Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
by Jason C. Mavrovitis
Early disorganization and failure of the Greek struggle for independence in the 1820's did not diminish mounting support for the Greek cause from the western European giants of literature and poetry: Shelley and Byron, Goethe, Schiller and Victor Hugo. Public support grew as news of Ottoman atrocities, especially in the Morea, reached the West.
The Philhellenic(34) movement in eighteenth and nineteenth century western European had grown out of sixteenth and seventeenth century scholarship centered on classical Greece. Philhellenism fostered a romantic view of modern Greeks as direct descendants of the people of Athens and Sparta, the heroes of Marathon and Thermopylae.(35) In time, sympathy grew for Greek Christians who were subject to Ottoman Moslems. Philhellenism swelled in spite of pejorative characterizations of nineteenth century Greek peasants written and published in journals by British and French travelers.
Eventually both the British and French, concerned about loss of trade, the inability of the Ottomans to stabilize the region, and the threat of Russian intervention and possible Turko-Russian war took action. The Greek's long and bloody fight for independence celebrated as having started on March 25, 1821, was finally won in 1828 after the British, French and Russian combined naval fleet destroyed the Turko-Egyptian fleet in the Battle of Navarino Bay.(36) The British and French governments, hoping that a show of force and intent would be sufficient to compel reconciliation between Greek and Turk, determined that at most a blockade of Turkish men and arms would be necessary and did not anticipate a battle. Instructions issued by their governments to the three Admirals of the combined fleet were: "You are aware that you ought to be most particularly careful that the measures which you may adopt against the Ottoman navy do not degenerate into hostilities."(37)
As the two opposing armadas met in the Bay confusion, tension, and preparation for naval action set the stage for disaster. A gun fired, a man killed, and the engagement began. The Turko-Egyptian fleet was annihilated. The King of Britain's speech, made as the actions of victorious British Admiral Codrington were called into question, sought to maintain Britain's alignment with Turkey:
In the course of the measures adopted with a view to carry into effect the object of the Treaty, a collision, wholly unexpected by His Majesty, took place in the port of Navarin, between the fleets of the Contracting Powers and that of the Ottoman Porte. Notwithstanding the valour displayed by the combined fleet, His Majesty laments that this conflict should have occurred with the naval force of an ancient ally: but he still entertains a confident hope, that this untoward event will not be followed by further hostilities, and will not impede that amicable adjustment of the existing differences between the Porte and the Greeks, to which it is so manifestly their common interest to accede.(38)
In the end the western powers of Britain and France, with the cooperation of Russia, forced the Ottomans to consent to the creation of the Kingdom of Greece. The great powers primary objective was to stabilize the political climate of the eastern Mediterranean. Russia was mollified by outright territorial gains won from Turkey and by increased influence in the Balkans, evidenced by Turkey ceding to Russia the safeguarding of Serbia. Finally and very importantly the Ottomans agreed to the status of the Bosphorous and Dardanelles as international waterways.
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