Othoman Greece

The Othoman Greece is the term used to indicate the period of Othoman domination . The major part of the Greece then formed part of the Ottoman Empire, as of the 14th century, before even thus the Prise of Constantinople, and until the end of the Guerre of Greek independence to the beginning of the year 1830.

Othoman conquests

Stages of the conquest

The Byzantine Empire which dominated the Greek world during 1.100 years had been weakened after the bag of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. The Bataille of Manzikert was revolving: the Turks seldjoukides settled in minor Asia and the civil war which followed the Byzantine defeat completed to weaken the empire.

The Othomans arrived to Europe for the first time in 1354, with the catch of Gallipoli, following an earthquake which made fall the walls, by Orhan (wire of Osman Ier which gave its name to the Ottoman Empire).
They settled little by little in the Balkans: Thrace, Macedonia, Thessalie and Épire fell successively. In 1362, the Othomans led by Murad Ier took Andrinople which then became the first capital of the Ottoman Empire. It would be Murad which would then have set up the paidomazoma .

In 1430, it seized Ioannina then of Thessalonique. Constantinople was taken in 1453. Athens fell in 1458. The Greeks, resisted in the Peloponnese until in 1460, while the Vénitiens and the Génois still preserved some islands. But in 1500 the major part of the plains and the Greek islands were under domination ottomane.
Cyprus fell in 1571 and the Venetian ones preserved the Crete until in 1670. Only the Ionian islands, under Venetian control, were never attached to the Ottoman Empire.

Immediate consequences of the conquest

The arrival of the Othomans in Greece involved important and double migratory movement: within the limits of the Greek territory and towards the foreigner. The Greek populations fled in front of the invaders. They left the most exposed places: plains mainly but also all localities along the transportation routes. They went to settle in places withdrawn far from the Othomans (and especially of the tax collectors). The mountains, which usually poured their population of surplus towards the plains, had to accommodate, but also to nourish, more and more refugees. It was the same for the islands. New villages were built, in places which had never known human occupation before. The living conditions there were difficult and partly explain the weak economic development of Othoman Greece. The Greeks however made this choice conscious of poverty to preserve their traditions and their lifestyles:

A traditional song points out this choice:
“ In the cities and the plains lives the slaves who live with the Turks.
the courageous men prefer being placed in the throats and the deserts.
Vivre rather close to the deer that close to the Turks. ”

The other movement was that which one could describe as brain drain towards the Occident. It was done in two waves, before and after the respite caused by the defeat of Bajazet vis-a-vis Tamerlan. It was thus not that the fall of Constantinople which created it. Manuel Chrysoloras was one of the first to leave Greece. A little later, there was Jean Bessarion. After 1453, left Jean Argyropoulos or Constantin Lascaris. Except the role that one generally allots to them in the Renaissance, they initiated also the first feelings philhellenes. On the other hand, their knowledge and their intelligence were lost for Greece which entered during one time when the mental activity was reduced.

Resistance

Resistance vis-a-vis the Othomans was organized by the Église (partly), the intellectuals and the last archontes Byzantine. The idea of a Christian alliance in order to resist the Othoman invader was born. Greek intellectuals established in Occident, whose cardinal Jean Bessarion, militated in favor of a Croisade against the Turks. For a long time the Greek hopes were turned towards the catholic great powers of the Occident. Venice, was besides fights about it against the Othomans, trying to preserve its territories in Greece. Crusades were also organized by Papacy, the Spain and Naples.
During first centuries of occupation, the Greeks raised themselves several times, but without result; insurrections often caused by powers étrangères.
In 1571, a coalition between the Venetian ones, Papacy and Spain gained the Bataille of Lépante against the Turks, which seems to have caused a new rising in Greece. But this battle to which 5.000 Greeks took share did not affect any the Othoman occupation in Greece.

Othoman occupation

Administration and feudality

Administrative divisions

Balkan Greece and the other countries formed an administrative unit, the Eyalet of Roumélie (Roumélie was also called the “Turkey of Europe”) with at its head the beyler Bey of Roumélie whose seat was with Sofia. The berleybey of Anatolia directed as for him the Asian part of the Empire. The Othomans divided Greece into six sandjaks , each one directed by a sandjakbey , obeying the Sultan whose capital was Constantinople since 1453. Five others sandjaks (of which three in Crete) were added as the Greek islands were conquises.
The sandjaks were divided into pachaliks controlled by pashas to whom them sandjakbeys delegated their power. The pachaliks in their turn were divided into administrative units entrusted to a voïvode

The beylerbeys , the sandjakbeys and the pashas bought, often very expensive, them “Office” near the Door in Constantinople. Once in their province, they sought to be refunded of their investment, by direct taking away on the taxes and the taxes. A complaint of the local populations could succeed. It gave to the Couch a pretext to give the office on sale. On the other hand, they were only concessions with which the recipients were to ensure the financing of their equipment for the war (horses, weapons…). The ground could not be sold or bequeathed, but passed by again under control of the Sultan with died of the propriétaire.
As from the 16th century, the feudal lords of military origin were supplanted by the Moslem senior officials and the financial able ones to lease the impôts.
The principal tax was the Capitation (haradj), which was required not-Moslems and proportional to the capacities of payment of each taxpayer. This tax makes it possible to support the assumption according to which the Othomans did not seek to convert of force the Greeks: indeed, conversion would have deprived the Othomans of this importante.
source of revenue A second tax was the Dîme, based on the production of each property. The farmers paid also royalties with their lords and were subjected to various taxes indirects.
The townsmen also were subjected to the taxes. The majority of the economic activities gave place to taking away, out of money or in kind. The merchants were taxed on the imports and exports, and this doubling for the not-Moslems, since the trade was regarded as an occupation less worthy than the profession of the weapons. What explains the development of the trade among Greeks, Juifs and Armenians in spite of the taxes and the importance which this trade in the end of the Ottoman Empire had. The tchiftbozam or " tax with déguerpissement" , was payable by the individuals having left the agricultural work to settle at the city. In addition to these taxes, the not-Moslems were to comply with certain rules: not to ride a horse, not to carry of weapons, not to build churches. Moreover, testimonys of the not-Moslems were not valid in justice and they were to also get dressed in a way distinct from that of the Moslems in Greek, devshirme in Turkish) who appears in the middle of the 14th century. Each Christian family was to offer a son on five to be enlisted like Moslem in the body of the Janissaires, unit of elite of the Othoman army. Every approximately four years, these children between 8 and 20 years were collected in the villages and were impregnated of Turkish culture in special schools in order to become Janissaires. Although the families often dussent to resign themselves in the pain to let leave their children, curiously, this tax met relatively little opposition: probably because it represented a formidable social elevator and offered to the young Greeks the occasion to become governor or even Grand Vizier. This is why the power of the body of the Janissaries pushed the children Turkish to be replaced the Christian children.

The opposition of the population vis-a-vis the taxes or the paidomazona had serious consequences for those which were opposed. For example, in 1705, an Othoman officer charged to enlist new Janissaires in Macedonia was killed by the Greeks who tried to fight against the burden of the Devshirme. The rebels were decapitated and their heads placed on the walls of Thessalonique. The Devshirme was fears Greek families which let leave their sons, and which later, could become their oppressors.

The taking away of the administration coupled to those of the feudal system had as consequences an escape in front of the tax. The Greeks preferred to leave their village or their area to take refuge in the mountains or abroad. The patriarch controlled as well the courts, the schools that the churches. The monks became thus the true chiefs of the villages. Certain Greek cities, whose Athens and Rhodos kept a system of municipal government, whereas the others passed under the authority of governors Turkish. Certain areas, such as the Magne, the Épire and certain parts of Crete remained virtually independent. For their part, the patriarchs preferred to remain under the tolerant authority of the Othomans rather than to be under the authority of the Vénitiens, Roman catholics, more threatening towards the orthodoxe faith of the Greeks.

The goal of the Othomans, by supporting the orthodoxe religion, could have been political; indeed, the Turks could have made in kind dig the gap between the Churches in order to avoid a common resistance of all the Chrétienté. Thus, when the Othomans fought the Venetian ones, the Greeks lined up mainly on their side. Lastly, the Orthodoxe Church helped with the safeguarding of the Greek heritage.

In a general way, the Othomans did not force the Greeks to become Musulmans. However much converted, often to escape the economic pressure imposed by the Turks (a specific tax was raised on the not-Moslems). Many Greeks became crypto-Christians , i.e. Greeks prétenduement Moslem who continued to practice their orthodoxe faith in secrecy. The crypto-Christians ran the risk to be killed if they were surprised to practice another religion once converted with the Islam (to be relaps was a crime). The Greeks converted with Islam and who were not crypto-Christians became Turks with the eyes of the orthodoxe Greeks.

Demography

The incorporation of Greece in the Ottoman Empire had other longer-term consequences. The economic activity crumbled (mainly because of shopping malls which moved towards Smyrna and Istanbul) and the population diminua.
The consolidation of the Othoman domination was followed from two quite distinct periods of Greek emigration. The first touched the Greek intellectuals, such as Jean Bessarion, George Gemistos Plethon and Marcus Musurus, migrating towards Western Europe and taking part in the rise of the Rebirth.
The second wave touched the Greeks deserting the valleys from the peninsula, and reinstalling itself in the mountains, where the relief made difficult any presence of the Othomans, which is soldier or administrative. Moreover, the Othoman censuses did not include many the Greeks who lived in the mountainous areas. The wars and the emigration decreased the Greek population with 1.500.000 inhabitants in 1700, for all the Ottoman Empire. The Othoman domination did not aim a homogenization of the populations, thus in Morée the Turks cohabited with orthodoxe Greeks, catholics, Tziganes. This cohabitation is diversified even in the north of the country where resided of the Bulgares, of the Valaques, of the Albanian…. After their expulsion of Spain in 1492, many Jewish séfarades settled with Thessalonique.

Each Greek area cut its neighbors, the communications were made difficult by the fact that only the Turks were authorized to travel to horse. The Greek language was transformed into regional dialects and absorbed many words Turkish. The Greek music and other elements of the Greek culture were influenced by the culture ottomane.
However, it seems that the system of the millet (see higher), with the regrouping of the populations by religion allowed the Greeks to preserve the Greek language and the orthodoxe Christian religion. One can think that, without this particular system, the Greek language would have disappeared as well as the Latin .

Intellectual and artistic life

The Greek language of this time is divided into two currents. On a side, one finds a language imitated more or month well of the Greek old; and other, a popular language, enriched by elements nouveaux.
The Greek intellectual life is marked by this opposition since the time of Alexandre Large the. The traditional side resting on the imitation of traditional antiquity is opposed to the popular tradition, and thus moves away from the Greek people. Although there were efforts of conciliations of the two currents in order to constitute a Greek civilization, those are somewhat suspended after the fall of Constantinople. They began again under the impulse of the Eglise of which the major goal is the defense of the Orthodoxie, then confused with the idea of nation. The first century of the Turkish domination is then dominated by the publications of works over the defense of the Christian faith. The Church considers dangerous the return to a study of traditional antiquity as well as the Humanisme.
Humanism is however cultivated by the Greek scientists who take refuge in Occident, and take part in the rise of the renaissance.

From the middle of the 16th century, a new period for the development of the culture starts, under the impulse of the patriarch Jérémie II who encouraged the creation of schools. Moreover, Greek schools are born in Italy (the Greek College of Rome in 1517 for example), and the students thus trained turn over then to Greece, bringing pieces of Western civilization. Many Greek books are also printed in Italy by the Greeks. Centers of culture multiply then in Greece and of the universities and secondaries end up opening a little everywhere.

Popular creation finds during this time of new subjects as the fate of the Greeks abroad, the constraint, resistance… The Erotókritos of Crétois Vitsentzos Kornaros is surely the most known work of this time.

Decline of the Ottoman Empire

After the failure of the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Ottoman Empire entered during one long period of decline, at the same time military and intern, driving with a rise of corruption, and repression. This caused more dissatisfactions and risings.

After the catch of the Peloponnese in 1715 by the Turks, the political unit of Greece is completed. The 18th century is then a century more stable than the precedents. Indeed, the turco-Venetian conflicts and turco-Russian are of short duration and offer a relative peace in Greece, which supports the increase in the economic life and trade, whose Greeks have quasi a monopoly. Only the Jews with Salonique and the Armenians in Anatolia made them competition. Smyrna and Salonique become the economic capital of the Empire, followed by other shopping malls such as Ioannina, Héraklion, Patras.

On another side, the position of certain educated and privileged Greeks improved. The more the Empire increased, the more the need for a having recourse to Greeks of technical, administrative, financial faculties was felt. Fields in which the Othomans had gaps. The Phanariotes, a Greek rich person class living in the district of the Phanar of Constantinople, then started to become powerful. They occupied inter alia the load of Drogman of the Door (the Sublime Door being one of names of the Ottoman Empire), a function of which they manage to raise the importance with that of Foreign Minister thanks to their knowledge of Western Europe. Their voyages in Western Europe as merchants or diplomats made them côtoyer the ideas of the Libéralisme and the Nationalisme. As it is within the Phanariotes that the Greek nationalist movement was born.

The Greek national feeling was also stimulated by Catherine II of Russia, which hoped to acquire grounds with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, of which Constantinople, and encouraged the Greeks to revolt. However, during the first Russo-Turkish war which burst in 1768, the Greeks really did not raise themselves and the Russians had to give up Constantinople. But the Traité of Kutchuk-kaïnardji (1774) gave to the Russians the right to defend the orthodoxe subjects near the sultan, which led Russia to interfere more and more regularly in the internal businesses of the Empire. This, combined with the novel ideas of the French revolution of 1789, began with reconnecter the Greeks with the outside world and led to the development of a national movement active. Greece was not really implied in the Napoleonean Guerres, only an episode had importance. When the French Armies seized Venice in 1797, they also acquired the Ionian islands which became an independent State: the Republic of the Seven-Islands. Among those which directed these islands, there was Ioannis Kapodistrias, which was thereafter the first Head of State of independent Greece.

After the Napoleonean wars, Greece replongea not in its insulation. Indeed, of the French and British writers started to visit the country and to collect Greek antiquities. These philhellenes played a big role in the mobilization in favor of the independence of Greece.

This period sees being born a competition between the France, the Russia and Ali Pasha for the control of the south of the Balkans. The question was to know to which power Greece would belong, and it was not to in no case question of an independent nation.

But the Greek national feeling became extensive, for proof creation of the Filiki Etairia ( Société of the Friends ), a formed secret society with Odessa in 1814 and which envisaged a Greek insurrection financed by the rich person Greek community in exile and with the assistance of Russia.