Greek Independence Day: Revolution Against Ottoman Rule

March 25 carries double meaning in Greece: it is both Independence Day and the Feast of the Annunciation. The Greek War of Independence began on March 25, 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras reportedly raised the banner of revolution at the Monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese, calling Greeks to arms against nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule. Whether this specific scene occurred exactly as tradition describes it is debated by historians, but the uprising that began in spring 1821 is not. Greece had been under Ottoman control since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. By the early 19th century, Greek merchants, intellectuals, and military leaders had been organizing in secret through the Filiki Eteria, a revolutionary society modeled partly on the Freemasons and founded in Odessa in 1814. The society recruited members across the Greek diaspora and within Ottoman-controlled Greece, building a network capable of coordinating simultaneous uprisings across the Peloponnese, central Greece, and the Aegean islands. The war was brutal and chaotic. Greek revolutionaries won early victories in the Peloponnese, capturing Tripolitsa in October 1821 and massacring much of its Muslim population. The Ottoman response was devastating: the destruction of Chios in 1822 killed or enslaved tens of thousands. Egyptian forces under Ibrahim Pasha intervened on the Ottoman side in 1825, reconquering much of the Peloponnese. The war seemed lost until the combined British, French, and Russian fleets destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. Greek independence was formally recognized by the Treaty of Constantinople in 1832. The new state was far smaller than modern Greece, but the revolution inspired nationalist movements across the Balkans and established that the Ottoman Empire's European possessions could be successfully challenged by popular uprising.