Prelude to Revolution

The century between the end of the Venetian Period in the Morea and the beginning of the Greek Revolution was a time of unrest and change in the Ottoman Empire and across Europe.

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On the 23rd of August 1817. The same spot was again the scene of a similar disaster. The earthquake was preceeded by a sudden explosion. Which was compared to that of a battery of cannon. The shock, which immediately succeeded. Was said to have lasted a minute and a half During which the sea rose at the mouth of the Selinus, and extended so far as to inundate all the level immediately below Vostitsa. After its retreat, not a trace was left of some magazines, which had stood on the shore. And the sand which had covered the beach was all carried away. The ships anchored in the road were not injured. But the smaller vessels were thrown a shore with more or less damage. In Vostitsa, 65 persons lost their lives. And two thirds of the buildings were entirely ruined. Including the Turkish mosque. And the houses of the voivoda and kady. Five villages in the plain were destroyed. Among which was that of upper Temeni or Temena. In the bay of Trisonia on the opposite coast of Rumeli, the sea rose in the same manner as at Vostitsa and advanced 200 paces into the plain. This is from footnote a on page 402 in volume three of William Martin Leake's, 1830 book called Travels in the Morea. I'm Jen Glaubius. And this is the Helonaki Deep Dive a podcast about mapping and analysis for historical and archeological research. In this episode, I'll describe what happened in the Morea. After the Ottomans took back the area from the Venetians in 1715. And the events that lead up to the Greek revolution that started in 1821. Let's dive in. Just as a note, originally, this episode included the Greek revolution, but then it got super long. So I decided to cut it into two. So this week you're getting the prelude to the revolution. And then next week on Thursday, June 9th, you'll get the Greek revolution itself. And then the week after that on June 16th, you'll get from the Greek revolution into the 20th century, which will wrap up this part of season two. And then I'll take a break because I'm going to excavate in Greece. And now back to the episode. So where we left off last time is at the end of the Venetian period, when the Ottomans very quickly took back control of the Morea. And just like when they first conquered the Morea. The Ottomans collected census records. Their defters to get an understanding of what the Morea was now like after 30 years of being under Venetian control Unfortunately, I don't have a translated one for Vostitsa, but, in 2005, There was a publication of the defter in Messenia, near modern Pylos. And what we can see from records is that the Ottomans tried to re-establish the timar system where they would give control of land revenue to their cavalryman. But that system had already been in trouble. Land revenue was not going to these cavalrymen anymore because they were less and less useful to the Ottoman military. But instead becoming estates. And because the Ottoman state needed money to pay the Janissaries who were their most effective military force at that time. They changed the tax farming system. It had been a temporary contract where a person would bid on the amount to collect the taxes and then would then extract as much money as they could from that area. But now, tax farming was held during the person's lifetime. So instead of having to bid on this contract year after year, they would hold it for their lifetime. Because of this, the elites of the Morea, both Muslim and Christian were able to amass a great amount of wealth. Because they held this concession of the tax farm for their lifetime. And these elites that had been around during the Venetian period and before that, and they continued to have a lot of money and land. And they were able to accumulate even more wealth. Because they were dealing with large amounts of money, they were able to hire private security. Now different families grew strong over decades. And by 1750, there was conflict between rival families in the Morea. The Ottomans stepped in and executed members of those elite families to keep those families from continuing to fight each other. The next big thing that happens is in 1768, when the Ottomans and Russians start the first of a series of wars. The Russians had been expanding southwards to increase their territory. And this is in the time of the Czarina Catherine the second, better known as Catherine the Great. And she had this idea. What she called the Greek project, where she wanted to recreate a Byzantine Orthodox empire and establish a Capitol at Constantinople. The problem, of course. Is that the Ottomans who had their capital. Of Istanbul, which was still called Constantinople at this point, were not in favor of this. In 1768 the Russians were really trying to gain access to the Black Sea and they also wanted the Crimean peninsula. Part of the Russian strategy was to encourage rebellions of Orthodox Ottoman subjects. So that the Ottomans would be distracted from fighting the Russians near the Black Sea. They ended up getting local uprisings in Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina. Albania. And the Morea. None of these went well, they were all put down fairly quickly. In the Morea, a small Russian force landed at Kalamata, in the Southern Morea, and they were able to take Kalamata. But Then they split their forces, attacked Koroni and Methoni. While Another group went and attacked Mystra, which they were able to capture. And then they killed off the Muslim population of Mystra. There was another uprising in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese. They attacked Patras and the town of Kalavryta. But this uprising in the Morea was very soon put down. The Ottomans brought in mercenaries some were of Albanian descent. They weren't very well paid. And so as they're putting down this uprising, they're also looting the local area in the Morea, and killing a lot of people. Then the Ottomans decided not to pay them or they couldn't pay them. And so these mercenaries stayed in the Morea continuing to kill and loot and just devastating the land. Until the Ottomans finally had to team up with Greek, brigands to restore order in the area. So the land was very devastated. The population decreased and also decreased because a lot of people left as refugees to Russian held territory. The Russians had won this war. And they got control of land, especially Crimea and around the Black Sea. The Russians offered free land and a decade of exemption from taxes to Greek people in the Peloponnese, who had been affected by the failed uprising in 1770. And many people from the Peloponnese went. They ended up settling in Crimea. Also in the city of Odessa and along the sea of Azov. In the 1780s, Greek settlers founded the city of Mariupol. Which unfortunately has been in the news lately, in the present day. Since to the Russians as part of their invasion of Ukraine here in 2022 have destroyed the city of Mariupol. The Ottomans oppressed the Morea even more So relations between the Russians and the Ottomans were not great through the 1770s- 80s, they will fight another war in the 1790s. This is the period when Constantinople officially became Istanbul. Catherine the Great was still really interested in creating a very large Orthodox empire. And in 1779, she had a commemorative medal created with the image of Hagia Sophia, the Orthodox church in Constantinople. Which signaled her intention to take Constantinople from the Ottomans. When the Russians and the Ottomans started fighting their next war in 1787. The sultan ordered that coins that were struck by the government would no longer read that they were made in Constantinople but instead Istanbul and that seems to be the official change in the name of the city. The Ottomans lost this latest war to Russia. Because they had a very weak military at this point. The Janissaries were no longer an elite fighting force, but rather a drain on the treasury. That resisted any modernization that the Ottoman Sultan wanted to do. As a result of their loss in this latest war, the Ottomans had to pay a large indemnity to Russia. So that plus all the money that the janissaries took up meant that the Ottomans needed money in their treasury. To make up lost money in the treasury, the Ottoman government increased taxes. Which of course, made people unhappy. They also debased the coinage, which increased inflation. And again, it made people unhappy. And because they still didn't have enough money in the treasury. They also confiscated, estates of high ranking disgraced officials. And this made elites unhappy. Because they lost tax farming revenue that they otherwise would've gotten, but instead went directly into the Ottoman treasury. In addition to needing money, the central Ottoman government was very weak during this time. They ended up having their own officials. Carving out fiefdoms in parts of the empire. One of these was Ali Pasha of Ioannina who became in charge of that region in 1788 and then consolidated power to the point where he was almost independent of the Sultan. And we'll talk more about him. Next time. The late 18th century was also an age of revolutions. In the Western hemisphere. The uprising that separated the United States of America from Great Britain started in 1776. In 1791, Haiti also had a revolution against France. Which back in Europe, France, two years earlier had its own revolution against the monarchy. The French revolution would cause a lot of disorder and warfare in Europe. Mostly not involving the Ottomans, although we'll get to how they were involved in a bit. The French revolution transitioned into, Napoleon's empire. And Napoleon invaded Egypt, which was a part of the Ottoman empire in 1798. And this was a shock because the French and the Ottomans had been allies for a long time. So he invaded Egypt in 1798. And along with his military, he brought, scientists and archeologists to basically take stock of the country. Very soon after Napoleon left in 1799, they lost Egypt. But they created. This description of Egypt, which was basically an encyclopedia of the area. Once Napoleon's forces left Egypt, the British would hold it for a few years. But the Ottomans sent in their forces as well to take back the region. One of the most important of these. Who rose through the ranks was a man named Mehmed Ali. Who was possibly of Albanian descent. And he rose through the ranks and then basically took over rule of Egypt for himself. And he will be important later on. Meanwhile, Napoleon left Egypt went back to Europe and this is the period of the Napoleonic wars from about 1803 through 1815. And so you have fighting going on the continent of Europe, large scale. While the Ottomans did not participate in the Napoleonic wars. Those wars did have an effect on people in the Ottoman Empire. Greek merchants were spread across Europe and they did really good business during the Napoleonic wars as did Greek ship owners. from The Greek islands, who ended up getting pretty rich. In addition you also had Greek people who fought in the Napoleonic wars or received military training during that time. And so you have Greek people getting a lot of military experience and access to guns at this point. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 was a meeting between Austria, Prussia, Britain, France, and Russia to restore peace. And after all the upset, that had started with a French revolution, they were like no more revolutions. They also wanted to strengthen monarchies. And interestingly enough. In the entourage of the Russians Czar at this Congress of Vienna. Was a 38 year old man named Ioannis Kapodistrias who originally was from Corfu, but who had gone to Russia and was part of the Russian state. He would afterwards become the Russian foreign minister. And this just shows us very close ties that many Greeks and Russians had so many Greeks had made their way to Russia. In addition to the Greeks who were in Russia and elsewhere in Europe. In the early 1800s, western Europeans started traveling to Greece in greater numbers. Some of them traveled around and then wrote accounts of what they saw such as Leake who wrote about that earthquake at Vostitsa in 1817. Others, like Dodwell, who traveled in this period, was an artist. He made drawings of classical and older architecture. And so bringing the ideas of what was in Greece to Western Europe. Of course, this was done a bit more directly and destructively by Lord Elgin. Who took sculptures off of the Parthenon and Erechtheion, and Propylea, on the Athenian Acropolis and transported them back to London. But through all these ways. And also through the Homeric epics and plays from the classical and Hellenistic periods, Western Europeans sometimes had this very romanticized idea of Greece. So there's this idea of greece for the Europeans that was very much centered in the past, like over two millennia in the past. The conception of what Greece was or what it meant to be Greek was very fluid in this period. There was a shared Greek language. So that could be the commonality of what it meant to be Greek. But there was also sometimes a shared, Orthodox religion. But orthodoxy included peoples who were not Greek like Russians and others. You could also say that to be Greek was to originate from the area of Greece, but there were no boundaries. There were no borders. And people from the area that we call Greece would more likely say. What island they were from. Or which portion of the country, where they from the Morea, the Peloponnese. Or from Rumeli, which is central Greece or some other part. And so it's very interesting. To see as the war of independence develops. How a Greek identity actually coalesces. And on the ground in the Morea. You have elite landowners who had built up their wealth as tax farmers and they have private armies. And some of them wouldn't mind independence, similar to what happened in 1204, right before the Fourth Crusade. But so many others, like they made a lot of money. They worked really well in the system. And so you have elite landowners who are divided. You also have a category of Greeks who are called Phanariots. Who were merchants in the Phanar district of Constantinople now, Istanbul. And they had built up wealth from trade. And many of them had served different parts of the Ottoman administration. Some of them then ended up in Russia. And so you have this group very highly educated and rich. But they're not from the area that we think of as Greece. And so you also have the common people, mostly farmers. Engaged in agriculture in the Morea and Rumeli, who thought of themselves as Orthodox and then thought of themselves as being from the Morea or Rumeli. But you also have the Ottoman empire increasingly being weak. About at this time, the Ottoman empire was referred to as the old man of Europe. 'cause it was being propped up. It was in trouble. And you have large portions of the Ottoman empire ruled by fiefdoms. So Ali Pasha, in Epirus, northwestern part of Greece. You've got Mehmed Ali who ruled Egypt. And with all this weakness and the ideas of revolution that were going on in Europe in general. You have this secret society called Philiki Etaireia, that formed in Odessa in 1814. So in Russian territory. It was a secret society based on Freemasons and they built up a network of support. They built up support of Greeks in different parts of Europe and Russia in Istanbul itself. And. The different islands and the Morea. The secret society Philiki Etaireia would kick off the Greek revolution in 1821. But that's for next time. So for end notes. I've been listening to season 10 of the Revolutions podcast. I haven't listened to any of the earlier seasons yet, but I'm definitely going to go back into it. Season 10 is all about the Russian revolution. And it's really interesting. The podcast is by Mike Duncan and he gives really good detailed background into these revolutions. He's done most of the major revolutions. The US revolution, Haiti, Mexico. The French revolution, 1848 revolutions. The Russian revolution now. But he is not going to do the Greek revolution. So. Sadly, we won't get to hear his treatment of the Greek revolution. Anyway. Thanks for listening. Email questions or comments to deepdive@helonaki.com or ask them on the Helonaki Deep Dive Facebook page. Show notes with links to resources mentioned in this episode will be available at helonaki.com. That's H E L O N A K I.com. You can also find ways to support the show now, including merch such as t-shirts mugs and stickers with the Helonaki Deep Dive logo at helonaki.com/support. My thanks to Patreon supporters at the geospatial analyst level, Leah Varrell and Janice and Jerry Farrell. Your support keeps the Helonaki Deep Dive going. The Helonaki Deep Dive is written and produced by me, Jen Glaubius of the Helonaki. The theme music is Deep Ocean Instrumental by Dan-o of danosongs.com additional sounds from zapsplat.com. Thanks for listening.