Реферат: A War Of Independence Essay Research Paper

Apart from these diplomatic implications which have an indisputable importance and influence

on the Greek struggle, there is another fact of immense significance, which has been interpreted

in many different ways. It has to do with the loans that the Greeks managed to raise from British

banks; another sign of which of the Great Powers had the greatest influence on the Greeks’

thoughts! Paparrigopoulos states that negotiations in London for the floating of the first, after the

formation of the Greek Government, loan, which was actually granted at the beginning of 1824,

denoted practically the conviction that the British nation had for the success of the Greek

Revolution,” (Paparrigopoulos, 167). Markezinis seems to agree “The subscription of these two

loans, known as the loans of Independence, was a success, an overall recognition, with

important political effects. It constitutes the recognition of the Greek state,” (Markezinis, 29).

However, were the loans actually floated as an indirect acceptance of the recently formed Greek

government? “We should emphasize that during that period (1823) the stock-market of London

was going through an enormous crisis. There was in circulation a great amount of money with

1ow interest. For this reason London stock-market was giving loans to weak countries (Chile,

Argentina, Colombia, Denmark, Brazil, Mexico, etc.) at a high interest.” (Kordatos, 238-239).

More specifically, the Greek government was discredited to such an extent that the first loan

(1824) was floated at 59% and the second one (1825) at 51,5%, and even worse, for the same

reason, they had to mortgage the National Lands. The first loan was agreed to 800,000 pounds

sterling and the second to 2.000,000 pounds sterling but because of the high rate the Greeks got

into their hands for the first one only 300,000 pounds and for the second one only 600,000. Is it

because ‘”by the end of that year there were distinct signs that philhellene feeling was on the

wane”? (Anderson, 57). I cannot answer; maybe there was not any philhellene feeling after all,

or maybe there appeared to be one so that foreigners offer their help and then ask in return

double as much. Makriyannis, a Greek fighter, wrote: “The creditors ask for their money; we do

not give them a penny -they intervene in our affairs.” (Makriyannis, 497). These, however, are

nothing more than mere assumptions, that do not prohibit the probability that there were true

philhellenes. At any rate, if we take into account that “the small part (of the loans) that finally

reached Greece, served rather the civil war than the struggle for independence” (Markezinis,

29) we shall see that even the Greeks themselves tried to get the best, each one for his own, out