Belligerents:

Greece and later Russia, France and Great Britain.
Turkey.

Cause:

Nationalist aspirations had been growing in Greece ever since the French Revolution. These were encouraged by an intellectual revival and commercial development. The tyranny and cruel oppression of Turkish misgovernment under Sultan Mahmud gradually inflamed public opinion.

Occasion:

The HetÆria Philike, a secret society, inaugurated the rebellion. The first move was made in Moldavia, where it completely failed. This was followed by a revolt in the Morea and the islands of the Ægean and subsequently in Central Greece.

Course of the War:

There were wholesale massacres on both sides, notably the destruction by the Turks of the inhabitants of Chios. The Turks were unable to suppress the revolt. The Greeks under Kolokotrones exhausted the Turkish army, and assistance was sought by the Sultan from Mehemet Ali, of Egypt, who in 1823 conquered Crete and defeated the Greeks at Psara. The Egyptians and Turks entered Morea. Missolonghi fell after a year’s siege, and the garrison in the Acropolis at Athens surrendered in June 1827. By a treaty signed at London in July 1827 Great Britain, France, and Russia decided to intervene as mediators. The Turks rejected mediation. The victory of the allied fleets at Navarino took place on October 20 1827.

Political Result:

By the Treaty of Adrianople, September 1829 (see also p. 17) Greece became autonomous under the supreme sovereignty of the Sultan. Shortly afterwards the Powers agreed that Greece should be established as an absolutely independent kingdom, but without Crete or Samos, and with a frontier line drawn from the mouth of the River Achelous to a spot near ThermopylÆ. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg accepted the crown, but renounced it after a few months. Prince Otho of Bavaria accepted it in February 1833. After a revolution in 1862 he was succeeded by Prince George of Denmark in 1863, the father of King Constantine who was deposed in 1917.

Remarks:

Greece was confined within far too narrow limits, with which she could not rest contented. The enmity between Russia and Turkey was in no way mitigated, and Russian ambitions remained unsatisfied.