The decade prior to the Greek Revolution: A black hole in Ottoman history
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The decade prior to the Greek Revolution: A black hole in Ottoman history
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Date
12 March 2021
Abstract
A theme that stands out as central in all the documents produced by the Ottoman state throughout the Greek Revolution is the Sublime Porte’s unsuccessful efforts to mobilize Muslim Albanian magnates-cum-warlords against the Greek insurgents. The multitude of documents is due to the fact that the Ottoman state had essentially no army, nor much means to raise one, and was literally at the mercy of Albanian warlords and mercenaries for the suppression of the Greek uprising until the advent of the Egyptian forces in 1825. To understand what had happened to the Ottoman army and the consequent developments during the Greek Revolution, it is necessary to examine the preceding decade. The Treaty of Bucharest (May 1812) and Russia’s revised nonaggressive imperial agenda in the post-Napoleonic world order brought about the favourable conditions for a certain clique at the Sublime Porte to deal with its internal affairs and eliminate the provincial magnates (ayans), without whose support the Ottoman central state could not raise an army or taxes since the Russo-Ottoman war of 1768-1774.The ayans had carved out almost autonomous statelets for themselves and especially during the Russian war of 1806-1812, they became ever more independent and less responsive to the Sublime Porte’s demands. Hence, in February 1813, the Sublime Porte officially announced and embarked on a military and administrative project to reassert itself in the provinces. What followed was a civil war between the Ottoman central state and a myriad of provincial magnates. Official Ottoman documents and chronicles allow us to trace dozens of urban and rural uprisings led by provincial magnates throughout the empire, from Yemen to Wallachia, from Caucasia to Serbia, against the Sublime Porte’s encroachments. The last one of these magnates was Tepedelenli Ali Pasha in Ioannina, who led the Tosk, Lap and Cham Albanians to revolt in 1820. As a result of this “de-ayanization” process, large sections of the empire were ruined and the Sublime Porte exhausted its pool of military manpower. My article will examine the chain of uprisings throughout the Ottoman Empire and discuss their influence on the Greek Revolution.
(Edited abstract from organiser’s website)
From the book of abstracts, as it was published on NKUA's website.
(Edited abstract from organiser’s website)
From the book of abstracts, as it was published on NKUA's website.
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Text
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00:20:00
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BY-NC-SA Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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