| Ottoman rule in Greece Τουρκοκρατία στην Ελλάδα | |||
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 View of the Caryatid Porch, theErechtheion, the west end of the Temple of Minerva Polias, and the Pandrosium on theAcropolis in Ottoman Athens in 1750s | |||
| Location | Greece | ||
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| Monarchs | Sultans of the Ottoman Empire | ||
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The vast majority of the territory of present-dayGreece was at some point incorporated within theOttoman Empire. The period ofOttoman rule in Greece, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successfulGreek War of Independence broke out in 1821 and theFirst Hellenic Republic was proclaimed in 1822, is known in Greece asTurkocracy (Greek:Τουρκοκρατία,romanized: Tourkokratia,lit. 'Turkish rule').[1] Some regions, like theIonian islands and various temporaryVenetian possessions of theStato da Mar, were not incorporated in the Ottoman Empire. TheMani Peninsula in thePeloponnese was not fully integrated into the Ottoman Empire, but was under Ottomansuzerainty.
TheEastern Roman Empire, which ruled most of the Greek-speaking world for over 1100 years, had been fatally weakened since theFourth Crusade of 1204. Having defeated theSerbs, the Ottomanscaptured Constantinople in 1453 and soon advanced southwards capturingAthens in 1456 and thePeloponnese in 1460. By the early 16th century, all of mainland Greece and most of the Aegean Islands were in Ottoman hands, excluding several port cities that were still held by theVenetians (notablyNafplio,Monemvasia,Parga andMethone). The mountains of Greece remained largely untouched and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule and engage inguerrilla warfare.[2] TheCyclades islands were annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, although they had been under vassal status since the 1530s.Cyprusfell in 1571, and the Venetians retainedCreteuntil 1669. TheIonian Islands were never ruled by the Ottomans, with the exception ofKefalonia (from 1479 to 1481 and from 1485 to 1500), but remained under the rule of the Venice. It was in the Ionian Islands that modern Greek statehood was born, with the creation of theRepublic of the Seven Islands in 1800.
Ottoman Greece was amultiethnic society, although the Ottoman system ofmillets did not correspond to the contemporary notion ofmulticulturalism.[3] The Greeks were given some privileges and freedom, but they also suffered from the malpractices of its administrative personnel over which the central government had only remote and incomplete control.[4] Despite losing their political independence, the Greeks remained dominant in the fields of commerce and business. The consolidation of Ottoman power in the 15th and the 16th centuries rendered the Mediterranean safe for Greek shipping, and Greek shipowners became the empire's maritime carriers and made tremendous profits.[5] After the Ottoman defeat at theBattle of Lepanto, however, Greek ships often became the target of attacks byCatholic (especiallySpanish andMaltese) pirates.[5]
The five century period of Ottoman rule had a profound impact in Greek society, as new elites emerged. The Greek land-owning aristocracy that traditionally dominated theByzantine Empire suffered a tragic fate and was almost completely destroyed. The new leading class in Ottoman Greece were theprokritoi,[6] which were calledkocabaşis by the Ottomans. They were essentially bureaucrats and tax collectors and gained a negative reputation for corruption and nepotism. On the other hand, thePhanariots became prominent in the imperial capital of Constantinople as businessmen and diplomats, and theGreek Orthodox Church and theEcumenical Patriarch rose to great power under the Sultan's protection and gained religious control over the entire Orthodox population of the empire, whether it spoke Greek, Albanian, Latin or Slavic.
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, theDespotate of the Morea was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans. However, itfell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the conquest of mainland Greece.[7]
While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century,Cyprus andCrete remainedVenetian territory and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670. The only part of the Greek-speaking world that was never under Ottoman rule is theIonian Islands, which remained Venetian until 1797.Corfu withstood three major sieges in1537, 1571 and1716 all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans.
Other areas that remained part of the VenetianStato da Màr includeNafplio andMonemvasia until 1540, theDuchy of the Archipelago, centered on the islands ofNaxos andParos until 1579,Sifnos until 1617 andTinos until 1715.
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The consolidation of Ottoman rule was followed by two distinct trends of Greek migration. The first entailed Greek intellectuals, such asBasilios Bessarion,Georgius Plethon Gemistos andMarcos Mousouros, migrating to other parts of Western Europe and influencing the advent of theRenaissance (though the large scale migration of Greeks to other parts of Europe, most notably Italian university cities, began far earlier, following the Crusader capture of Constantinople[8]). This trend had also effect on the creation of the modernGreek diaspora.
The second entailed Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettling in the mountains, where the rugged landscape made it hard for the Ottomans to establish either military or administrative presence.[9]
The Sultan sat at the apex of the government of the Ottoman Empire. Although he had the trappings of an absolute ruler, he was actually bound by tradition and convention.[10] Ottoman rule of the provinces was characterized by two main functions. The local administrators within the provinces were to maintain a military establishment and to collect taxes.[11] The military establishment was feudal in character.[11] The Sultan's cavalry were allotted land, either large allotments or small allotments based on the rank of the individual cavalryman. All non-Muslims were forbidden to ride a horse which made traveling more difficult.[11] The Ottomans divided Greece into sixsanjaks, each ruled by aSanjakbey accountable to theSultan, who established his capital inConstantinople in 1453.
The conquered land was parceled out to Ottoman warriors, who held it as feudal fiefs (timars andziamets) directly under the Sultan's authority. This land could not be sold or inherited, but reverted to the Sultan's possession when the fief-holder (timariot) died.[11] During their life-times they served as cavalrymen in the Sultan's army, living well on the proceeds of their estates with the land being tilled largely by peasants.[11] Many Ottoman timariots were descended from the pre-Ottoman Christian nobility, and shifted their allegiance to the Ottomans following the conquest of the Balkans. Conversion to Islam was not a requirement, and as late as the fifteenth century many timariots were known to be Christian, although their numbers gradually decreased over time.[12]
The Ottomans basically installed this feudal system right over the top of the existing system of peasant tenure. The peasantry remained in possession of their own land and their tenure over their plot of land remained hereditary and inalienable.[11] Nor was any military service ever imposed on the peasant by the Ottoman government. All non-Muslims were in theory forbidden from carrying arms, but this was ignored. Indeed, in regions such as Crete, almost every man carried arms.
Greek Christian families were, however, subject to a system of child conscription known as thedevshirme. The Ottomans required that selected male children from Christian peasant villages be conscripted and enrolled in the corps ofJanissaries for military training in the Sultan's army.[11] Others were trained as the intelligentsia and imperial administrators. Such recruitment was sporadic, and the proportion of children conscripted varied from region to region. The practice largely came to an end by the middle of the seventeenth century.
Under the Ottoman system of government, Greek society was at the same time fostered and restricted. With one hand the Ottoman regime gave privileges and freedom to its subject people; with the other it imposed a tyranny deriving from the malpractices of its administrative personnel over which it exercised only remote and incomplete control. In fact the "rayahs" were commoners. The term rayah came to denote an underprivileged, tax-ridden and socially inferior population.[13]
The Sultan regarded theEcumenical Patriarch of theGreek Orthodox Church as the leader of all Orthodox, Greeks or not, within the empire. The Patriarch was accountable to the Sultan for the good behavior of the Orthodox population, and in exchange he was given wide powers over the Orthodox communities, including the non-Greek Slavic peoples. The Patriarch controlled the courts and the schools, as well as the Church, throughout the Greek communities of the empire. This made Orthodox priests, together with the local magnates, called Prokritoi or Dimogerontes, the effective rulers of Greek towns and cities. Some Greek towns, such as Athens andRhodes, retained municipal self-government, while others were put under Ottoman governors. Several areas, such as theMani Peninsula in the Peloponnese, and parts ofCrete (Sfakia) andEpirus, remained virtually independent.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople in general remained loyal to the Ottomans against the western threats (as for example during theDionysios Skylosophos revolt, etc.) The Orthodox Church assisted greatly in the preservation of the Greek heritage, and adherence to the Greek Orthodox faith became increasingly a mark of Greek nationality.
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As a rule, the Ottomans did not require the Greeks to becomeMuslims, although many did so on a superficial level in order to avert the socioeconomic hardships of Ottoman rule[14] or because of the alleged corruption of the Greek clergy.[15] The regions of Greece which had the largest concentrations of OttomanGreek Muslims wereMacedonia, notably theVallaades, neighboringEpirus, and Crete (seeCretan Muslims). Under the millet logic,Greek Muslims, despite often retaining elements of their Greek culture and language, were classified simply as "Muslim", although mostGreek Orthodox Christians deemed them to have "turned-Turk" and therefore saw them as traitors to their original ethno-religious communities.[16]
Some Greeks either becameNew Martyrs, such as Saint Efraim the Neo-Martyr or Saint Demetrios the Neo-martyr while others becameCrypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Greek Orthodox faith) in order to avoid heavy taxes and at the same time express their identity by maintaining their secret ties to the Greek Orthodox Church. Crypto-Christians officially ran the risk of being killed if they were caught practicing a non-Muslim religion once they converted to Islam. There were also instances of Greeks from theocratic or Byzantine nobility embracing Islam such asJohn Tzelepes Komnenos andMisac Palaeologos Pasha.[16]
Treatment of Christian subjects varied greatly under the rule of the Ottoman Sultans.Bayezid I, according to a Byzantine historian, freely admitted Christians into his society while trying to grow his empire, in the early Ottoman period. Later, although the Turkish ruler attempted to pacify the local population with a restoration of peacetime rule of law, the Christian population also became subject to special taxes and the tribute of Christian children to the Ottoman state to feed the ranks of theJanissary corps.[17] Violent persecutions of Christians did nevertheless take place under the reign ofSelim I (1512-1520), known as Selim the Grim, who attempted to stamp out Christianity from the Ottoman Empire. Selim ordered the confiscation of all Christian churches, and while this order was later rescinded, Christians were heavily persecuted during his era.[18]
Greeks paid a land tax and a heavy tax on trade, the latter taking advantage of the wealthy Greeks to fill the state coffers.[19] Greeks, like other Christians, were also made to pay thejizya, or Islamic poll-tax which all non-Muslims in the empire were forced to pay instead of theZakat that Muslims must pay as part of the 5 pillars of Islam. Failure to pay the jizya could result in the pledge of protection of the Christian's life and property becoming void, facing the alternatives of conversion,enslavement, or death.[20]
Like in the rest of the Ottoman Empire, Greeks had to carry a receipt certifying their payment of jizya at all times or be subject to imprisonment. Most Greeks did not have to serve in the Sultan's army, but the young boys that were taken away and converted to Islam were made to serve in the Ottoman military. In addition, girls were taken in order to serve asodalisques in harems.[21][22][page needed]
These practices are called the "tribute of children" (devshirmeh) (in Greekπαιδομάζωμαpaidomazoma, meaning "child gathering"), whereby every Christian community was required to give one son in five to be raised as a Muslim and enrolled in the corps ofJanissaries, elite units of the Ottoman army. There was much resistance to this. For example, Greek folklore tells of mothers crippling their sons to avoid their abduction. Nevertheless, entrance into the corps (accompanied by conversion to Islam) offered Greek boys the opportunity to advance as high as governor or evenGrand Vizier.
Opposition of the Greek populace to taxing orpaidomazoma resulted in grave consequences. For example, in 1705 an Ottoman official was sent fromNaoussa inMacedonia to search and conscript new Janissaries and was killed by Greek rebels who resisted the burden of thedevshirmeh. The rebels were subsequently beheaded and their severed heads were displayed in the city ofThessaloniki.[23] In some cases, it was greatly feared as Greek families would often have to relinquish their own sons who would convert and return later as their oppressors. In other cases, the families bribed the officers to ensure that their children got a better life as a government officer.[24]
After the 16th century, many Greek folk songs (dimotika) were produced and inspired from the way of life of the Greek people, brigands and the armed conflicts during the centuries of Ottoman rule. Klephtic songs (Greek: Κλέφτικα τραγούδια), or ballads, are a subgenre of the Greek folk music genre and are thematically oriented on the life of the klephts.[25] Prominent conflicts were immortalised in several folk tales and songs, such as the epic balladTo tragoudi tou Daskalogianni of 1786, about the resistance warfare underDaskalogiannis.[26]
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Over the course of the eighteenth century Ottoman landholdings, previously fiefs held directly from the Sultan, became hereditary estates (chifliks), which could be sold or bequeathed to heirs. The new class of Ottoman landlords reduced the hitherto free Greek peasants toserfdom, leading to further poverty and depopulation in the plains.[citation needed]
On the other hand, the position of educated and privileged Greeks within the Ottoman Empire improved greatly in the 17th and 18th centuries.[29] From the late 1600s Greeks began to fill some of the highest and most important offices of the Ottoman state. ThePhanariotes, a class of wealthy Greeks who lived in thePhanar district of Constantinople, became increasingly powerful. Their travels to Western Europe as merchants or diplomats brought them into contact with advanced ideas ofliberalism andnationalism, and it was among the Phanariotes that the modern Greek nationalist movement was born. Many Greek merchants and travelers were influenced by the ideas of theFrench Revolution and a new Age ofGreek Enlightenment was initiated at the beginning of the 19th century in many Ottoman-ruled Greek cities and towns.[citation needed]
Greek nationalism was also stimulated by agents ofCatherine the Great, the Orthodox ruler of theRussian Empire, who hoped to acquire Ottoman territory, including Constantinople itself, by inciting a Christian rebellion against the Ottomans. However, during theRussian-Ottoman War which broke out in 1768, the Greeks did not rebel, disillusioning their Russian patrons. TheTreaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) gave Russia the right to make "representations" to the Sultan in defense of his Orthodox subjects, and the Russians began to interfere regularly in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire. This, combined with the new ideas let loose by theFrench Revolution of 1789, began to reconnect the Greeks with the outside world and led to the development of an active nationalist movement, one of the most progressive of the time.
Greece was peripherally involved in theNapoleonic Wars, but one episode had important consequences. When the French underNapoleon Bonaparte seized Venice in 1797, they also acquired theIonian Islands, thus ending the four hundredth year ofVenetian rule over the Ionian Islands.[30][31] The islands were elevated to the status of a French dependency called theSeptinsular Republic, which possessed local autonomy. This was the first time Greeks had governed themselves since the fall of Trebizond in 1461.
Among those who held office in the islands wasJohn Capodistria, destined to become independent Greece's first head of state. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Greece had re-emerged from its centuries of isolation. British and French writers and artists began to visit the country, and wealthy Europeans began to collect Greek antiquities. These "philhellenes" were to play an important role in mobilizing support for Greek independence.
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Greeks in various places of the Greek peninsula would at times rise up against Ottoman rule, mainly while taking advantage of wars the Ottoman Empire would engage in. Those uprisings were of mixed scale and impact. During theOttoman–Venetian War (1463–1479), theManiot Kladas brothers,Krokodelos and Epifani, were leading bands ofstratioti on behalf of Venice against the Turks in Southern Peloponnese. They putVardounia and their lands into Venetian possession, for which Epifani then acted as governor.[32]
Before and after the victory of theHoly League in 1571 at theBattle of Lepanto aseries of conflicts broke out in the peninsula such as in Epirus,Phocis (recorded in theChronicle of Galaxeidi) and the Peloponnese, led by the Melissinos brothers and others. They were crushed by the following year.[33] Short-lived revolts of local level occurred throughout the region such as the ones led by metropolitan bishopDionysius the Philosopher: theThessaly rebellion (1600) and in 1611 in Epirus.[34]
During theCretan War (1645–1669), theManiots would aidFrancesco Morosini and the Venetians in the Peloponnese.[35] Greek irregulars also aided the Venetians through theMorean War in their operations on theIonian Sea and Peloponnese.[36]
A major uprising during that period was theOrlov Revolt (Greek: Ορλωφικά) which took place during theRusso-Turkish War (1768–1774) and triggered armed unrest in both the Greek mainland and theislands.[37] In 1778, a Greek fleet of seventy vessels assembled byLambros Katsonis which harassed the Turkish squadrons in theAegean Sea, captured the island ofKastelorizo and engaged the Turkish fleet in naval battles until 1790.[38][39]
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A secret Greek nationalist organization called the "Friendly Society" or "Company of Friends" (Filiki Eteria) was formed inOdessa in 1814. The members of the organization planned a rebellion with the support of wealthy Greek exile communities inBritain and theUnited States. They also gained support from sympathizers in Western Europe, as well as covert assistance from Russia. The organization secured Capodistria, who became Russian Foreign Minister after leaving the Ionian Islands, as the leader of the planned revolt. On 25 March (now Greek Independence Day) 1821, the Orthodox BishopGermanos of Patras proclaimed a national uprising.[40][41] The Ottomans, in retaliation orchestrated theConstantinople massacre of 1821 and similar pogroms in Smyrna.[42]
Simultaneous risings were planned across Greece, including inMacedonia,Crete, andCyprus. With the initial advantage of surprise, aided by Ottoman inefficiency and the Ottomans' fight againstAli Pasha of Tepelen, the Greeks succeeded in capturing the Peloponnese and some other areas. Some of the first Greek actions were taken against unarmed Ottoman settlements, with about 40% of Turkish and Albanian Muslim residents of the Peloponnese killed outright, and the rest fleeing the area or being deported.[43]
The Ottomans recovered, and retaliated in turn with savagery,massacring the Greek population ofChios and other towns. This worked to their disadvantage by provoking further sympathy for the Greeks in Britain and France.[citation needed] The Greeks were unable to establish a strong government in the areas they controlled, andfell to fighting amongst themselves. Inconclusive fighting between Greeks and Ottomans continued until 1825 when the Sultan sent a powerful fleet and army who were mainly Bedouin and some Sudanese fromEgypt underIbrahim Pasha to suppress the revolution, promising to him the rule of Peloponnese, however they were eventually defeated in the Battle of Navarino in 1827.
The atrocities that accompanied this expedition, together with sympathy aroused by the death of the poet and leading philhelleneLord Byron atMessolongi in 1824, eventually led the Great Powers to intervene. In October 1827, the British, French and Russian fleets, on the initiative of local commanders, but with the tacit approval of their governments, destroyed the Ottoman fleet at theBattle of Navarino. This was the decisive moment in the war of independence.
In October 1828, the French landed troops in the Peloponnese to evacuate it from Ibrahim's army, while Russia was since Aprilat war against the Ottomans. Under their protection, the Greeks were able to reorganize, form a new government and defeat the Ottomans in theBattle of Petra, the final battle of the war. They then advanced to seize as much territory as possible before the Western powers imposed a ceasefire.
A conference in London in 1830 proposed a fully independent Greek state (and not autonomous as previously proposed). The final borders were defined during theLondon Conference of 1832 with the northern frontier running fromArta toVolos, and including onlyEuboia and theCyclades among the islands. The Greeks were disappointed at these restricted frontiers, but were in no position to resist the will of Britain, France and Russia, who had contributed mightily to Greek independence. By the Convention of 11 May 1832, Greece was finally recognized as a sovereign state.
Capodistria, who had been Greece's governor since 1828, had been assassinated by theMavromichalis family in October 1831. To prevent further experiments with republican government, the Great Powers, especially Russia,[citation needed] insisted that Greece should be a monarchy, and the Bavarian PrinceOtto was chosen to be its first King.
The klephts were descendants of Greeks who fled into the mountains to avoid the Turks in the fifteenth century and who remained active as brigands into the nineteenth century.
LEONARD PHILARAS or VILLERET (c. 1595–1673) Philaras was born in Athens of good family and spent his childhood there. His youth was passed in Rome, where he was educated, and his manhood
Leonardos Filaras (1595–1673) devoted much of his career to coaxing Western European intellectuals to support Greek liberation. Two letters from Milton (1608–1674) attest Filaras's patriotic crusade.
The Greek revolt was precipitated on March 25, 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the flag of revolution over the Monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese. The cry "Freedom or Death" became the motto of the revolution. The Greeks experienced early successes on the battlefield, including the capture of Athens in June 1822, but infighting ensued.
The Greek uprising and the church. Bishop Germanos of old Patras blesses the Greek banner at the outset of the national revolt against the Ottomans on 25 March 1821. The solemnity of the scene was enhanced two decades later in this painting by T. Vryzakis….The fact that one of the Greek bishops, Germanos of Old Patras, had enthusiastically blessed the Greek uprising at the onset (25 March 1821) and had thereby helped to unleash a holy war, was not to gain the church a satisfactory, let alone a dominant, role in the new order of things.
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