherous subjects failed. Shuja-ud-Daula served as

12626-427: Was a famous rebel leader who in 1770 led a heroic but foredoomed revolt, which did not get the aid from the Russians, who had instigated it (see Orlov Revolt ). The Greek War of Independence began in 1821, and Cretan participation was extensive. An uprising by Christians met with a fierce response from the Ottoman authorities and the execution of several bishops who were regarded as ringleaders. Between 1821 and 1828,

12744-533: Was accurate, without making any reference to the purported Anglophobia or Francophilia of Germanos. Also, some European newspapers of June and July 1821 published the news of declaration of revolution by Germanos either in Patras on 6 April/25 March 1821 or in the "Monastery of Velia Mountain" (Agia Lavra) on a non-specified date. On 17 March 1821, war was declared on the Turks by the Maniots in Areopoli . The same day,

12862-586: Was achieved through the dissemination of books, pamphlets and other writings in Greek, in a process that has been described as the modern Greek Enlightenment (Greek: Διαφωτισμός ). Crucial for the development of the Greek national idea were the Russo-Turkish Wars of the 18th century. Peter the Great had envisaged a disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the re-institution of a new Byzantine Empire with an Orthodox emperor. His Pruth River Campaign of 1711 set

12980-555: Was an Anglophobe , and in his account of the speech by Germanos in his book, Pouqueville has the Metropolitan express Anglophobic sentiments similar to those commonly expressed in France, and has him praise France as Greece's one true friend in the world, which led Brewer to conclude that Pouqueville had made the entire story up. However, a study on the archive of Hugues Pouqueville (François Pouqueville's brother) claims that François' account

13098-481: Was called an "armatolik", the oldest known being established in Agrafa during the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1451). The distinction between klephts and armatoloi was not clear, as the latter would often turn into klephts to extort more benefits from the authorities, while, conversely, another klepht group would be appointed to the armatolik to confront their predecessors. Nevertheless, klephts and armatoloi formed

13216-583: Was captured in Alamana and executed by the Turks when he refused to declare allegiance to the Sultan. The Greeks managed to halt the Turkish advance at the Battle of Gravia under the leadership of Odysseas Androutsos , who, with a handful of men, inflicted heavy casualties upon the Turkish army. After his defeat and the successful retreat of Androutsos' force, Omer Vrioni postponed his advance towards Peloponnese awaiting reinforcements; instead, he invaded Livadeia, which he captured on 10 June, and Athens, where he lifted

13334-569: Was from the Enlightenment, and he borrowed ideas from Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. When Korais was a young adult he moved to Paris to continue his studies. He eventually graduated from the Montpellier School of Medicine and spent the remainder of his life in Paris. He would often have political and philosophical debates with Thomas Jefferson. While in Paris he was a witness to

13452-463: Was kept in close confinement for seven years. In Moldavia, the struggle continued for a while, under Giorgakis Olympios and Yiannis Pharmakis , but by the end of the year the provinces had been pacified by the Ottomans. The outbreak of the war was met by mass executions, pogrom-style attacks, the destruction of churches, and looting of Greek properties throughout the Empire. The most severe atrocities occurred in Constantinople, in what became known as

13570-602: Was recognized as an independent state under the London Protocol of February 1830. Further negotiations in 1832 led to the London Conference and the Treaty of Constantinople , which defined the final borders of the new state and established Prince Otto of Bavaria as the first king of Greece . The Fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and the subsequent fall of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire marked

13688-626: Was shaking off her chains" and in July 1821 boarded a ship going to Greece. Between the summer of 1821 and end of 1822, when the French started to inspect ships leaving Marseilles for philhellenes, some 360 volunteers travelled to Greece. From the United States came the doctor Samuel Gridley Howe and the soldier George Jarvis to fight with the Greeks. The largest contingents came from the German states, France and

13806-704: Was strong support led by the Philosophical Radicals, the Whigs, and the Evangelicals. Many helped to finance the revolution. The London Philhellenic Committee helped insurgent Greece to float two loans in 1824 (£800,000) and 1825 (£2,000,000). The Scottish philhellene Thomas Gordon took part in the revolutionary struggle and later documented some of the first histories of the Greek Revolution in English. In Europe,

13924-581: Was titled "Grand Vizier" (French spelling: grand-vézir ) was Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Elder . The purpose in instituting the title "Grand Vizier" was to distinguish the holder of the sultan's seal from other viziers. The initially more frequently used title of vezir-ı a’zam ( وزیر اعظم ) was gradually replaced by another one, sadr-ı a’zam ( صدر اعظم from Arabic صَدْر "front part, bosom, forehead, lead, forefront" and أعْظَم "superior, major, maximal, paramount, grand", informally pronounced sadrazam ), both meaning "grand vizier" in practice. Throughout

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