View source for Ottoman Greece

{{Short description|Period of Ottoman rule of Greece}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox historical era
| name      = Ottoman rule in Greece<br/>Τουρκοκρατία στην Ελλάδα{{br}}
| location  = [[Greece]]
| start     = 1371
| end       = 1830
| image     = Erechtheum James Athenian Stuart.jpg
| alt       = 
| caption   = View of the Caryatid Porch, the [[Erechtheion]], the west end of the Temple of Minerva Polias, and the Pandrosium on the [[Acropolis]] in Ottoman Athens in 1750s
| before    = [[Frankokratia|Frankish/Latin Greece]]<br/>[[Byzantine Greece]]
| including = {{plainlist|
*[[Ottoman wars in Europe|Ottoman expansion]] ([[Ottoman conquest of Adrianople|Thrace]], [[Ottoman conquest of Thessalonica|Thessalonica]], [[Fall of Constantinople|Constantinople]], [[Ottoman conquest of the Morea|Morea]], [[Ottoman conquest of Lesbos|Lesbos]])
*[[Ottoman–Venetian wars]] ([[Cretan War (1645–1669)|Cretan War]], [[Morean War]], [[Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718)|Second Morean War]])
*[[Orlov revolt]]
*[[Septinsular Republic]]
*[[Greek War of Independence]]
*[[Epirus Revolt of 1854|Epirus Revolt]]
*[[Cretan revolt (1866–1869)]]
*[[Greco-Turkish War (1897)|Greco-Turkish War]]
*[[First Balkan War]]
}}
| after     = [[History of modern Greece|Modern Greece]]
| monarch   = [[List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|Sultans of the Ottoman Empire]]
| key_events = 
}}
{{History of Greece}}

The vast majority of the territory of present-day [[Greece]] was at some point incorporated within the [[Ottoman Empire]]. The period of '''Ottoman rule in Greece''', lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful [[Greek War of Independence]] broke out in 1821 and the [[First Hellenic Republic]] was proclaimed in 1822, is known in Greece as '''Turkocracy''' ({{langx|el|Τουρκοκρατία|Tourkokratia|Turkish rule}}).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-lr20SuvfIC&pg=PA177 Bruce Merry, Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature,  oTurkocracy, p. 442.]</ref> Some regions, like the [[Ionian islands]] and various temporary [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] possessions of the [[Stato da Mar]], were not incorporated in the Ottoman Empire. The [[Mani Peninsula]] in the [[Peloponnese]] was not fully integrated into the Ottoman Empire, but was under Ottoman [[suzerainty]].

The [[Eastern Roman Empire]], which ruled most of the Greek-speaking world for over 1100 years, had been fatally weakened since the [[Fourth Crusade]] of 1204. Having defeated the [[Serbs]], the Ottomans [[fall of Constantinople|captured Constantinople]] in 1453 and soon advanced southwards capturing [[Athens]] in 1456 and the [[Peloponnese]] 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 the [[Republic of Venice|Venetians]] (notably [[Nafplio]], [[Monemvasia]], [[Parga]] and [[Methoni, Messenia|Methone]]). The mountains of Greece remained largely untouched and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule and engage in [[guerrilla warfare]].<ref>{{cite book |title= World and Its Peoples |url=https://archive.org/details/worlditspeoplese0010unse|url-access=registration|publisher= Marshall Cavendish |year= 2009 |page=1478 |isbn= 978-0-7614-7902-4 |quote=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.}}</ref> The [[Cyclades]] islands were annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, although they had been under vassal status since the 1530s. [[Cyprus]] [[Siege of Famagusta|fell in 1571]], and the Venetians retained [[Crete]] [[Siege of Candia|until 1669]]. The [[Ionian Islands]] were never ruled by the Ottomans, with the exception of [[Kefalonia]] (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 the [[Septinsular Republic|Republic of the Seven Islands]] in 1800.

Ottoman Greece was a [[multiethnic society]], although the Ottoman system of ''[[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|millets]]'' did not correspond to the contemporary notion of [[multiculturalism]].<ref>[http://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/4403/pdf/Reinkowski_Ottoman_Multiculturalism.pdf Maurus Reinkowski, "Ottoman "Multiculturalism"? The Example of the Confessional System in Lebanon". Lecture, Istanbul, 1997. Edited by the Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, Beirut, 1999, pp. 15, 16.]</ref> 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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Rk1iVvOr6RUC][[Douglas Dakin]]<span>, The Greek Struggle for Independence, 1821-1833. University of California Press, p. 16.</span></ref> 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.<ref name="princeton9187">{{Cite web| title=Introduction | url=http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9187.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021201530/http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9187.pdf | archive-date=21 October 2011}}</ref> After the Ottoman defeat at the [[Battle of Lepanto]], however, Greek ships often became the target of attacks by [[Catholic]] (especially [[Spain|Spanish]] and [[Malta|Maltese]]) pirates.<ref name="princeton9187" />

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 the [[Byzantine Empire]] suffered a tragic fate and was almost completely destroyed. The new leading class in Ottoman Greece were the ''prokritoi'',<ref>Clogg, 2002 {{Page needed|date=July 2011}}</ref> which were called ''[[kocabaşi]]s'' by the Ottomans. They were essentially bureaucrats and tax collectors and gained a negative reputation for corruption and nepotism. On the other hand, the [[Phanariots]] became prominent in the imperial capital of Constantinople as businessmen and diplomats, and the [[Greek Orthodox Church]] and the [[Ecumenical 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.

==Ottoman expansion==

After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the [[Despotate of the Morea]] was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans. However, it [[Ottoman conquest of the Morea|fell to the Ottomans]] in 1460, completing the conquest of mainland Greece.<ref name="EB5">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244154/Greece/26391/Thessaly-and-surrounding-regions|title=Greece During the Byzantine Period: The Peloponnese advances|publisher=Online Encyclopaedia Britannica|encyclopedia=britannica.com|access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref>

While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, [[Cyprus]] and [[Crete]] remained [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] 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 the [[Ionian Islands]], which remained Venetian until 1797. [[Corfu]] withstood three major sieges in [[Siege of Corfu (1537)|1537]], 1571 and [[Siege of Corfu (1716)#The Siege of Corfu|1716]] all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans.

Other areas that remained part of the Venetian [[Stato da Màr]] include [[Nafplio]] and [[Monemvasia]] until 1540, the [[Duchy of the Archipelago]], centered on the islands of [[Naxos]] and [[Paros]] until 1579, [[Sifnos]] until 1617 and [[Tinos]] until 1715.

<gallery class="center">
File:Zonaro GatesofConst.jpg|Sultan Mehmed II's entry into Constantinople
File:OttomanJanissariesAndDefendingKnightsOfStJohnSiegeOfRhodes1522.jpg|Ottoman [[Janissaries]] and defending [[Knights of Saint John]] at the [[Siege of Rhodes (1522)]]
File:Battle of Preveza (1538).jpg|The "[[Battle of Preveza]]" (1538) by Ohannes Umed Behzad
File:Battle of Lepanto 1571.jpg|The "[[Battle of Lepanto]]" (1571) prevented the Ottomans from expanding further
File:Vue du siege de Candie en 1669.jpg|[[Siege of Candia]] (1648-1669)
</gallery>

==Ottoman rule==
[[File:Empèri Otoman - Expansion territòriala de 1307 a 1683.png|thumb|300px|A map of the territorial expansion of the [[Ottoman Empire]] from 1307 to 1683.]]

The consolidation of Ottoman rule was followed by two distinct trends of Greek migration. The first entailed Greek intellectuals, such as [[Basilios Bessarion]], [[Plethon|Georgius Plethon Gemistos]] and [[Marcos Mousouros]], migrating to other parts of Western Europe and influencing the advent of the [[Renaissance]] (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<ref>Treadgold, Warren. ''History of Byzantine State and Society''. Stanford University Press, 1997. {{Page needed|date=July 2011}}</ref>). This trend had also effect on the creation of the modern [[Greek 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.<ref>Vacalopoulos, p. 45. "The Greeks never lost their desire to escape from the heavy hand of the Turks, bad government, the impressment of their children, the increasingly heavy taxation, and the sundry caprices of the conqueror. Indeed, anyone studying the last two centuries of Byzantine rule cannot help being struck by the propensity of the Greeks to flee misfortune. The routes they chiefly took were: first, to the predominantly Greek territories, which were either still free or Frankish-controlled (that is to say, the Venetian fortresses in the Despotate of Morea, as well as in the Aegean and Ionian Islands) or else to Italy and the West generally; second, to remote mountain districts in the interior where the conqueror's yoke was not yet felt."</ref>

===Administration===
{{see also|Phanariotes|Kodjabashis}}
[[File:Rumelia map.jpg|thumb|220px|Map of "[[Rumelia]]" in 1801. Almost all the Balkan peninsula was called "land of the Romans" by the Ottomans]]

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.<ref name="Woodhouse100">{{cite book|last=Woodhouse|first=C. M.|title=Modern Greece: A Short History|year=1998|publisher=Faber & Faber Pub|location=London|isbn=978-0571197941|page=[https://archive.org/details/moderngreece00cmwo/page/100 100]|url=https://archive.org/details/moderngreece00cmwo/page/100}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Woodhouse101">C. M. Woodhouse, ''Modern Greece: A Short History'', p. 101.</ref>  The military establishment was feudal in character.<ref name="Woodhouse101" /> 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.<ref name="Woodhouse101" /> The Ottomans divided Greece into six ''[[sanjak]]s'', each ruled by a ''Sanjakbey'' accountable to the [[Sultan]], who established his capital in [[Constantinople]] in 1453.

[[File:Dodwell Pherae.jpg|thumb|220px|"The Hyperian Fountain at [[Pherae]]", [[Edward Dodwell]], 1821.]]
[[File:Fanarion.jpg|thumb|View of the [[Phanarion]] quarter,  the historical centre of the [[Ottoman Greeks|Greek community]] of [[Constantinople]] in [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman times]], ca. 20th century. The domed red building on the horizon is the [[Phanar Greek Orthodox College]], which is a landmark of today's [[Fener]] quarter.]]

The conquered land was parceled out to Ottoman warriors, who held it as feudal fiefs (''timars'' and ''ziamets'') 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.<ref name="Woodhouse101"/> 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.<ref name="Woodhouse101"/> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lowry |first=Heath |title=The Nature of the Early Ottoman State |publisher=SUNY Press |place=Albany |date=2003 |isbn=0-7914-5636-6 |pages=90–2}}</ref>
[[File:Illustration from Views in the Ottoman Dominions by Luigi Mayer, digitally enhanced by rawpixel-com 60.jpg|thumb|Western harbour of the island of [[Samos]], painted by [[Luigi Mayer]]]]

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.<ref name="Woodhouse101"/>  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 the [[devshirme]]. The Ottomans required that selected male children from Christian peasant villages be conscripted and enrolled in the corps of [[Janissaries]] for military training in the Sultan's army.<ref name="Woodhouse101"/> 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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Rk1iVvOr6RUC Douglas Dakin,  1973, p. 16.]</ref>

===Religion===
{{main|Rum Millet|Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople}}
The Sultan regarded the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch]] of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek 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 and [[Rhodes]], retained municipal self-government, while others were put under Ottoman governors. Several areas, such as the [[Mani Peninsula]] in the Peloponnese, and parts of [[Crete]] (Sfakia) and [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]], remained virtually independent.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople in general remained loyal to the Ottomans against the western threats (as for example during the [[Dionysios 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.
[[File:Coat of Arms of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Constantinople (St. George's Cathedral, Istanbul).svg|thumb|170x170px|The emblem of the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]].]]
As a rule, the Ottomans did not require the Greeks to become [[Muslim]]s, although many did so on a superficial level in order to avert the socioeconomic hardships of Ottoman rule<ref>[http://pontosworld.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1387&Itemid=90 Crypto-Christians of the Trabzon Region of Pontos]</ref> or because of the alleged corruption of the Greek clergy.<ref>The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, pg. 143</ref> The regions of Greece which had the largest concentrations of Ottoman [[Greek Muslims]] were [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]], notably the [[Vallaades]], neighboring [[Epirus]], and Crete (see [[Cretan Muslims]]). Under the millet logic, [[Greek Muslims]], despite often retaining elements of their Greek culture and language, were classified simply as "Muslim", although most [[Greek Orthodox]] Christians deemed them to have "turned-Turk" and therefore saw them as traitors to their original ethno-religious communities.<ref name="Walker Arnold">The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, pg. 137-138</ref>

Some Greeks either became [[New Martyr]]s, such as Saint Efraim the Neo-Martyr or Saint Demetrios the Neo-martyr while others became [[Crypto-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 as [[John Tzelepes Komnenos]] and [[Mesih Pasha|Misac Palaeologos Pasha]].<ref name="Walker Arnold"/>
[[File:Dodwell Dervishes 1.jpg|thumb|Turkish [[Qadiriyya|Kadiri]] [[dervish]]es perform their religious rituals in the [[Tower of the Winds]] in Athens, 1805, by [[Edward Dodwell]]]]
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 the [[Janissary]] corps.<ref>The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir [[Thomas Walker Arnold]], pg. 128</ref>  Violent persecutions of Christians did nevertheless take place under the reign of [[Selim 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.<ref>Paroulakis, p. 11.</ref>

===Taxation and the "tribute of children"===
{{see also|Greek Muslims|Slavery in the Ottoman Empire}}
[[File:Dupre-Mameluk.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A Muslim Greek [[Mamluk]] portrayed by [[Louis Dupré (painter)|Louis Dupré]] (oil on canvas, 1825)]]
Greeks paid a land tax and a heavy tax on trade, the latter taking advantage of the wealthy Greeks to fill the state coffers.<ref>Douglas Dakin, the Greek struggle for independence, 1972</ref> Greeks, like other Christians, were also made to pay the ''[[jizya]]'', or Islamic poll-tax which all non-Muslims in the empire were forced to pay instead of the [[Zakat]] 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, [[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|enslavement]], or death.<ref>James E. Lindsay ''Daily life in the medieval Islamic world'', (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005) p.121</ref>

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 as [[odalisque]]s in harems.<ref name="Waterfield, Robert 2005 p. 284">{{cite book|last=Waterfield|first=Robert|title=Athens: A History, From Ancient Ideal To Modern City|year=2005|publisher=Basic Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/athenshistoryfro00wate/page/285 285]|isbn=0-465-09063-X|url=https://archive.org/details/athenshistoryfro00wate/page/285}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Madeline C.|last=Zilfi|title=Women and slavery in the late Ottoman Empire|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=9780521515832}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2016}}

These practices are called the "tribute of children" (''[[devshirmeh]]'') (in Greek ''παιδομάζωμα'' ''paidomazoma'', 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 of [[Janissary|Janissaries]], 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 even [[Vizier|Grand Vizier]].

Opposition of the Greek populace to taxing or ''paidomazoma'' resulted in grave consequences. For example, in 1705 an Ottoman official was sent from [[Naousa, Imathia|Naoussa]] in [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]] to search and conscript new Janissaries and was killed by Greek rebels who resisted the burden of the [[devshirmeh]]. The rebels were subsequently beheaded and their severed heads were displayed in the city of [[Thessaloniki]].<ref>Vasdravellis, I. ''Οι Μακεδόνες κατά την Επανάστασιν του 1821'' (The Macedonians during the Revolution of 1821), 3rd improved edition, Thessaloniki: Society of Macedonian Studies, 1967. {{Page needed|date=July 2011}}</ref> 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.<ref>Shaw, p. 114.</ref>

===Influence on tradition===
{{see also|Greek folk music|Rebetiko}}
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.<ref>{{Cite book |title = Mittheilungen aus der Geschichte und Dichtung der Neu-Griechen. Zweiter Band| publisher = Jacob Hölscher |  location = Coblenz |year = 1825 |url = https://archive.org/details/mittheilungenau00dergoog}}</ref> Prominent conflicts were immortalised in several folk tales and songs, such as the epic ballad ''To tragoudi tou Daskalogianni'' of 1786, about the resistance warfare under [[Daskalogiannis]].<ref>Roderick Beaton [https://books.google.com/books?id=uuoM2D_UxpAC&pg=PA156 Folk Poetry of Modern Greece] 248 pages Publisher: Cambridge University Press (20 May 2004)  {{ISBN|0-521-60420-6}} {{ISBN|978-0521604208}}</ref>

==Emergence of Greek nationalism==
{{more citations needed section|date=November 2016}}
{{See also|Modern Greek Enlightenment}}

[[File:Leonardos Philaras - 1595-1673.JPG|thumb|180px|left|[[Leonardos Philaras]] (c. 1595 &ndash; 1673) was a [[Greek people|Greek]] scholar born in Athens,<ref>{{cite book |author= Hutton, James |title= The Greek anthology in France and in the Latin writers of the Netherlands to the year 1800 Volume 28 |publisher= Cornell University Press |year= 1946 |page=188 |oclc=3305912 |quote= 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 }}</ref> and an early supporter of Greek liberation from Ottoman rule, spending much of his career in persuading Western European intellectuals to support Greek Independence.<ref>{{cite book |author= Merry, Bruce |title= Encyclopedia of modern Greek literature |publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group |year= 2004 |page=442 |isbn= 0-313-30813-6 |quote= 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. }}</ref>]]
[[File:Ρήγας.jpg|thumb|140px|[[Rigas Feraios]], intellectual and forerunner of the Greek War of Independence]]

Over the course of the eighteenth century Ottoman landholdings, previously fiefs held directly from the Sultan, became hereditary estates (''[[Chiflik (Ottoman Empire)|chiflik]]s''), which could be sold or bequeathed to heirs. The new class of Ottoman landlords reduced the hitherto free Greek peasants to [[serfdom]], leading to further poverty and depopulation in the plains.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

On the other hand, the position of educated and privileged Greeks within the Ottoman Empire improved greatly in the 17th and 18th centuries.<ref>Eric Hobsbawm, [[The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848]], Part 1, Chapter 7, II, pp. 140–142.</ref> From the late 1600s Greeks began to fill some of the highest and most important offices of the Ottoman state. The [[Phanariotes]], a class of wealthy Greeks who lived in the [[Fener|Phanar district]] of Constantinople, became increasingly powerful. Their travels to Western Europe as merchants or diplomats brought them into contact with advanced ideas of [[liberalism]] and [[nationalism]], 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 the [[French Revolution]] and a new Age of [[Diafotismos|Greek Enlightenment]] was initiated at the beginning of the 19th century in many Ottoman-ruled Greek cities and towns.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

Greek nationalism was also stimulated by agents of [[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine the Great]], the Orthodox ruler of the [[Russian Empire]], who hoped to acquire Ottoman territory, including Constantinople itself, by inciting a Christian rebellion against the Ottomans. However, during the [[Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774|Russian-Ottoman War]] which broke out in 1768, the Greeks did not rebel, disillusioning their Russian patrons. The [[Treaty 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 the [[French 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 the [[Napoleonic Wars]], but one episode had important consequences. When the French under [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon Bonaparte]] seized Venice in 1797, they also acquired the [[Ionian Islands]], thus ending the four hundredth year of [[Ionian Islands under Venetian rule|Venetian rule over the Ionian Islands]].<ref>{{cite book |author= Davy, John |title= Notes and observations on the Ionian Islands and Malta |url= https://archive.org/details/notesandobserva02davygoog |publisher= Smith, Elder |year= 1842 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/notesandobserva02davygoog/page/n36 27]–28 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= American Baptist Foreign Mission Society |title= The Missionary magazine |publisher= American Baptist Missionary Union |year= 1848 |page=25 }}</ref> The islands were elevated to the status of a French dependency called the [[Septinsular 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 was [[John 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 "[[Philhellenism|philhellene]]s" were to play an important role in mobilizing support for Greek independence.

===Uprisings before 1821===
[[Image:Chios aivaz.jpg|thumb|200px|''Battle of Chios (Chesma)'', during the [[Orlov revolt|Orlov Revolt]], by [[Ivan Aivazovsky]] (1848)]]
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 the [[Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479)]], the [[Maniots|Maniot]] Kladas brothers, [[Krokodeilos Kladas|Krokodelos]] and Epifani, were leading bands of [[stratioti]] on behalf of Venice against the Turks in Southern Peloponnese. They put [[Vardounia]] and their lands into Venetian possession, for which Epifani then acted as governor.<ref>Longnon, J. 1949. ''Chronique de Morée'': Livre de la conqueste de la princée de l’Amorée, 1204-1305. Paris.</ref>

Before and after the victory of the [[Holy League (1571)|Holy League]] in 1571 at the [[Battle of Lepanto]] a [[Greek revolt of 1567–1572|series of conflicts]] broke out in the peninsula such as in Epirus, [[Phocis]] (recorded in the ''[[Chronicle of Galaxeidi]]'') and the Peloponnese, led by the Melissinos brothers and others. They were crushed by the following year.<ref>Απόστολου Βακαλόπουλου, Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού, Γ’ τομ., Θεσσαλονίκη 1968</ref> Short-lived revolts of local level occurred throughout the region such as the ones led by metropolitan bishop [[Dionysius the Philosopher]]: the [[Thessaly rebellion (1600)]] and in 1611 in Epirus.<ref>Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall: Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches: Bd. 1574-1623, p. 442; note a. "Prete scorticato, la pelle sua piena di paglia portata in Constantinopoli con molte teste dei figli d'Albanesi, che avevano intelligenza colli Spagnoli"[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_z208AAAAMAAJ/page/n457]</ref>

During the [[Cretan War (1645–1669)]], the [[Maniots]] would aid [[Francesco Morosini]] and the Venetians in the Peloponnese.<ref>Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1991), Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century, DIANE Publishing p189</ref> Greek irregulars also aided the Venetians through the [[Morean War]] in their operations on the [[Ionian Sea]] and Peloponnese.<ref>Finlay, George (1856). The History of Greece under Othoman and Venetian Domination. London: William Blackwood and Sons. p 210-3</ref>

A major uprising during that period was the [[Orlov Revolt]] (Greek: Ορλωφικά) which took place during the [[Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)]] and triggered armed unrest in both the Greek mainland and the [[Daskalogiannis|islands]].<ref>George Childs Kohn (Editor) [https://www.scribd.com/doc/31933094/Dictionary-of-Wars Dictionary of Wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109192640/http://www.scribd.com/doc/31933094/Dictionary-of-Wars |date=9 November 2013 }}  650 pages {{ISBN|1-57958-204-4}} {{ISBN|978-1579582043}} Page 155</ref> In 1778, a Greek fleet of seventy vessels assembled by [[Lambros Katsonis]] which harassed the Turkish squadrons in the [[Aegean Sea]], captured the island of [[Kastelorizo]] and engaged the Turkish fleet in naval battles until 1790.<ref>Finley, The history of Greece under Othman and Venetian Domination, 1856 pp. 330-334</ref><ref>Dakin, Douglas ''The Greek Struggle for Independence, 1821–1833'', University of California Press, (1973) pp. 26–27</ref>

===Greek War of Independence===
{{More citations needed section|date=August 2019}} 
{{main|Greek War of Independence}}
[[Image:Lytras-nikiforos-pyrpolisi-tourkikis-navarhidas-apo-kanari.jpeg|thumb|200px|"The destruction of the Ottoman flagship in Chios by [[Konstantinos Kanaris|Kanaris]]" by [[Nikiphoros Lytras]].]]
[[File:Scène des massacres de Scio.jpg|thumb|200px|''[[The Massacre at Chios]]'' (1824) by [[Eugène Delacroix]].]]
A secret Greek nationalist organization called the "Friendly Society" or "Company of Friends" (''[[Filiki Eteria]]'') was formed in [[Odessa]] in 1814. The members of the organization planned a rebellion with the support of wealthy Greek exile communities in [[United Kingdom|Britain]] and the [[United 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 Bishop [[Germanos of Patras]] proclaimed a national uprising.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1436276/Greek-Independence-Day|title=Greek Independence Day.|publisher= www.britannica.com |access-date=9 September 2009|quote= 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.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= McManners, John |title=The Oxford illustrated history of Christianity |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |pages=521–524 |isbn=0-19-285439-9 |quote= 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.}}</ref> The Ottomans, in retaliation orchestrated the [[Constantinople massacre of 1821]] and similar pogroms in Smyrna.<ref>[https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=ahis_facpub Prousis, Theophilus C., "Smyrna in 1821: A Russian View" (1992). History Faculty Publications. 16, pp. 145, 146]</ref>

Simultaneous risings were planned across Greece, including in [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]], [[Crete]], and [[Cyprus]]. With the initial advantage of surprise, aided by Ottoman inefficiency and the Ottomans' fight against [[Ali 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.<ref>Jelavich, p. 217.</ref>

The Ottomans recovered, and retaliated in turn with savagery, [[Chios massacre|massacring]] the Greek population of [[Chios]] and other towns. This worked to their disadvantage by provoking further sympathy for the Greeks in Britain and France.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} The Greeks were unable to establish a strong government in the areas they controlled, and [[Greek civil wars of 1824–25|fell 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 from [[Egypt]] under [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim 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 philhellene [[George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron|Lord Byron]] at [[Messolongi]] 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 the [[Battle 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 April [[Russo-Turkish War (1828–29)|at war]] against the Ottomans. Under their protection, the Greeks were able to reorganize, form a new government and defeat the Ottomans in the [[Battle 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.
[[File:Die Schlacht bei Termopylae.jpg|thumb|Battle between Greeks and Turks during the Greek War of Independence]]
A conference in London in 1830 proposed a fully independent Greek state (and not autonomous as previously proposed). The final borders were defined during the [[London Conference of 1832]] with the northern frontier running from [[Arta, Greece|Arta]] to [[Volos]], and including only [[Euboia]] and the [[Cyclades]] 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 the [[Mavromichalis family]] in October 1831. To prevent further experiments with republican government, the Great Powers, especially Russia,{{citation needed|date=April 2018}} insisted that Greece should be a monarchy, and the Bavarian Prince [[Otto of Greece|Otto]] was chosen to be its first King.

==See also==
{{Portal|Greece}}
* [[Dragomans]]
* [[Giaour]]
* [[Greek Muslims]]
* [[List of former mosques in Greece]]
* [[Ionian Islands under Venetian rule]]
* [[Phanariotes]]
* [[Rayah]]
* [[Sipahis]]
* [[Timeline of Orthodoxy in Greece (1453–1821)]]
* [[Hellenoturkism]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Sources==
* Finkel, Caroline. ''Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923''. New York: Basic Books, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-465-02396-7}}.
* Hobsbawm, Eric John. ''The Age of Revolution''. New American Library, 1962. {{ISBN|0-451-62720-2}}.
* Jelavich, Barbara. ''History of the Balkans, 18th and 19th Centuries''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. {{ISBN|0-521-27458-3}}.
* Paroulakis, Peter H. ''The Greek War of Independence''. Hellenic International Press, 1984.
* Shaw, Stanford. ''History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume I''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
* Vacalopoulos, Apostolis. ''The Greek Nation, 1453–1669''. Rutgers University Press, 1976.

==External links==
*[http://www.hri.org/docs/macque/text6.html Macedonian Question: Turkish Domination] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407020317/http://www.hri.org/docs/macque/text6.html |date=7 April 2017 }}

{{Ottoman Greece}}
{{History of Ottoman}}
{{Greek War of Independence|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Ottoman Greece| ]]
[[Category:Ottoman Empire]]

[[sv:Greklands historia#Osmanska tiden]]