Suppress or Support? Great Powers and Revolutionary Agency in the Greek War of Independence

Abstract

Why was the Greek revolution tolerated by the status-quo-seeking Great Powers of the day, while other European movements were swiftly put down? We suggest that the initial decision of the Great Powers not to suppress the revolution was not a predestined outcome informed by civilizational affinity, humanitarian concerns, or on-the-ground military developments. It was rather the result of geopolitical calculations by the ideologically varied Great Powers and diplomatic maneuvering by heterochthonous Greek revolutionaries attuned to contemporary European politics. The latter made a conscious effort to distinguish their revolt from counter-establishment movements and signal their openness to input from the Great Powers. Revolutionary agency within a multipolar realpolitik context, rather than humanitarian or civilizational concerns, ultimately precluded suppression and ultimately elicited British support based on the conviction that Greece would become a liberal nation-state—with a neoclassical connection to Ancient Greek ideals, but also to Christianity—and a new financial market. Russia and France followed suit.

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Magnus Briem, George Giannakopoulos, Antonis Klapsis and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Harris Mylonas

Harris Mylonas is Editor-in-Chief of Nationalities Papers and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Department of Political Science, George Washington University. He is the author of The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities (Cambridge University Press, 2012); co-editor of Enemies Within: The Global Politics of Fifth Columns (Oxford University Press, 2022; with Scott Radnitz) and The Microfoundations of Diaspora Politics (Routledge, 2022; with Alexandra Délano Alonso); and co-author of Varieties of Nationalism: Communities, Narratives, Identities (Cambridge University Press, 2023; with Maya Tudor).

Elpida Vogli

Elpida Vogli is Professor of Modern Greek History, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of History and Ethnology School of Classics and Humanities. She is the author of Works and Days of Greek Families, 1750–1940 (Athens: National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, 2005); “Greek by descent”: National Identity and Citizenship in Modern Greece, 1821–1844 (Heraklion: Crete University Press, 2007); Metaxa, the Real Story: The Development of a Greek Family Industry (Athens: Livanis, 2010); The remits of History in past and present (Athens, Pedio Books, 2023); and co-author of Greece-Italy … the same crisis? From the financial crisis to the pandemic (Athens: Asini, 2013).