Understanding the Greek Revolution (1821–1832). New Approaches in Social, Political and Cultural History

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Published Jul 2024

Elias Kolovos and Dimitris Kousouris (eds)

Volume Editors: Elias Kolovos and Dimitris Kousouris

A part of the insurrectionary wave of the 1820s, the Greek Revolution remains a neglected episode in the revolutionary history of the period. The contributions included in this volume present the most recent research concerning the social, political and cultural history of this major event. Bringing together specialists in social, intellectual and cultural history, the volume adopts a broader temporal and spatial perspective than most existing analyses. Juxtaposing the views from without and within the Ottoman Empire, the authors reconsider the dialectics of social transformation and revolution and overcome simplistic dichotomies between structural continuities and conjectural ruptures, international context and internal conflicts, social and political aspects, and central state and local power-holders, putting the Greek Revolution squarely back on the agenda of Marxist and revolutionary historiography.

Contributors are: Zacharias Antonakis, Dimitris Bacharas, Athanasios Barlagiannis, Simos Bozikis, Aliki Fakoura, Şükrü Ilicak, Elias Kolovos, Phokion Kotzageorgis, Dimitris Kousouris, Dimitris Papastamatiou, Nikos Rotzokos, Mohammet Shariat-Panahi, Panagiotis Stathis, Panagiotis Sotiris, Dionysis Tzakis, and Eleftheria Zei.

Biographical Note

Elias Kolovos is Associate Professor in Ottoman History at the University of Crete. He has written, edited, and coedited books and papers on Ottoman History, including Across the Aegean: Islands, Monasteries and Rural Societies in the Ottoman Greek Lands (The Isis Press 2018).

Dimitris Kousouris is Researcher in the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has written and co-edited articles, books and collective volumes in Modern and Contemporary History. His most recent book is: “Sira Nostra Patria”. The Latins of the Archipelago Between Empire and Nation-State (Berghahn 2022).

Readership

Academic libraries, Faculty members, Students, Specialists in European, Mediterranean, Ottoman, Modern Greek studies.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chronology

Introduction: The Greek Revolution of 1821 in the Age of Revolutions
Historiographical Debates and New Research
Elias Kolovos and Dimitris Kousouris

Theoretical Debate: Revisiting a ‘Bourgeois Revolution’
The Greek Left and the Challenge of Theorising ‘1821’
Panagiotis Sotiris

Part 1 The Ottoman Context of the Greek Revolution

‘Inciting the Rum Milleti to Rise Up’
The Outbreak of the Greek Revolution of 1821 according to the Ottoman Sources
Elias Kolovos, H.Şükrü Ilıcak and Mohamet Shariat-Panahi

Salonica in the Revolutionary Conjuncture of 1821
PhokionP. Kotzageorgis

Post-revolutionary Salonica and Its Environs
Penal Policies, Precautionary Steps and Institutionalised Rewards in the Aftermath of the Revolt
Dimitris Papastamatiou

Part 2 Times of Transition: Continuity and Rupture

The Developing Idea of Liberation in the Course of the Greek National Movement in the Early Nineteenth Century
The Case of Christophoros Perraivos
Nikos Rotzokos

The Greek Revolution in the Morea
Economies, Societies, and Cultures
Aliki Fakoura

Alliances, Factions and Political Practices of the Moreot Notables before and during the Greek Revolution
The Cases of the Kanakaris-Roufos, Peroukas and Charalambis Families
Dimitris Bacharas

Part 3 The Dynamics of Modernisation

Irregular Warfare in the Greek Revolution of 1821
Klephtic or Partisan Warfare?
Dionysis Tzakis

Disciplining the Armies
Military Medicine during the Greek Revolution (1821–31)
Athanasios Barlagiannis

Economy and Power in the Greek Revolution
Public Revenues, Powerful Entities and State Formation
Simos Bozikis

10 Athens and Athenian Politics during the Greek Revolution
ZachariasD. Antonakis

Part 4 Contested Lands, Shared Sovereignties

11 The 1821 Greek Revolution in Central Greece
The Catalytic Role of the Military Confrontation between Tepedelenli Ali Pasha and the Sublime Porte
Panagiotis Stathis

12 The Catholics of Syros between Empire and Nation (1821–32)
Dımıtris Kousourıs

13 New Perspectives in Local Politics before and during the Greek Revolution
Consular Institutions in the Greek Archipelago (Late Eighteenth–Early Nineteenth Century)
Eleftheria Zei

Index