An investigation of the policy of the Albanians during the Greek struggle for independence (1821-1825)
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An investigation of the policy of the Albanians during the Greek struggle for independence (1821-1825)
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Date
12 July 2021
Abstract
An issue that appears very frequently in the documents of the Ottoman state during the Greek struggle of independence is the failed attempts of the High Gate to mobilise the Albanian warlords/notables to fight in their battles against the Greek revolutionaries. The plethora of documents is due to the fact that the Ottoman state did not actually have an army, nor did it have many means to mobilise it during the revolution. Strongly reminiscent of the conditions that governed the dissolution of several ancient empires, the High Gate was forced to resort to the ‘market of violence’, the main suppliers of which were Muslim Albanian warlords. Until the arrival of the Egyptian forces in 1825, with which the final chronological limit of this study is connected, the Ottoman state was literally at their mercy in order to suppress the Greek uprising.
Most scholars of the period tend to underestimate the role of the Albanian element and thus it is an unknown aspect in the historiography of the Greek struggle for independence. This is due, among other things, to the fact that Muslim Albanians are treated as Turks – they are called Turk-Albanians or their Albanian identity is completely ignored – while at the same time Christian Albanians are characterised as Greeks, resulting in a simplistic presentation of competition between only two opposing sides.
The reasons why the Ottoman armed forces faced such adverse conditions and the Albanians played such an important role in the war for Greek independence have their roots in the last decade, which is one of the least studied periods in Ottoman history.
(Edited and translated extract from RCH website)
Most scholars of the period tend to underestimate the role of the Albanian element and thus it is an unknown aspect in the historiography of the Greek struggle for independence. This is due, among other things, to the fact that Muslim Albanians are treated as Turks – they are called Turk-Albanians or their Albanian identity is completely ignored – while at the same time Christian Albanians are characterised as Greeks, resulting in a simplistic presentation of competition between only two opposing sides.
The reasons why the Ottoman armed forces faced such adverse conditions and the Albanians played such an important role in the war for Greek independence have their roots in the last decade, which is one of the least studied periods in Ottoman history.
(Edited and translated extract from RCH website)
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35
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All Rights Reserved
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Part of RCH's series "Digital Library 1821".
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