George I, parliamentarism and territorial expansion

ProjectGreece.

The History of Greece, from 1800 to today.

A series of twenty episodes that narrates the path of modern Greece with sobriety, composure, and documentation.

Fifth episode.

Welcome to another episode of the series "The History of Greece, from 1800 to today."

In the previous episode, we reached the end of 1864. Othon had been dethroned, George I had assumed the position of "King of the Hellenes," the Ionian Islands had been united with Greece, and the new Constitution had been voted upon, sworn in, and published through three separate acts.

In March 1865, Konstantinos Kanaris handed over the government to Alexandros Koumoundouros. The first elections under the Constitution of 1864 were held in May. By the end of the year, Epameinondas Deligeorgis, Dimitrios Voulgaris, Koumoundouros again, Deligeorgis again, and Benizelos Roufos followed in succession. Political factions were based on personalities and were fluid, and the throne maintained great discretion in the selection of a government.

The integration of the Ionian Islands continued even after the official Union. In 1865, part of the teaching staff of the Ionian Academy, which had ceased to function with the Union in 1864, moved to the University of Athens. In 1866, the ecclesiastical integration of the until-then autonomous Church of the Ionian Islands was completed. Integration does not mean that the different administrative, educational, and religious traditions disappeared immediately.

In May 1866, Christian representatives in Crete, which remained under Ottoman rule, formulated demands regarding taxation, administration, justice, and political guarantees. The uprising did not begin suddenly only with the slogan of Union. After the rejection of their demands and the subsequent escalation, the General Assembly declared on 21 August by the old calendar, or 2 September by the new, the abolition of Ottoman authority and Union with Greece. The declaration did not incorporate Crete into the Greek state.

The struggle spread across the island, but the rebels did not constitute a unified army with an effective central command. Local leaders and armed groups acted in different provinces. Facing them were the Ottoman regular army, Egyptian reinforcements, and armed Cretan Muslim groups. The conflict is not correctly portrayed by the generalization "Cretans against Turks."

Volunteers, weapons, supplies, and financial aid arrived from Greece. Committees in Athens and Syros organized expeditions, ships breached the Ottoman blockade, and Greek officers participated, often having received leave or submitted a formal resignation. There was extensive unofficial and semi-official support, not an official campaign by the Greek army or a declaration of war.

On 8 and 9 November by the old calendar, or the twentieth and twenty-first by the new, strong Ottoman and Egyptian forces besieged and captured the Monastery of Arkadi. Inside were armed defenders, monks, and several hundred civilians, among them women and children. After the defense was breached, the gunpowder magazine was blown up.

The explosion killed defenders, civilians, and attackers. Others died in the battle or after the capture, and others were taken prisoner. Exact figures differ significantly and do not allow for a reliable distinction between all categories. The prevailing tradition attributes the ignition to Kostis Giaboudakis, but sources do not agree either on the exact circumstances or on the person who caused the explosion. It is not documented that all those enclosed collectively chose to blow themselves up.

Arkadi became a powerful international symbol, but the Great Powers did not follow a unified policy. Russia and, at times, France supported an international investigation or a broader change of regime. Britain rejected forcing the Porte to cede Crete to Greece and prioritized the avoidance of a generalized war. Foreign ships evacuated civilians without this constituting a military intervention in favor of the Union.

The conflict caused arson, looting, and large population displacements. From 1867, women, children, and the elderly were transported to Greek ports, mainly to Syros and Piraeus. A modern research assessment estimates the number of evacuated civilians at approximately 20,000, though this number cannot be considered definitive or equated with the total number of displaced persons. State authorities, local committees, donors, and charitable organizations shared the burden of their care.

In January 1868, the Ottoman administration implemented an Organic Law: it provided for administrative and tax concessions, the participation of Christians in administration and courts, and the use of both Greek and Ottoman Turkish in administration. This was not Union nor full autonomy, and the rebels continued the struggle.

At the end of 1868, the Porte demanded that aid from Greece cease. Diplomatic relations were broken off, and the crisis came close to war. The Conference of Paris, in January 1869, examined the Greco-Ottoman crisis, not the status of Crete, and its declaration condemned the encouragement of the uprising, the formation of armed groups, and the facilitation of ships that breached a legal blockade. After initial hesitation, Athens accepted the declaration in February. Diplomatic relations were restored, while the uprising gradually receded during the spring.

During the three years of the struggle, many people were killed, including combatants of various groups and civilians, while many others lost their homes. Sources do not allow for a reliable overall count or a fixed separation between dead combatants, dead civilians, and deaths from other causes. The military defeat of the uprising did not make the Cretan Question disappear. The Organic Law and the international debate would serve as a starting point for new claims.

In April 1870 by the new calendar, the gang of the Arvanitakis brothers kidnapped foreign travelers returning from Marathon and demanded ransom and amnesty. When the pursuit resulted in a clash near Dilesi, four hostages were murdered, three British and one Italian. The number of four hostages is certain; accounts regarding the bandits and the pursuing detachments differ.

The murders triggered a major diplomatic crisis and a harsh debate regarding the efficiency of the state and the relationship between bandit groups and local protection networks. The affair does not prove that all of Greece was a "bandit nation" nor does it document a state conspiracy. Banditry was a violent economic practice, which could in some cases be linked to political, administrative, or irredentist mechanisms.

The school network expanded, but access remained unequal. An American diplomatic report from the time, with data for 1871, recorded approximately four times as many boys as girls in public primary schools. Distance, poverty, child labor, and the financial inability of municipalities limited school attendance. For women, teaching opened an recognized professional path, without equal access to secondary or university education.

The reform of national lands and the expansion of education did not affect all regions in the same way. Small land ownership was strengthened primarily in "Old Greece," while the expansion of 1881 would bring a different legacy of large estates to the state. This contrast explains why the distribution of 1871 cannot be considered a solution to the later Thessalian agrarian question.

In the political field, until 1874, elections and government changes continued. Koumoundouros, Voulgaris, Deligeorgis, and Thrasyvoulos Zaimis returned to power in succession. By the elections of 1875, eighteen government structures had been formed in a decade. The number indicates instability, not eighteen different organized parties in the modern sense.

From the beginning to the middle of the 1870s, currants acquired an increasingly greater export significance. Production provided income and work for entire families, including women, but made local economies more dependent on foreign prices. Steamships and telegraphic connections brought ports and markets closer, while land roads remained limited.

On 29 June 1874 by the old calendar, or 11 July by the new, the article "Who is to blame?" by Charilaos Trikoupis was published unsigned in the newspaper "Kairoi." It criticized the practice of appointing governments that did not possess a parliamentary majority and proposed that whoever had the support of Parliament should be called to power. It was a political article, not a law.

At the end of 1874 and the beginning of 1875, the Voulgaris government attempted to pass bills with a disputed quorum. The crisis became known as "Stilitika," from the recording of the names of deputies on the columns of newspapers. It should not be confused with the later "Simoniaka," which concerned ecclesiastical transactions.

In April 1875, George tasked Trikoupis with forming a government and holding elections. In the July elections, Koumoundouros emerged as the strongest, not Trikoupis. On 11 August by the old calendar, or the twenty-third by the new, in the Speech from the Throne, George committed himself to considering the stated confidence (dedilomeni) of the parliamentary majority as necessary for the appointment of a government.

The principle of the dedilomeni was established as an informal constitutional rule, not as a new article of the Constitution. In October, Koumoundouros formed the first government that possessed a stated parliamentary majority. The change limited the possibility of forming minority governments, but did not immediately eliminate royal interventions, clientelist networks, or electoral violence.

After new alternations between Koumoundouros and Deligeorgis, a broad coalition government was formed in May 1877 under Konstantinos Kanaris. Kanaris died while in office in September. After his death, the same cabinet remained until January 1878, without us attributing a specific rotating presidency in the absence of secure primary evidence.

On 21 January 1878 by the old calendar, or 2 February by the new, units of the regular Greek army crossed the border into Thessaly. There was no official declaration of war. When the Russo-Ottoman armistice became known and pressure was exerted by the Powers, the operation was interrupted and the army withdrew within a few days.

Separately from this brief invasion, local rebels and volunteer corps acted in Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, and Crete. They did not constitute a single, centrally organized campaign.

The Treaty of San Stefano, on 3 March 1878 by the new calendar, did not cede territory to Greece. The large Bulgarian principality it provided for caused concern in Athens. From June to July, the Congress of Berlin revised the peace. Greek representatives presented their claims, but Greece was not a signatory party to the Treaty of Berlin.

The 13th Protocol expressed the view that the new border could follow the valleys of the Pinios and the Kalamas. Article 24 of the Treaty did not automatically cede Thessaly or Epirus. It provided for direct Greco-Ottoman negotiation and, if that failed, mediation by the six Powers.

The Powers followed different and often competing geopolitical pursuits; the mediation did not stem from a unified philhellenic orientation. The final arrangement was a compromise that prevented a new war without satisfying the maximum Greek claim.

In Crete, new mobilization and international pressure led in October 1878 to the Pact of Halepa, which expanded local representation and administrative autonomy, but left the island under the sovereignty of the Sultan.

In the elections of 23 September 1879 by the old calendar, the faction of Koumoundouros maintained a relative lead without an absolute majority. His government remained until March 1880.

The talks of 1879 failed. In 1880, a conference of ambassadors in Berlin proposed a broader line that would have included Ioannina and Metsovo. The Porte rejected it. Greece mobilized militarily and the threat of war grew, but the final outcome would be a narrower diplomatic compromise.

Internally, Trikoupis governed from March to October 1880, and then Koumoundouros returned. That same year, the tithe on cereals was replaced by a tax on draft animals. The change did not abolish the burdens of the countryside, but it changed an old method of taxation.

On 24 May 1881 by the new calendar, the six Powers and the Ottoman Empire signed a convention in Constantinople regarding the new border. Greece was not a signatory party to this first act. On 20 June by the old calendar, or 2 July by the new, the Greco-Ottoman implementation convention followed.

Greece was granted the greater part of Thessaly, not Elassona, and the region of Arta, meaning a part of Epirus. Ioannina, Metsovo, and Preveza remained in the Ottoman Empire. The expansion was the result of an international agreement and organized transfer, not a Greek military victory.

The convention guaranteed the life, property, honor, religion, and customs of the inhabitants remaining in the new territories, as well as equal civil and political rights. It recognized Ottoman property titles and provided for the protection of waqfs and the religious freedom of Muslims. These clauses did not solve the agrarian question. The state incorporated a region with large estates and farmers in regimes of dependency.

The transfer took place gradually. Arta passed to Greek administration on 24 June by the old calendar, or 6 July by the new. Larissa followed on 31 August by the old, or 12 September by the new, and Volos on 2 November by the old, or 14 November by the new. With this last phase, the territorial handover was essentially completed, though not all technical demarcation work.

The expansion increased the state's population by several hundred thousand people, but the exact number varies by source, census, and method of calculation. Along with the new land, Greece acquired new administrative obligations, Muslim communities with guaranteed rights, and a difficult property problem.

On 20 December 1881 by the old calendar, or 1 January 1882 by the new, the first elections after the expansion were held, with the participation of the new Thessalian provinces as well. Supporters of Charilaos Trikoupis emerged as the strongest force, and in the new Parliament, representatives of Thessaly appeared for the first time. Koumoundouros, however, remained head of the government until March 1882; the government rise of Trikoupis belongs to the next episode.

Territorial expansion also changed character. The Cretan Revolution and the entry into Thessaly in 1878 showed the limits of armed pressure. In 1881, the expansion was achieved through international negotiation, with a smaller result than the maximum Greek claim and with new social difficulties.

In the next episode, we move to the years 1882–1897: to the first major government of Charilaos Trikoupis, to his competition with Theodoros Diligiannis, to the modernization works, to the bankruptcy, and to the war of 1897.

Find all episodes at ProjectGreece.gr, along with references, additional material, explanations, sources, and bibliography.

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