Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
drove the Knights of St John from Rhodes, and within two more decades they had
captured all the Venetian mainland colonies in Greece, leaving them only Crete.
Although the Greeks refer to the Turkish occupation as
sklavía
- “slavery” - in
practice, in exchange for submitting to Muslim rule and paying tribute, the Greeks
were free to pursue their religion and were left very much in charge of their own
religious and civil affairs. The essence of the Turkish administration was
taxation
. Tax
collection was often farmed out to the leaders of the Greek communities, and some
local magistrates profited sufficiently to exercise a dominant role not only within their
own region but also in the Ottoman Empire at large.
The other important institution within Greece was the
Orthodox Church
. he Church
was wealthy and powerful; Greeks preferred to give their lands to the monasteries than
have them occupied by the Turks, while the Muslims found it easier to work with the
Church than to invent a new administration. Though often corrupt and venal, the
Church did at least preserve the traditional faith and keep alive the written form of the
Greek language, and it became the focus of Greek nationalism.
Western resistance
In 1570 Ottoman troops landed on
Cyprus
. Nicosia was swiftly captured, and 30,000
of its inhabitants slaughtered. Turkish brutality in Cyprus horrified Europe, and the
Holy League
was formed under the aegis of the pope. Spain and Genoa joined Venice
in assembling a fleet led by Don John of Austria, the bastard son of the Spanish king,
its lofty aim not only to retake the island but to recapture all Christian lands taken by
the Ottomans. In the event, it was utterly ineffectual, yet out of it something new arose
- the first stirrings of
Philhellenism
, a desire to liberate the Greeks whose ancient
culture stood at the heart of Renaissance thought and education.
There was, too, the encouragement of a naval victory, when in 1571 Don John's fleet
surprised and overwhelmingly defeated the much larger Ottoman fleet, at its winter
quarters at
Lepanto
on the Gulf of Corinth in western Greece. Two hundred and
sixty-six Ottoman vessels were sunk or captured, fifty thousand sailors died, and fifteen
thousand Christian galley slaves were freed. Throughout Europe the news of Lepanto
was received with extraordinary rejoicing; this was the first battle in which Europe had
triumphed against the Ottomans, and its symbolic importance was profound.
Militarily and politically, however, the Ottomans remained dominant. They finally
took
Crete
in 1669, marking the end of the last bastion of Byzantine culture.
Greek nationalist stirrings
During the eighteenth century the islanders of
Ýdhra
(Hydra),
Spétses
and
Psará
built up a merchant fleet that traded throughout the Mediterranean, where thriving
colonies of Greeks were established in many ports. Greek merchant families were also
well established, often in important administrative positions, throughout the
Ottoman Empire.
These wealthier and more educated Greeks enjoyed greater than ever opportunities
for advancement within the Ottoman system, while the Greek peasantry, unlike the
empire's Muslim inhabitants, did not have to bear the burden of military service.
Nevertheless the Greeks had their grievances against the Ottoman government, which
mostly concerned the arbitrary, unjust and oppressive system of taxation. But among
1453
1522
1571
1669
Constantinople falls
to the Ottoman Turks,
followed by much of
Greece.
Knights of St John driven
from Rhodes.
Battle of Lepanto - the
first significant military
defeat for the Ottoman
Empire.
Iráklion falls to the
Ottomans - the end of a
brutal 25-year conquest
of Crete.
