At this point 100 years ago, Greece was neutral and had not joined the First World War, but
it was anything but a simple situation and in fact was a dangerous time for all Greeks,
and that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about Greece during the First
World War.
Going back, the Greek nation had existed for under 100 years.
Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries, but rebelled in 1821.
A decade later the rebels achieved their goal, an independent Greece.
That Greece, though, was tiny, its lands had been destroyed by war, and its economy was
non-existent.
Ethnic Greeks living outside Greece outnumbered those within Greek borders four to one, and
the economic activity of the diaspora was quite rich, so Greek foreign policy became
Megáli Idéa - the Great Idea - that Greeks in their ancestral lands; including Crete,
Macedonia, Cyprus, Western Anatolia, the Southern Black Sea shore, and so on, should one day
be united.
Okay, fast forward to the end of the 19th century; Greece suffers a humiliating defeat
in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.
At this point Greece is very poor, with endemic corruption, the army is in the rather incompetent
hands of the palace.
In the first decade of the 20th century, though, sparked by rising nationalism in the Balkans,
Greek and Bulgarian irregular forces - backed by their governments - clashed in Ottoman
Macedonian territory.
This actually gave Greek national morale a boost, and the Young Turks revolution in the
Ottoman Empire in 1908 inspired a group of mostly junior army officers to stage a coup
in Greece in 1909.
The leaders of the coup then brought in the liberal politician Eleftherios Venizelos from
Crete.
He established the Liberal party, the first real ideological party in Greece.
A year after the coup, Venizelos won the post of Prime Minister in a landslide and began
a massive program of reforms to the economy, the constitution, and the army.
Now, over the next couple years, the Young Turks goal of a modern and purely Turkish
state caused a deterioration in the lives of Christians within the Ottoman empire and
the Balkan nations united against the common enemy.
Under British pressure, Serbia and Bulgaria allowed Greece to join their alliance, for
she was the only one who had a navy (and could stop Ottoman reinforcements by sea), and they
fought the first Balkan War against the Ottomans.
For Greece it was a triumph, gaining the Aegean Islands, Crete, most of Epirus, and the chunk
of Macedonia that included the capital Salonika.
Greece never signed any territorial spoils agreement with her allies, (largely because
Bulgaria did not hold the Greek armed forces capable enough to challenge her territorial
aspirations), but Bulgaria and Serbia had, and Bulgaria did not feel Serbia honored that
agreement and the Second Balkan War broke out.
Since Greece had by then signed a treaty with Serbia of mutual defense, Greece fought in
that war, when Bulgaria attacked them both, and was again victorious.
After the Balkan Wars Greece’s territory had increased by 70% and her population had
nearly doubled, to 4.8 million.
There were new rich cities and economic centers, new resources, a larger market, and a boost
in national morale, but there were big problems as well.
The “New Lands”, in addition to Greeks, contained Slavs, Muslims, and Jews, whose
loyalty to Greece was questionable at best.
There was also a big influx of Greek refugees from Anatolia and Bulgaria.
And finally, King George was assassinated March 18, 1913, placing his son Constantine,
who commanded the Greek army during the Balkan Wars, on the throne.
Constantine’s wife, Queen Sofia, was Kaiser Wilhelm’s sister, so he was, as you may
guess, pro-German.
When Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia in 1914, Greece, under treaty, should have helped Serbia.
Venizelos wanted Greece to honor its commitment, but Constantine flatly refused.
Venizelos believed the Entente had maritime supremacy and would eventually win the war
and Greece, as a maritime nation, should join them, and once the Ottoman Empire joined the
Central Powers, he stated repeatedly that the war was the last chance to liberate the
Greeks still in Western Anatolia and the Southern Black Sea coastline.
Most of the officers from the 1909 coup were with Venizelos.
On the other side was King Constantine.
An absolutist with strong German ties who admired German militarism, was himself an
honorary German Marshal, and believed Germany would win.
On his side was the General Staff and most of the senior army officers.
Also, the old political elite and the upper middle class of the “Old Lands” were marginalized
by Venizelos reform programs and the economic boom of the “New Lands” and their bourgeoisie,
and they needed the king in order to remain politically active.
The Church, which had huge influence, believed in Divine Right and was thus firmly Royalist.
This was the first real class and interest struggle in the Modern Greek state.
A big note here- Constantine did not want to join the Central Powers.
Much as he supported Germany and Austria-Hungary, he knew there was no way Greeks would ally
themselves with the Ottomans or Bulgarians, and he knew Germany and Austro-Hungary could
not give Greece much in return, so he favored neutrality.
When planning for Gallipoli and breaking through the Dardanelles began in 1915, the Entente
requested that Greece join in, promising Western Anatolia in return.
Venizelos immediately accepted but the Greek General Staff declined and Venizelos was forced
to resign.
So, on the campaign trail that spring, his campaign promise was to honor the Greek-Serbian
treaty, if Bulgaria was to attack Serbia.
He won the new elections.
That September Bulgaria mobilized and Constantine allowed Venizelos to mobilize only 18,000
men who could only fight if Greece itself were attacked.
In response, Venizelos gave the Entente permission to land troops at Salonika to aid the Serbs,
aiming to bring the King to a fait accompli.
In October the Parliament approved Venizelos policy of sending military aid to the Serbs,
but the King, backed by the General staff, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, denied again
Greece joining the war.
Venizelos was forced to resign for the second time in a year, and Alexandros Zaimis was
appointed interim Prime Minister by the King.
That was pretty dubious constitutionally.
Britain then offered Greece Cyprus to join the Entente.
Cyprus was 80% Greek and eager to join Greece, but Constantine declined.
Public outrage forced the government to resign and though there was another new interim Prime
Minister, in reality Constantine was pretty much a dictator at this point.
The Liberal Party and the socialists boycotted the next elections.
Only Royalists were elected and then there was a purge of Venizelists in the army and
the state.
The Venizelists became radicalized and began advocating the overthrow of the monarchy.
By this time the Entente was well established in Salonika, which was kind of an Entente
Protectorate, and it violated Greek neutrality.
The Royalists claimed that the army there would provoke a Bulgarian invasion, but Bulgarians
and Germans wanted Greece to remain neutral.
But eventually they attacked eastern Macedonia (seeing the reorganization of the Serbian
army in Greece), and Constantine ordered the Greek army not to resist and to surrender
the territory.
In response, the Entente now considered Greece a hostile nation and demanded the Greek army
disband.
Venizelist officers in Salonika, fearful that all Greece gained from the Balkan Wars would
be lost, formed the National Defense Organization and soon Venizelos himself was in Salonika
and formed a provisional government.
Greece was now divided in two states and the Entente immediately supported the Salonika
government.
The Entente demanded that Constantine give them the same quantity of war material that
was given to the invading Germans and Bulgarians, and he refused.
So British and French marines landed at the port of Piraeus, where they were repulsed
by a Royalist paramilitary organization led by Ioannis Metaxas, who would become the fascist
dictator of Greece in the late 30s.
His organization began a pogrom against Venizelists; looting and pillaging, murder, arson, the
Church even excommunicated Venizelos.
It was, in all but name, a civil war, “The November Events”.
The Entente blockaded Royalist Greece, which caused a shortage of provisions and led to
disease and privations.
The French captured a few strategic positions in southern Greece and demanded Constantine
abdicate with the threat of bombarding Athens.
He did not, but fled the country, leaving his second son Alexander on the throne.
In June 1917, Venizelos returned to Athens and reunited Greece as one state, toppling
Constantine’s regime.
A few days later, on June 30th, 1917, Greece declared war on the Central Powers.
I want to point out here that Venizelos’ new government was also something of a dictatorship,
backed by the Entente, and the Royalists were now the ones being targeted.
As for Greece fighting in the war, I’ll cover that in the regular episodes.
As for Greece after the war, which was just as complicated as this and far bloodier, we’ll
cover that later on when the war reaches its conclusion, let’s just say that the war
- for Greece - did not end in 1918.
Today was just a brief look at the events in Greece prior to its joining the war and
its immensely complicated political situation.
Thanks to Valantis Athanasio for his help in researching this episode.
And if you want to see a whole episode about Bulgaria, and how it joined the war,
and its relations to Greece and its neighbours, you can click here for that.
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