Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/214

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202 GREECE these Frankish establishments was the duke- dom of Athens, existing from 1205 to 1456. All these Frankish governments were swept away by the Turks, who, having captured Constanti- nople in 1453, in a few years thereafter extended their conquests over Greece, and incorporated it into the Turkish empire. It was organized into pashalics, mussemlics, agalics, and vaivo- dalics, all subject to a supreme magistrate called Rumeli valesi, or grand judge of Rou- melia. Some of the more mountainous regions were never thoroughly subject to the Turks, but maintained a rude independence. Under the Turkish system of administration the coun- try sunk gradually to a most miserable condi- tion. The Greek islands, being left more to themselves, suffered less from the rapacity and barbarism of their masters. But there were several causes which tended to preserve the Greek nationality even under this foreign and most oppressive domination. The domestic institutions and the religion of the Turks were objects of such abhorrence to the Christian Greeks that no amalgamation of the two races could take place. The Greeks cherished an inextinguishable devotion to their church, the foundation of which they traced directly to the times of the apostles, while the hymns and liturgies were the work of the most eminent Christian fathers. In this state of mutual re- pulsion, and of barbarous oppression of the su- perior by the inferior race, nearly four centu- ries passed away, with only a few spasmodic efforts to break the yoke of the tyrant. But the Turkish sultans, almost from the begin- ning of their establishment at Constantinople, were obliged to employ Greeks, chiefly Fanari- otes, in several important branches of the pub- lic service. (See FANARIOTKS.) Greek mer- cantile houses were established not only in the Levant, but in the principal cities of Eu- rope, and the eminent abilities of the race were shown by their great success in every department of commerce. In western Eu- rope, a revival of the taste for Greek litera- ture was brought about by the presence of learned Greeks who fled from Constantinople at the time of its capture. In the last half of the 18th century the spirit of nationality and the desire of independence received a strong impulse throughout the Hellenic race. Educa- tion was everywhere promoted ; a secret socie- ty was formed, called the Hetceria, the object of which was the emancipation of the country. Eminent writers Rhigas, and later Coray appealed to the glorious recollections of Greece, and excited a universal enthusiasm for freedom. These preparations continued in the first quar- ter of the 19th century; and the insurrection, long looked for, broke out in 1821. The at- tempt of the Hetaerists under Alexander Ypsi- lanti in the Danubian principalities met with a speedy and disastrous end (June) ; the Suliotes of Epirus, encouraged by AH Pasha of Janina, rose in vain ; and the attempted risings in Candia (1821) and Scio (1822) were stifled in the blood of the inhabitants. But the revolt which broke out in the Peloponnesus early in the first year was more successful ; Patras, Tripolitza, and other places were taken ; cen- tral Greece joined the movement ; Hydra, Ip- sara, Spezzia, and other islands of the archi- pelago furnished daring mariners; and the struggling people found heroic chiefs in Bozza- ris, the Mainote bey Mavromichalis and his sons, Canaris, Miaulis, Colocotronis, Odysseus, and others, and statesmen in Mavrocordatos, Colettis, Negris. In 1822 a provisional consti- tution was framed by a national assembly held at Epidaurus, and a proclamation of indepen- dence solemnly published to the world. The contest was carried on in the most barbarous manner by the Turks. The bloodshed at Con- stantinople, the execution of the patriarch, the massacres of Scio, excited for the Greeks the deepest sympathies, procuring for them the aid of enthusiastic Philhellenes, Byron among others. On the other hand, the Greeks here and there imitated the atrocities of their op- pressors. At Missolonghi (1822-' 6) and nu- merous other places they showed themselves worthy of their Hellenic ancestors. The battle of Navarino, Oct. 20, 1827, in which the com- bined squadrons of England, France, and Rus- sia annihilated the Turco-Egyptian fleet, was the decisive event ; in the following year Ibra- him Pasha was forced by Marshal Maison to evacuate the Peloponnesus, and Russia began its Turkish war under the command of Die- bitsch. The sultan was compelled to come to terms. Count Capo d'Istria, a distinguished Greek statesman, then in the service of Rus- sia, had been chosen president, arriving in Greece in the beginning of 1828. Hostilities virtually ceased the following year. The great powers now occupied themselves with the set- tlement of Greece. They selected Prince Leo- pold, afterward king of Belgium, as sovereign of the emancipated state ; he at first accepted the offer, but, owing to a difference on the ques- tion of boundaries, renounced the unoccupied throne a few months afterward. In October, 1831, President Capo d'Istria was assassinated at Nauplia, and six months of anarchy follow- ed. The great powers then fixed upon Otho, the second son of the king of Bavaria, a prince then (1832) only 17 years old. He assumed the government, under the direction of a regency, and arrived at ISTauplia in 1833. The bounda- ries of the kingdom of Greece were determined by a treaty between the great powers and the Porte in 1832. The seat of government was first established at Nauplia ; but in 1835 it was transferred to Athens, where the king, after his marriage with the princess Amalia of Ol- denburg, established his court. After attaining his majority in 1835 he governed in his own name, by ministers responsible to himself, aided by a council of state. The treaty said nothing about a constitution, though the Greeks ex- pected one, and were disappointed not to re- ceive it immediately. The government of the