{"id":4718,"date":"2020-04-13T10:30:03","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T07:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4718"},"modified":"2020-04-13T10:44:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T07:44:41","slug":"unstable-balance-between-tradition-and-innovativeness-during-the-200-years-after-1821-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4718","title":{"rendered":"UNSTABLE BALANCE BETWEEN TRADITION AND INNOVATIVENESS DURING THE 200 YEARS AFTER 1821"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

   A few months ago, in an article referring to\nthe 200th anniversay since the Greek revolution and the corresponding planned\nfestivities, we had written that one of\nthe main points for reflection at this time should be the question of making a\nchoice between \u201cEast and West\u201d, which was very prominent during the last\ndecades of the Byzantine empire. Choosing between East and West was a problem\nthat was faced by all sections of the society, church and state during the four\ncenturies of the Ottoman occupation. It would be interesting to examine how\nthis dilemma, which continues to exist until today, has affected our way of\nliving, customs and mentality during the two centuries of the existence of the modern\nGreek state.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   <\/strong>Here is an excerpt from the\nabove-mentioned article: \u201c<\/em>\u039f<\/em><\/strong>ur reflection should focus on the\nfour different societal groups at the beginning of the revolution and their\ninterrelations. These groups were: a) the militant groups (armed fighters) both\non the land and in the sea with their leaders (\u201ccaptains\u201d), b) the local\nrepresentatives of the Christian population during the Ottoman rule\n(\u201ckotzabasides\u201d and bishops), c) the leading Christian orthodox group in\nConstantinople (the elite class of \u201cFanariotes\u201d and the patriarchate) and d)\nthe Greek merchants and intellectuals who brought the Enlightment from Western\nEurope to Greece. All these four groups had different ideas about the\nrevolution, which affected their actions. They proceeded with caution and participated\nin the fight for independence  in\ndifferent ways\u201d. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/strong>Ordinary Greek citizens were\ninfluenced by the ideas of these leading societal groups, adjusted them to\ntheir needs, and voted accordingly in the elections that started almost\nimmediately after independence, and were held regularly after the uprising of\nSeptember 3, 1843. This uprising was organised\nby the Greek Army in Athens against the autocratic rule of King Otto, which resulted\nin the end of the absolute and the beginning of the constitutional monarchy era.\nUnfortunately, the decision-making during national elections was most often\ninfluenced by \u201ceastern\u201d customs, such as cronyism, tax evasion, deceitful\nsubmission to those who are stronger, etc. In fewer cases, the electorate voted\nfor political candidates who had innovative ideas, such as establishing secure\ntrade conditions, combining personal or family interests with state interests,\nand in general novel and progressive ideology. Although the Greek people had long\nbeen used to the Ottoman way of running public affairs, during the last two\ncenturies before the revolution they had also been exposed to the ideas of the\nEnlightment, which were prominent in the west, and which were introduced to\nGreece by merchants and intellectuals. These ideas were naturally leading to democratic\ngovernments. The expansion of trade, the production and transport of products\nfrom the west to the markets of the east, helped bring to our country some of\nthe new elements that had been developed in the west. These elements of modern\nliberal ideology were steadily reinforced by Greek immigrants who had returned\npermanently to their homeland, after having lived in western societies and having\nexperienced first-hand the novel way of democratic living in several European\ncountries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   The eastern and\nwestern ideologies were succeeding each other rapidly in Greek politics, according\nto the ideology of each incoming leader. The big chance for Greece\u2019s radical\nmodernisation was lost forever after the assassination of the Governor\nCapodistria, the very politician that the national assembly had invited in 1827\nfrom Switzerland, where he had resided since 1822, to Greece, in order to save the\nfaltering Greek revolution! The fact that the assassination happened at a time\nwhen a new loan had just been arranged by Capodistria is very unfortunate. This\nloan would have secured a strong governance structure for the new state, which\nso far was financially supported by the Governor himself (who liquidated his\nassets) and by his friends who were fundraising for the Greek cause in various\nEuropean countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The first years\nafter the revolution were years of extreme difficulty and poverty for Maniots.\nLack of war action and prohibition of piracy meant that Maniots could no longer\nfind employment in these two fields, which unfortunately were remains of many\ncenturies of the eastern way of living in our area. Families  did not have the means to feed and support hemselves.\nEmployment in the army and the public administration were also not possible,\nbecause of lack of government funding. Trading with the West, which was robust\nduring the leadership of Tzanetos Grigorakis, was declining in the decade after\nhis removal from office. All these facts were forcing the majority of Maniots\nto continue to support the old eastern ideas and the local political system of \u03ba\u03b1\u03c0\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03b5\u03c2. Dire financial\ncircumstances led to cruel conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In this article we\nhave given a brief general idea of the first uncertain steps between tradition\nand modernisation during the first period of the modern Greek state. (We will return to this topic, analysing\nvarious social characteristics during the years that followed the\npost-revolution era).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   A few months ago, in an article referring to the 200th anniversay since the Greek revolution and the corresponding planned festivities, we had written that one of the main points for reflection at this time should be the question of making a choice between \u201cEast and West\u201d, which was very prominent during the last … \u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2 UNSTABLE BALANCE BETWEEN TRADITION AND INNOVATIVENESS DURING THE 200 YEARS AFTER 1821<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,392,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-main-articles-in-english","category-main-articles","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4719,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718\/revisions\/4719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}