TheCretan Revolt of 1841 was one of many revolutions of the local Greeks to free themselves from theOttoman Empire.
| Cretan Revolt | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Aftermath of theEgyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Greek rebels ofCrete |  Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Vasileios Chalis Ioannis Koumis Emmanouil Patelaros Anagnostis Tsouderios Emmanouil Deiktatis Aristeidis Chaireti Charidimos Chaireti Aleksandros Koumoundouros | Jusuf Bey ofBerat | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 6,000 Albanian mercenaries[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The context of the rebellion was what is known as theEastern Question and more specifically during theEgyptian-Ottoman War of 1839–1841, whereMuhammad Ali's forces forced the Ottoman army to retreat at theBattle of Nezib. This made an attack on the Ottoman capital, Istanbul (Constantinople), through Syria possible, which went against the Great Power's interests of maintaining the Ottoman Empire. After the Great Power's intervention on the matter, there was a possibility thatCrete would join the newly formedKingdom of Greece, at first through diplomatic means. However, military intervention by the Kingdom of Greece was also considered, as the crisis had lifted the Greek people's spirits, who wanted to liberate their fellow Greeks, by any means necessary.[2] There were two requests made by the Committee of Exiled Cretans, in late 1838 and 10 August 1839, which requested the island be temporarily occupied by British forces, but both were ignored.[3]
The Greek government would later go on to sign a trade treaty with the Ottoman Empire, hampering the hopes of the Cretans to get assistance from Greece itself. Furthermore, with theConvention of London, signed 15 July 1840, theUnited Kingdom,France,Russia andPrussia decided to recognise the Ottoman control of the island.[4] Knowing that if this convention were to be ratified, hopes of unification with Greece or independence would be crushed, a handful of exiled Cretans, Vasileios Chalis, Ioannis Koumis, Emmanouil Patelaros, Anagnostis Tsouderios, Emmanouil Deiktatis, Aristeidis and Charidimos Chaireti and Aleksandros Koumoundouros, communicated with local guerillas and had all gone to Crete by late 1840. After a short period of preparation, they declared the revolution, on 22 February 1841.[5]
The Turkish governor originally wanted to make peace with the rebels, however he later sent troops to the main areas of rebel concentration and managed to suppress the rebellion. The rebels stood alone, with the foreign powers and Greece having refused to aid them in their effort, and so they lost, having sustained heavy casualties, at the battles of Provarma, Vafe, Ksida and Vryses, with the remaining rebel leaders fleeing for Greece, taking with them women and children.[6]
In 1841 Jusuf Bey of Berat enrolled 6,000 Albanians to suppress the rebellion in the island of Crete;
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