The Greek Revolution by Mark Mazower
The revolution that gained Greece its independence from the Ottoman Empire gave rise to the original international human rights campaign. Reports of massacres and refugees outraged sensibilities in Europe and the U.S. and triggered responses from governments and non-governmental organizations. Even as western nations continued to build empires and subjugate indigenous peoples, the cry went up to help a particular indigenous people overthrow their foreign overlords. One reason for widespread support of the Greek cause among Americans and Western Europeans was a sense of cultural indebtedness. The Greeks descended from the people whose literature, science, philosophy and politics laid many of the foundation stones for western civilization.
With The Greek Revolution, Columbia University history professor Mark Mazower gives a thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking account of the revolt that began in 1821—not in Greece but hundreds of miles north in Ottoman-ruled Moldavia. Greek merchants formed communities and commercial networks across the Balkans, Asia Minor and Russia and the first flag of revolt could have been raised in any number of places. The far-flung revolutionaries hired Albanian mercenaries and called on Russia for help. The czar was cautious but allowed his empire to become a setting for conspiracies. The politics were Byzantine is all senses of the word.
Mazower populates his account with revealing anecdotes and human faces. The Greek cause mobilized young volunteers from as far away as the U.S. to fight for Greece’s independence. Many came with backpacks stuffed with ideals as well as guns. Among them were several women and at least one African American man. It was, Mazower writes, “a new kind of politics—international in its range and affiliations, popular in its origins, romantic in its sentiments, and often revolutionary in its goals.” Frustrated by the status quo in their own countries, the idealists sought to strike a blow against oppression in foreign lands.
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However, motivations were mixed on all sides. The foreign ranks included sensation seekers and adventurers; Ottoman officials dithered between compromise and mass killing; and many Greeks changed sides repeatedly, depending on the direction of events. Despite efforts by hagiographers to mythologize several revolutionary leaders, the Greek uprising produced no Washington—no dominant figure who became the father of his (re-founded) country.
The founding of modern Greece was also the opening salvo in a long war of national liberation that eventually extended across continents and continues into the 21st century. In his definitive account, Mazower wonders about the costs and benefits of nations based on ethnic rather than civic identity.
