{"id":4828,"date":"2020-08-06T17:54:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T14:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4828"},"modified":"2020-08-06T17:54:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T14:54:29","slug":"200-years-after-the-independence-war-examining-our-recent-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4828","title":{"rendered":"200 YEARS AFTER THE INDEPENDENCE WAR: EXAMINING OUR RECENT HISTORY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

   The best way of summarising the history of\nthe 200 years since the Greek revolution (1821-2021) is the following: SEVEN\nWARS, FOUR CIVIL WARS, SEVEN BANKRUPTCIES. This is also the title of a book\npublished in recent years by History Professor Georgios V. Dertilis (the author comes from a Maniot family which\nsettled in Neapolis Voion, in Laconia). <\/em><\/strong>Upon reflecting on\nthese two centuries, we note that with the exception of some wars which had\nmore wide-ranging causes, the rest of the wars, the bankruptcies and the civil\nconflicts were all caused by the typical mentality of the Greek governments,\nwhich were representing the desires of the political circles of the time. Upon examining our history, we realise that\nthe political homogenisation of the Greek\nnation was not as thorough and successful as it could have been. If the homogenisation\nhad been stronger, the Greek political community would have had common goals and\nthe electorate would have elected the right politicians to promote and achieve\nthese goals. These politicians would have adapted these goals to the\npossibilities that were offered at that time and they would have used whatever\nresources and means were available to full potential.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  \nDuring the 19th<\/sup> century two important Greek political ideas\nfailed because of internal causes. These goals, although they were realistic,\nfailed to gain common acceptance and thus political homogenisation was not\nachieved. These political goals were the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias\u2019\nefforts to create a civilised, righteous and just Greek state, immediately\nafter the internal civil conflicts. Not only his efforts failed, they also led\nto his assasination and to even more serious armed warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) The efforts to include in the Greek\nterritory the areas outside the borders of Greece where ethnic Greeks lived.\nThis movement was called \u201cThe Great Idea\u201d, was supported by the idealist\nBavarian Otto, King of Greece, but was undermined by internal disputes and\ndisagreementss between the political parties. It ended badly with the\ndisastrous Greek-Turkish war of 1897.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  \nThe uncooperative attitude of the\npolitical community and the lack of desire to pursue national goals, which\nwould certainly have meant sacrifices and personal costs, resulted in failure.\nEven in the few cases, where the international situation was favourable, the\nGreek political leaders were capable and they had clear and realistic goals, failure\nensued because micropolitics and personal gains got the upper hand. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/strong>Two very capable great Greek\npoliticians were Harilaos Trikoupis and Eleftherios Venizelos. Harilaos Trikoupis <\/strong>changed the until\nthen inward-looking operation of the Greek state, and he tried to modernise the\ncountry by introducing many European technological advancements. However, he\nwas very wrong in his expectation that the Greek citizens would be responsible tax\npayers. The result was that Trikoupis could not collect through taxes the funds\nthat would have allowed him to pay back the loans that he had taken so that he\ncould undertake extensive modernisation public works. This failure led to his defeat\nin the next elections, resulting in his death, and to the bankruptcy of the\ncountry. Eleftherios Venizelos <\/strong>had\nforeseen the political developments in the Balkans and in Europe, and he tried\nhard to lead Greece forward with a strong and ambitious vision for the future.\nAgain, however, micropolitics, personal interests and the fatigue of the Greek\nsoldiers who had been fighting external wars for many years, they played a role\nin the defeat of the army and the death of the \u201cBig Idea\u201d. Venizelos\u2019 hopes\nthat Greece would be led to its great destiny were cruelly dashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  \nSimilar situations to the ones we\nhave mentioned above have also developed in the past and continue to develop today\nin our area, Mani. The political homogenisation of the small militant\ncommunities of Mani started in 1818 when the Maniot warlords promised to the\nrepresentatives of the Filiki Etaireia (Society of Friends) that they will\nsupport the War of Independence. The cooperation among them continued during\nthe first three years of the Revolution (for some of them at great loss to\nlife, property and privileges). Maniots, who were enjoying a semi-autonomous\nstatus in small communities, without the presence of Turks, embraced the common\ngoals of freedom and independence. They put aside economic interests for the\ncommon good and they rushed to the battlefields, with the very vague promise\nthat their sacrifices would be recognised if the war turned out victorious. <\/strong>Unfortunately,\nthe developments after 1824 gradually divided the local Maniot leaders, who put\naside the high ideals, and pursued instead personal interests. This shift in\nmentality led the whole country, but even more our own area, Mani, to tragic developments.\nEver since, division and polarisation have followed us like a curse. These\nphenomena are even more prominent during critical times. During the past decades, we have seen an opening in our small local\ncommunities and the creation of some new ideas, which gives us a reason to be\noptimistic that some positive changes can also happen here, in Mani. Let us\nhope that the solidarity of the years 1814-1824 will gradually be guiding more\nand more Maniots, so that the necessary \u201ccritical mass\u201d can be formed, which\nwill lead us to more common goals and prospects for the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                                                THE\nEDITORIAL BOARD  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   The best way of summarising the history of the 200 years since the Greek revolution (1821-2021) is the following: SEVEN WARS, FOUR CIVIL WARS, SEVEN BANKRUPTCIES. This is also the title of a book published in recent years by History Professor Georgios V. Dertilis (the author comes from a Maniot family which settled in … \u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2 200 YEARS AFTER THE INDEPENDENCE WAR: EXAMINING OUR RECENT HISTORY<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-main-articles-in-english","category-main-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828","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=4828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4830,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions\/4830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}