Реферат: A War Of Independence Essay Research Paper

A War Of Independence Essay, Research Paper

When a suppressed nation decides to take up action in order to achieve its freedom, many issues

are raised, for, such actions do not affect only the conquered and the conquerors but they have an

enormous impact on all neighbor nations. Therefore, the Greek war of independence is a

multidimensional event which did not have to do only with the two peoples directly involved

(Turkish and Greek) but with the rest of the European countries as well. For this reason the

Greek war of Independence has to be examined within the broader context of the relations of the

European states, their economic and imperialistic interests and plans, their recent experience of

wars and how all these factors are interwoven.

After the defeat of Napoleon, European states decided that they had somehow to preserve a

balance in Europe so as to avoid any future offensive advances of any country. For this reason,

the most powerful countries of Europe (Great Britain, Austria, Russia, France and Prussia)

gathered in Paris in 1815, in an effort to secure a lasting peace in the Continent. Actually their

main purpose was to contain the so far offensive policy of France. As a matter of fact we can

verify this from a state speech that Lord Castlereagh, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs,

gave at the Cabinet in 1820: “It was a union for the Reconquest and liberation of great

proportion of the Continent of Europe from the Military D minion of France. [...]. It was never

intended as a union for the Government of the World, or for the Superintendence of the Internal

Affairs of other States” (quoted in J. Joll, 71). However, at the back-stages of all these official

conferences many secret agreements were being concluded among the allies, the one trying to

steal away power from the other.

That is how the European picture, more or less, looked like when the Greek struggle for

independence broke out in 1821 –in the beginning rather unsuccessfully– in the Danubian

Principalities under the leadership of Alexander Ipsilantis. In fact, during that time the Great

Powers were at the Conference of Laibach with an agenda full of insurrections in Spain and

Italy. Consequently, the news concerning Greece were the last thing the Great Powers wanted to

hear. Especially Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, was altogether appalled by the news and

he tried to influence the Tsar against the Greeks. According to Gaston Isambert, in order to

apprehend Metternich’s foreign policy “we have to penetrate deep to +. de Metternich’s

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