Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
by the Turks and Venetians. Eventually, with the exception of the Ionian Islands (where
the Venetians retained control), Greece became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman power reached its zenith under Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, who ruled
between 1520 and 1566. His successor, Selim the Sot, added Cyprus to their dominions
in 1570, but his death in 1574 marked an end to serious territorial expansion. Although
they captured Crete in 1669 after a 25-year campaign, the ineffectual sultans that fol-
lowed in the late 16th and 17th centuries saw the empire go into steady decline.
Venice expelled the Turks from the Peloponnese in a three-year campaign (1685-87)
that saw Venetian troops advance as far as Athens. During this campaign, Venetian artil-
lery struck gunpowder stored inside the ruins of the Acropolis and badly damaged the
Parthenon.
The Ottomans restored rule in 1715, but never regained their former authority. By the
end of the 18th century, pockets of Turkish officials and aristocrats had emerged
throughout Greece as self-governing cliques that made cursory gestures of obligation to
the sultan in Constantinople. Also, some Greeks had gained influence under the sultan's
lax leadership or enjoyed privileged administrative status; they were influential church
clerics, wealthy merchants, landowners or governors, ruling over the provincial Greek
peasants. But there also existed an ever-increasing group of Greeks, including many in-
tellectual expatriates, who aspired to emancipation.
Russia campaigned to liberate its fellow Christians in the south, and sent Russian
agents to foment rebellion, first in the Peloponnese in 1770 and then in Epiros in 1786.
Both insurrections were crushed ruthlessly - the latter by Ali Pasha (1741-1822), the Ot-
toman governor of Ioannina (who would proceed to set up his own power base in defi-
ance of the sultan).
The best-seller
Eleni,
written by Nicholas Gage, tells the gripping personal account of
his family's life in the village of Lia, and the events leading to the execution of Gage's
mother by communist guerillas during the Greek Civil War.
Independence
In 1814 businessmen Athanasios Tsakalof, Emmanuel Xanthos and Nikolaos Skoufas
founded the first Greek independence party, the Filiki Eteria (Friendly Society). The un-
derground organisation's message spread quickly. Supporters believed that armed force
was the only effective means of liberation, and made generous financial contributions to
the Greek fighters.
