City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

The Greek Revolution, 1821 and the making of modern Europe, Mark Mazower

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsplatesportraitsillustrations

index present

non fiction

The Greek Revolution

bibliography

Mark Mazower

1821 and the making of modern Europe

As Mark Mazower shows us in his enthralling and definitive new history, myths about the Greek War of Independence outpaced the facts from the very beginning, and for good reason. This was an unlikely cause, against long odds, a ragtag collection of Greek patriots up against what was still one of the most formidable empires in the world, the Ottomans. The revolutionaries needed all the help they could get. And they got it as Europeans and Americans embraced the idea that the heirs to ancient Greece, the wellspring of Western civilization, were fighting for their freedom against the proverbial Eastern despot, the Turkish sultan. This was Christianity versus Islam, now given urgency by new ideas about the nation-state, and democracy, that were shaking up the old order. Lord Byron is only the most famous of the combatants who went to Greece to fight and die--many more followed events passionately and supported the cause through art, music, and humanitarian aid. To many who did go, it was a rude awakening to find that the Greeks were a far cry from their illustrious forebears, and were often hard to tell apart from the Ottomans. Mazower does full justice to the realities on the ground as a revolutionary conspiracy triggered outright rebellion, and a shambolic and distracted Ottoman leadership first missed the plot and then overreacted disastrously. He shows how and why ethnic cleansing commenced almost immediately on both sides. By the time the dust settled, Greece was free, and Europe was changed forever. It was a victory for a completely new kind of politics--international in its range and affiliations, popular in its origins, romantic in sentiment, and radical in its goals. It was here on the very edge of Europe that the first successful revolution took place in which a people claimed liberty for themselves and overthrew an entire empire to attain it, transforming diplomatic norms and the direction of European politics forever. This new world of nation-states is the world in which we still live. Mark Mazower's reckoning with its birth pangs in Greece is a masterpiece of the historian's art

Introduction: on heroes, Greeks, and Turks -- Part 1: In the great morning of the world -- Out of Russia -- Ali Pasha's Ancien Régime -- The last days of the Ottoman Morea -- On or around March 25, 1821 -- The Pisa circle -- Khurshid Pasha's harem -- The war in the islands -- Armatoles and constitutions -- The nature of the struggle -- Part 2: International interventions -- Knights errant -- English gold -- Mehmed Ali intervenes -- Mesolonghi -- Outside the normal sphere of feelings -- The siege of Athens -- The inexhaustible patience of the people -- Navarino: the force of things -- Love, concord, brotherhood, 1828-33 -- Epilogue: the economy of the miracle

1821 and the making of modern Europe