Goudi coup
Encyclopedia
The Goudi coup was a military coup d'état
that took place in Greece
on the night of , starting at the barracks in Goudi
, a neighbourhood on the eastern outskirts of Athens
. The coup was a pivotal event in modern Greek history, as it led to the arrival of Eleftherios Venizelos
in Greece and his eventual appointment as Prime Minister
. At one stroke, this put an end to the old political system, and ushered a new period. Henceforth and for several decades, Greek political life would be dominated by two opposing forces: liberal, republican Venizelism
and conservative, monarchist anti-Venizelism.
The coup itself was the result of simmering tensions in Greek society, which reeled under the effects of the disastrous Greco-Turkish War of 1897
, financial troubles, a lack of necessary reforms and disillusionment with the established political system. Emulating the Young Turks
, several junior Army officers founded a secret society, the Military League. With Colonel Nikolaos Zorbas
as their figurehead, on the night of 15 August, the Military League, having gathered together its troops in the Goudi barracks, issued a pronunciamiento
to the government demanding an immediate turnaround for the country and its armed forces.
King George I
gave in and replaced Prime Minister Dimitrios Rallis
with Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis
, without however satisfying the insurgents, who resorted to a large public demonstration the following month. When a stalemate was reached, the coup leaders appealed to a new and providential figure, the Cretan Eleftherios Venizelos
, who respected democratic norms in calling for new elections. After his allies’ twin victories in the Hellenic Parliament
in August and November 1910, Venizelos became Prime Minister and proceeded with the reforms demanded by the coup’s instigators.
in 1878 and especially the Constantinople Conference of 1881 had been successes for Greek diplomacy. There, the country had won Thessaly
and part of Epirus
. In order to continue achieving the Megali Idea
, Greece then turned to Macedonia
and Crete
, but met with severe setbacks.
of Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire
, Cretan Christians, then under Ottoman domination, demanded self-government on their island, under the protection of the great powers. Massacres of Christians by Muslims led Greece to intervene, first by accepting the departure of volunteers from its shores, then by more and more directly sending part of its fleet, followed by troops at the beginning of 1897 just when Cretans themselves declared enosis (union with Greece). The intervention of the European powers (France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany) forced Greece to back down. The opposition criticised the feebleness and indecisiveness of the government, which declared war on the Ottomans at the beginning of April. Fighting lasted a month, which gave its name to the conflict (the Thirty Days’ War
); the Greek defeat was thorough. Although Greece lost only small amounts territory on its northern border, it was forced to pay huge war reparations of 4 million Ottoman pounds to the victor. Coming on the heels of the public insolvency
declared in 1893, it meant that Greece had to accept an International Financial Control commission (Διεθνής Οικονομικός Έλεγχος), which in effect diverted the Greek state's main income sources (state monopolies and port customs tariffs) to the repayment of Greece's public loans. Crete however became an autonomous state
under international supervision, while remaining under the Sultan’s suzerainty.
Macedonia was a region disputed between Greece, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria
(created at the Congress of Berlin). On , the feast day of the Prophet Elijah (Bulg. Ilinden), the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, sponsored by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, began. The uprising failed, and Turkish reprisals were severe, with 2,000 killed and villages and homes razed. Following these events, many Greeks became concerned with the level of Bulgarian activity in Macedonia. The Ethniki Etairia
(National Society) was set up, which sent armed bands of Greeks (makedonomakhoi), tacitly aided by the government in Athens, which provided financial support through its consular agents such as Ion Dragoumis
and training from military advisers such as Pavlos Melas
. This began what is known in Greece as the "Macedonian Struggle
", where Greeks clashed with Bulgarian komitadjis, while both sides clashed with the Ottoman army and gendarmerie. Reprisals took many forms, including pillage, arson and assassination. Deeply concerned, the Western powers decided to intervene. The eventual plan was for an administrative reorganisation of the region that would allow for an ethnic-based partition. Thus, each of the ethnic groups concerned sought to strengthen its position so as to gain a maximum of territory when the potential partition came. The successes and sacrifices of young officers such as Melas restored the image of part of the army. In turn, the meddling of the European powers in internal Ottoman affairs contributed to the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution
of July 1908, which put an end to the Greek-Bulgarian clashes in Macedonia.
had led the Theriso revolt
against High Commissioner George of Greece
, who had been appointed by the European powers, and demanded enosis. In 1906, the Prince resigned, and a new Commissioner, the former Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Zaimis
, was installed. The Young Turk Revolution pushed the Cretans to unilaterally proclaim definitive enosis, taking advantage of the absence of the new High Commissioner.
Anti-Greek demonstrations took place in Turkey, where the press launched a similar campaign. The European powers displayed hostility toward Greece, while Georgios Theotokis
’ government was subject to increasing criticism. His replacement with Rallis had little effect. The new prime minister hastened to show signs of goodwill toward the Turkish ambassador and the Western powers. Wishing to avoid a new Greco-Turkish war, he criticised the “Cretan revolutionaries” and declared his willingness to abide by the Great Powers’ decisions. Indignation toward the government’s weaknesses and timorous attitude mounted, among the populace as well as in the army, above all among the young officers who had fought in Macedonia. The idea of imitating the Young Turk officers began to spread.
Greece had been in economic crisis for decades. Public debt (owed above all to the Great Powers) dating back to the War of Independence
reached new heights in the 1890s. At that point the government of Charilaos Trikoupis
recognised that the country was bankrupt by deciding to lower the public debt to 30% of its value, which angered the creditors, particularly the European powers. At the same time, export of the Zante currant
entered a crisis. A new phenomenon then began: emigration of the working population. The number of emigrants (especially to the United States) went from 1,108 in 1890 to 39,135 in 1910 (of 2.8 million inhabitants); significantly, remittances from America and Egypt fell amid economic slowdown in 1908. Economic growth was too slow for the workers and farmers who left to seek work elsewhere. Until that time, only highlanders and landless island dwellers had left. However, this economic growth did lead to the creation, as elsewhere in Europe in the same period, of a middle class born out of industrial development, of growth in the number of bureaucrats (linked to political clientelism) and to an urban explosion. In the mid-1900s, this middle class could not understand why the country was prosperous while the state’s finances were in such poor shape. Politicians, also dissatisfied with government policy, reacted as well. In 1906, a group of youngish radicals nicknamed the "Japanese Group" (Ομάς Ιαπώνων), in reference to the dynamism of the Meiji period
, formed around the titular leadership of Stephanos Dragoumis
, with Dimitrios Gounaris
its moving spirit. It criticised the old oligarchy that was ruining the country and demanded radical reforms. The group of “sociologists” (Κοινωνιολόγοι), especially influenced by Marxism
, also called for modernisation of the state apparatus and the economy.
s (with members including future generals Nikolaos Plastiras
and Georgios Kondylis
) and one of junior officers around Theodoros Pangalos
. They were motivated by a variety of reasons: a desire for reforms that was prevalent in wide parts of society was combined with frustration at the slow rate of promotions and the absence of meritocracy, especially among graduates of the Military Academy
. Other officers from the Army, the Navy and the gendarmerie joined up later, and by June 1909, had spread out over the Greek military.
At that time the Military League’s demands were limited to an increased military budget, its reorganisation and modernisation, as well as the dismissal of the Princes from the Army. Although the Theotokis government had increased supplies of arms and munitions, he had also reinstated Crown Prince Constantine
, who had led the Army in the 1897 war, as Chief Inspector of the Army. Also, despite demands, he had authorised only a few officers to pursue further studies in France and Germany.
The arrest of League officers precipitated events: either the League would act now, or it would be dissolved by a government. The League searched for support among the senior officers, and Colonel Nikolaos Zorbas
was chosen as its figurehead. On 14 August, Pangalos liberated two of the arrested officers, thereby provoking Rallis into ordering a clampdown and the arrest of all league members.
On the same night, the League set in motion its bloodless coup. The League members were gathered in the Goudi
barracks several hundred junior officers, non-commissioned officers, simple soldiers, gendarmes and civilians threatened to march on Athens if their demands were not met. The armed forces, in particular the young officers, sent Rallis’ government a pronunciamento containing their demands (the previous day, Rallis had declined to receive a deputation seeking to hand over the manifesto). Part of it was purely internal in nature: for instance, the soldiers challenged the promotion system, with its limited prospects for advancement. Another part was political and demanded profound reforms in the country: in its political functioning, as well as social, economic and military. The troops called for naval and land rearmament, and asked that the Navy and War ministers belong to the military. The insurgents did not call for the King’s abdication or the abolition of the monarchy, remaining loyal subjects. Neither did they announce a military dictatorship or even wish to change the government. They respected the institutions of parliamentary government. However, the officers did demand that the royal princes, chiefly the Diadochos Constantine, on whom they blamed the defeat of 1897, be relieved of their posts and expelled from the army. Finally, the League called for a lowering of tax burdens.
The prime minister opened pro forma negotiations with the revolutionaries who, in order to speed them up, resorted to the people of Athens.
, demanded the imposition of a revenue tax, protectionism
, the granting of tenure to bureaucrats (so they would no longer depend on politicians for their jobs), better working conditions and the condemnation of usury. King George I, unwilling to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Otto
, who had been forced from the throne under similar circumstances in 1862, pushed Prime Minister Rallis to resign and replaced him with Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis
.
) were removed while budget cuts were made in order to finance army modernisation. But his government clearly showed that the old system endured: only Finance Minister Athanasios Eftaxias
had reformist ideas. With the revolution running out of steam, the League began to crumble. It was not a real political movement: its ideology and programme lacked coherence; its leaders were popular but unskilled. They were above all soldiers ill at ease outside their barracks. The League had known how to link its corporatist demands to public discontent by using populist and nationalist slogans, but it unsettled the bourgeoisie. Although it saw the necessity of modernising the country, the middle classes feared the drift towards a military dictatorship, considered deleterious to the normal progress of affairs.
. There, they had also been able to see the political talents of the man who had been Prime Minister of Crete since 9 May 1909: Eleftherios Venizelos
. When Prince George of Greece was High Commissioner of Crete, he had found himself in opposition to Venizelos. This gave the latter an anti-dynastic aura that attracted the Goudi insurgents; he was also seen as free from association with the mainland oligarchy’s chaos, corruption and incompetence. Starting in October 1909 they had sent him an emissary to sound out his intentions, also suggesting to him that he take the office of Prime Minister of Greece. However, Venizelos did not wish to appear as the soldiers’ man, either in Greece or abroad. Neither did he wish to clash head-on with King George I and the “old” political parties. He thus advised them to proceed with legislative elections and entrust implementation of the reform programme to the new assembly. He went to Athens on and was greeted in Piraeus harbour by eager officers. In January, a Crown Council gathered together the main leaders of the political movements, under the aegis of the King and of Venizelos. The latter played the role of mediator between the forces present: the King, the government, the parliament, the troops and the people. The solutions proposed by the Cretan prime minister were adopted: the convocation of an assembly tasked with constitutional revision; and the resignation of the Mavromichalis government, to be replaced with a transitional government that would organise legislative elections. Leadership of the transitional government was given to Stephanos Dragoumis
, considered an “independent”. Nikolaos Zorbas was made Minister of Land Forces. In exchange, Venizelos managed to convince the Military League to dissolve itself so as not to hinder the political process. In March 1910, an initially reluctant sovereign called new elections; three days later, the League announced its dissolution. Venizelos went back to Crete.
Using his Cretan citizenship as a pretext (the island had declared union with Greece but Greece had yet to recognise this), Venizelos did not take part in the elections, held in August 1910. His allies nominated him for a seat in Atticoboeotia but he stayed away from the electoral campaign. He was on a diplomatic tour of Western Europe when he learned that he had been elected and that deputies allied to him had obtained a relative majority with 146 of 362 seats. He thus returned to Athens amid rapturous public acclaim; the Dragoumis government resigned and Venizelos became prime minister in October 1910. He surrounded himself with collaborators bent on reform policies and began to apply the programme of the Goudi revolutionaries, strongly backed by public opinion. The Austrian ambassador observed on 28 October 1910: “Venizelos is a sort of popular tribune and almost the dictator of Greece. The enthusiasm of the people, who acclaim him everywhere, is striking”. He decided to call immediate new elections in order to strengthen his majority: the assembly elected in August continued to be dominated by the old politicians. These took place on . Venizelos was careful to present himself as an adversary of the “old” parties (which boycotted the elections), but also as free from influence by the Military League that had sought him out after the Goudi coup. Thus he did not hesitate to take as an aide-de-camp Ioannis Metaxas
, a bête noire of the League whom it had removed. Venizelos’ Liberal Party
won the elections with an overwhelming majority of 300 out of 362 deputies.
and World War I. The King supported them, seeing in his prime minister the best hope of stemming the anti-dynasticism that had surfaced in 1897 and gained renewed momentum in the 1908-1909 crisis.
To the people who wanted the assembly elected in 1910 to be a constituent assembly, Venizelos replied that he considered it more of a "revisionary assembly". The fifty constitutional amendments of 1911, prepared by a commission directed by Stephanos Dragoumis, led to the frequently-expressed opinion that after this date, Greece had an entirely new fundamental law, the Greek Constitution of 1911
. This revision reformed the status of property by allowing for expropriation
in the national interest, opening up the possibility of land reform
; 300000 sq_arp were distributed to 4,000 farm families in Thessaly
. Agricultural education was encouraged, as well as farming cooperatives, a Ministry of Agriculture was created and an agronomist named in each region. Bureaucrats were given greater security of tenure and hiring for civil service posts began to be done by public examination. Judges were protected by a Superior Magistracy Council. Social legislation ameliorated the condition of the working class: child labour was abolished, as was nighttime labour by women, and a minimum wage introduced for both; Sunday was made an obligatory day of rest; primary education was made free and compulsory; and a social insurance system was created. The right of labour unions to function was recognised. Stabilisation of the drachma
once again allowed for foreign borrowing. The state budget showed a surplus in 1911 and 1912 after many years of deficit, and tax evasion
was curbed. The tax on sugar was cut by 50% and a progressive income tax introduced. Taken together, the reforms helped neutralise the development of strong socialist and agrarian movements seen elsewhere in the Balkans in that period. The army and navy were reorganised with help from France, which sent a military mission led by General Eydoux (Germany had reformed the Turkish Army). The navy was reorganised by a British mission that Admiral Tufnell headed. However, Venizelos, anxious to show that he was no military puppet, excluded soldiers from political life, released officers arrested for attempting to thwart the Goudi coup, and restored to Crown Prince Constantine (given the new post of inspector-general of the army), along with his brothers, their army posts. This angered the members of the defunct Military League, who for a time thought of recreating it; indeed of carrying out another coup.
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
that took place in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
on the night of , starting at the barracks in Goudi
Goudi
Goudi is a residential neighbourhood of Athens, Greece, on the eastern part of town and on the foothills of Mount Hymettus. Its name descends from the 19th century Goudi family, who owned a large estate in the area...
, a neighbourhood on the eastern outskirts of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. The coup was a pivotal event in modern Greek history, as it led to the arrival of Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
in Greece and his eventual appointment as Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Greece
The Prime Minister of Greece , officially the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic , is the head of government of the Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Greek cabinet. The current interim Prime Minister is Lucas Papademos, a former Vice President of the European Central Bank, following...
. At one stroke, this put an end to the old political system, and ushered a new period. Henceforth and for several decades, Greek political life would be dominated by two opposing forces: liberal, republican Venizelism
Venizelism
Venizelism was one of the major political movements in Greece from the 1900s until the mid 1970s.- Ideology :Named after Eleftherios Venizelos, the key characteristics of Venizelism were:*Opposition to Monarchy...
and conservative, monarchist anti-Venizelism.
The coup itself was the result of simmering tensions in Greek society, which reeled under the effects of the disastrous Greco-Turkish War of 1897
Greco-Turkish War (1897)
The Greco-Turkish War of 1897, also called the Thirty Days' War and known as the Black '97 in Greece, was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and Ottoman Empire. Its immediate cause was the question over the status of the Ottoman province of Crete, whose Greek majority long desired union...
, financial troubles, a lack of necessary reforms and disillusionment with the established political system. Emulating the Young Turks
Young Turks
The Young Turks , from French: Les Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the short-lived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution...
, several junior Army officers founded a secret society, the Military League. With Colonel Nikolaos Zorbas
Nikolaos Zorbas
Nikolaos Zorbas , was a Greek soldier, most notable as the nominal leader of the Military League which organized the Goudi coup in 1909.- Life :...
as their figurehead, on the night of 15 August, the Military League, having gathered together its troops in the Goudi barracks, issued a pronunciamiento
Pronunciamiento
A pronunciamiento is a form of military rebellion or coup d'état peculiar to Spain and the Spanish American republics, particularly in the 19th century...
to the government demanding an immediate turnaround for the country and its armed forces.
King George I
George I of Greece
George I was King of Greece from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former king Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers...
gave in and replaced Prime Minister Dimitrios Rallis
Dimitrios Rallis
Dimitrios Rallis was a Greek politician. Rallis was elected to Parliament in 1872 and always represented the same Athenian constituency. He became Minister in several governments and served as Prime Minister five times...
with Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis
Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis
Kyriakoulis Petrou Mavromichalis was a Greek politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who briefly served as Prime Minister of Greece....
, without however satisfying the insurgents, who resorted to a large public demonstration the following month. When a stalemate was reached, the coup leaders appealed to a new and providential figure, the Cretan Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
, who respected democratic norms in calling for new elections. After his allies’ twin victories in the Hellenic Parliament
Hellenic Parliament
The Hellenic Parliament , also the Parliament of the Hellenes, is the Parliament of Greece, located in the Parliament House , overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece....
in August and November 1910, Venizelos became Prime Minister and proceeded with the reforms demanded by the coup’s instigators.
Greece at the beginning of the 20th century
The Congress of BerlinCongress of Berlin
The Congress of Berlin was a meeting of the European Great Powers' and the Ottoman Empire's leading statesmen in Berlin in 1878. In the wake of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, the meeting's aim was to reorganize the countries of the Balkans...
in 1878 and especially the Constantinople Conference of 1881 had been successes for Greek diplomacy. There, the country had won Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
and part of Epirus
Epirus (periphery)
Epirus , formally the Epirus Region , is a geographical and administrative region in northwestern Greece. It borders the regions of West Macedonia and Thessaly to the east, West Greece to the south, the Ionian Sea and the Ionian Islands to the west and the country of Albania to the north. The...
. In order to continue achieving the Megali Idea
Megali Idea
The Megali Idea was an irredentist concept of Greek nationalism that expressed the goal of establishing a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas, since large Greek populations after the restoration of Greek independence in 1830 still lived under Ottoman rule.The term...
, Greece then turned to Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
and Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, but met with severe setbacks.
Military humiliations
From 1895, following the Hamidian massacresHamidian massacres
The Hamidian massacres , also referred to as the Armenian Massacres of 1894–1896, refers to the massacring of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, with estimates of the dead ranging from anywhere between 80,000 to 300,000, and at least 50,000 orphans as a result...
of Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, Cretan Christians, then under Ottoman domination, demanded self-government on their island, under the protection of the great powers. Massacres of Christians by Muslims led Greece to intervene, first by accepting the departure of volunteers from its shores, then by more and more directly sending part of its fleet, followed by troops at the beginning of 1897 just when Cretans themselves declared enosis (union with Greece). The intervention of the European powers (France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany) forced Greece to back down. The opposition criticised the feebleness and indecisiveness of the government, which declared war on the Ottomans at the beginning of April. Fighting lasted a month, which gave its name to the conflict (the Thirty Days’ War
Greco-Turkish War (1897)
The Greco-Turkish War of 1897, also called the Thirty Days' War and known as the Black '97 in Greece, was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and Ottoman Empire. Its immediate cause was the question over the status of the Ottoman province of Crete, whose Greek majority long desired union...
); the Greek defeat was thorough. Although Greece lost only small amounts territory on its northern border, it was forced to pay huge war reparations of 4 million Ottoman pounds to the victor. Coming on the heels of the public insolvency
Insolvency
Insolvency means the inability to pay one's debts as they fall due. Usually used to refer to a business, insolvency refers to the inability of a company to pay off its debts.Business insolvency is defined in two different ways:...
declared in 1893, it meant that Greece had to accept an International Financial Control commission (Διεθνής Οικονομικός Έλεγχος), which in effect diverted the Greek state's main income sources (state monopolies and port customs tariffs) to the repayment of Greece's public loans. Crete however became an autonomous state
Cretan State
The Cretan State was established in 1898, following the intervention by the Great Powers on the island of Crete. In 1897 an insurrection in Crete led the Ottoman Empire to declare war on Greece, which led the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Russia to intervene on the grounds that the Ottoman...
under international supervision, while remaining under the Sultan’s suzerainty.
Macedonia
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
(created at the Congress of Berlin). On , the feast day of the Prophet Elijah (Bulg. Ilinden), the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, sponsored by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, began. The uprising failed, and Turkish reprisals were severe, with 2,000 killed and villages and homes razed. Following these events, many Greeks became concerned with the level of Bulgarian activity in Macedonia. The Ethniki Etairia
Ethniki Etairia
The Ethniki Etaireia was a secret Greek nationalistic organization created in November 1894, by a number of young nationalist officers, advocates of the Megali Idea...
(National Society) was set up, which sent armed bands of Greeks (makedonomakhoi), tacitly aided by the government in Athens, which provided financial support through its consular agents such as Ion Dragoumis
Ion Dragoumis
Ion Dragoumis was a Greek diplomat, writer and revolutionary.Born in Athens, Dragoumis was the son of Stephanos Dragoumis who was foreign minister under Charilaos Trikoupis. The family originated in Vogatsiko in Kastoria...
and training from military advisers such as Pavlos Melas
Pavlos Melas
Pavlos Melas was an officer of the Hellenic Army, and he was among the first who organized and participated in the Greek Struggle for Macedonia....
. This began what is known in Greece as the "Macedonian Struggle
Macedonian Struggle
The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts between Greeks and Bulgarians in the region of Ottoman Macedonia between 1904 and 1908...
", where Greeks clashed with Bulgarian komitadjis, while both sides clashed with the Ottoman army and gendarmerie. Reprisals took many forms, including pillage, arson and assassination. Deeply concerned, the Western powers decided to intervene. The eventual plan was for an administrative reorganisation of the region that would allow for an ethnic-based partition. Thus, each of the ethnic groups concerned sought to strengthen its position so as to gain a maximum of territory when the potential partition came. The successes and sacrifices of young officers such as Melas restored the image of part of the army. In turn, the meddling of the European powers in internal Ottoman affairs contributed to the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
of July 1908, which put an end to the Greek-Bulgarian clashes in Macedonia.
Consequences of the Young Turk Revolution
Greece at the time was still embroiled in the Cretan question. In 1905, Eleftherios VenizelosEleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
had led the Theriso revolt
Theriso revolt
The Theriso revolt , an episode in the history of Crete, was an insurrection that broke out in March 1905 against the government of Crete, then an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty...
against High Commissioner George of Greece
Prince George of Greece and Denmark
align=right| Prince George of Greece and Denmark was the second son of King George I of the Hellenes and Grand Duchess Olga, and is remembered chiefly for having saved the life of a future Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II...
, who had been appointed by the European powers, and demanded enosis. In 1906, the Prince resigned, and a new Commissioner, the former Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Zaimis
Alexandros Zaimis
Alexandros Zaimis was a former Greek Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Justice, and High Commissioner of Crete. He served as Prime Minister six times.-Early Life and Family:...
, was installed. The Young Turk Revolution pushed the Cretans to unilaterally proclaim definitive enosis, taking advantage of the absence of the new High Commissioner.
Anti-Greek demonstrations took place in Turkey, where the press launched a similar campaign. The European powers displayed hostility toward Greece, while Georgios Theotokis
Georgios Theotokis
Georgios Theotokis was a Greek politician and four times Prime Minister of Greece. He represented the New Party or Neoteristikon Komma .- Biography :...
’ government was subject to increasing criticism. His replacement with Rallis had little effect. The new prime minister hastened to show signs of goodwill toward the Turkish ambassador and the Western powers. Wishing to avoid a new Greco-Turkish war, he criticised the “Cretan revolutionaries” and declared his willingness to abide by the Great Powers’ decisions. Indignation toward the government’s weaknesses and timorous attitude mounted, among the populace as well as in the army, above all among the young officers who had fought in Macedonia. The idea of imitating the Young Turk officers began to spread.
Economic and social situation
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
reached new heights in the 1890s. At that point the government of Charilaos Trikoupis
Charilaos Trikoupis
Charilaos Trikoupis was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895....
recognised that the country was bankrupt by deciding to lower the public debt to 30% of its value, which angered the creditors, particularly the European powers. At the same time, export of the Zante currant
Zante currant
The Zante currant , or currant are dried berries of small, sweet, seedless grape variety Black Corinth . The name comes from the Anglo-French phrase "raisins de Corinthe" and the Ionian island of Zakynthos , which was once the major producer and exporter...
entered a crisis. A new phenomenon then began: emigration of the working population. The number of emigrants (especially to the United States) went from 1,108 in 1890 to 39,135 in 1910 (of 2.8 million inhabitants); significantly, remittances from America and Egypt fell amid economic slowdown in 1908. Economic growth was too slow for the workers and farmers who left to seek work elsewhere. Until that time, only highlanders and landless island dwellers had left. However, this economic growth did lead to the creation, as elsewhere in Europe in the same period, of a middle class born out of industrial development, of growth in the number of bureaucrats (linked to political clientelism) and to an urban explosion. In the mid-1900s, this middle class could not understand why the country was prosperous while the state’s finances were in such poor shape. Politicians, also dissatisfied with government policy, reacted as well. In 1906, a group of youngish radicals nicknamed the "Japanese Group" (Ομάς Ιαπώνων), in reference to the dynamism of the Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
, formed around the titular leadership of Stephanos Dragoumis
Stephanos Dragoumis
Stephanos Dragoumis was a judge, writer and Prime Minister of Greece in January-October 1910. He was the father of Ion Dragoumis.-Early years:...
, with Dimitrios Gounaris
Dimitrios Gounaris
Dimitrios Gounaris was the Prime Minister of Greece from March 10, 1915 to August 23, 1915 and April 8, 1921 to May 16, 1922...
its moving spirit. It criticised the old oligarchy that was ruining the country and demanded radical reforms. The group of “sociologists” (Κοινωνιολόγοι), especially influenced by Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, also called for modernisation of the state apparatus and the economy.
The Military League
The Military League (Στρατιωτικός Σύνδεσμος) was formed in October 1908 out of two groups: one of Army NCONon-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s (with members including future generals Nikolaos Plastiras
Nikolaos Plastiras
Nikolaos Plastiras was a Greek general and politician, who served thrice as Prime Minister of Greece. A distinguished soldier and known for his personal bravery, he was known as "O Mavros Kavalaris" during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922...
and Georgios Kondylis
Georgios Kondylis
Georgios Kondylis was a general of the Greek army and Prime Minister of Greece. He was nicknamed Keravnos, Greek for "Thunder" or "Thunderbolt".-Military career:...
) and one of junior officers around Theodoros Pangalos
Theodoros Pangalos (general)
Major General Theodoros Pangalos was a Greek soldier and politician. A distinguished staff officer and an ardent Venizelist and anti-royalist, Pangalos played a leading role in the September 1922 revolt that deposed King Constantine I and in the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic...
. They were motivated by a variety of reasons: a desire for reforms that was prevalent in wide parts of society was combined with frustration at the slow rate of promotions and the absence of meritocracy, especially among graduates of the Military Academy
Hellenic Military Academy
The Evelpidon Military Academy is the oldest tertiary level educational institution in Greece. It was founded in 1828 in Nafplio by Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first Governor of the modern Greek State....
. Other officers from the Army, the Navy and the gendarmerie joined up later, and by June 1909, had spread out over the Greek military.
At that time the Military League’s demands were limited to an increased military budget, its reorganisation and modernisation, as well as the dismissal of the Princes from the Army. Although the Theotokis government had increased supplies of arms and munitions, he had also reinstated Crown Prince Constantine
Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...
, who had led the Army in the 1897 war, as Chief Inspector of the Army. Also, despite demands, he had authorised only a few officers to pursue further studies in France and Germany.
Army action
The Military League, now numbering about 1,300, began by engaging in a form of lobbying by putting pressure on those in power. It had already scored a success with the July 1909 resignation of Theotokis, its bête noire and a symbol of the parliamentary clientelism it hated. But his successor Dimitrios Rallis immediately alienated the League by paying tribute to Constantine’s major role in the war of 1897, by recalling all officers present in Macedonia, by demanding Great Power intervention in Crete and by arresting over a dozen of the League's members for insubordination on 12 August.Nikolaos Zorbas
Nikolaos Zorbas , was a Greek soldier, most notable as the nominal leader of the Military League which organized the Goudi coup in 1909.- Life :...
was chosen as its figurehead. On 14 August, Pangalos liberated two of the arrested officers, thereby provoking Rallis into ordering a clampdown and the arrest of all league members.
On the same night, the League set in motion its bloodless coup. The League members were gathered in the Goudi
Goudi
Goudi is a residential neighbourhood of Athens, Greece, on the eastern part of town and on the foothills of Mount Hymettus. Its name descends from the 19th century Goudi family, who owned a large estate in the area...
barracks several hundred junior officers, non-commissioned officers, simple soldiers, gendarmes and civilians threatened to march on Athens if their demands were not met. The armed forces, in particular the young officers, sent Rallis’ government a pronunciamento containing their demands (the previous day, Rallis had declined to receive a deputation seeking to hand over the manifesto). Part of it was purely internal in nature: for instance, the soldiers challenged the promotion system, with its limited prospects for advancement. Another part was political and demanded profound reforms in the country: in its political functioning, as well as social, economic and military. The troops called for naval and land rearmament, and asked that the Navy and War ministers belong to the military. The insurgents did not call for the King’s abdication or the abolition of the monarchy, remaining loyal subjects. Neither did they announce a military dictatorship or even wish to change the government. They respected the institutions of parliamentary government. However, the officers did demand that the royal princes, chiefly the Diadochos Constantine, on whom they blamed the defeat of 1897, be relieved of their posts and expelled from the army. Finally, the League called for a lowering of tax burdens.
The prime minister opened pro forma negotiations with the revolutionaries who, in order to speed them up, resorted to the people of Athens.
Popular demands
A large popular demonstration, organised and supervised by the soldiers, took place in the streets of Athens on 14 September 1909. The demonstrators, who had come from Athens and the PiraeusPiraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
, demanded the imposition of a revenue tax, protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
, the granting of tenure to bureaucrats (so they would no longer depend on politicians for their jobs), better working conditions and the condemnation of usury. King George I, unwilling to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Otto
Otto of Greece
Otto, Prince of Bavaria, then Othon, King of Greece was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended...
, who had been forced from the throne under similar circumstances in 1862, pushed Prime Minister Rallis to resign and replaced him with Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis
Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis
Kyriakoulis Petrou Mavromichalis was a Greek politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who briefly served as Prime Minister of Greece....
.
Stalemate
The negotiations dragged on, and Colonel Zorbas lacked the political skills to keep up with the seasoned veterans on the government side. Mavromichalis, in securing passage of a large number of mildly reformist bills, implemented part of the programme demanded by the Military League, this time under threat of an actual military takeover. Thus, the general staff was reorganised and those close to Constantine (such as Ioannis MetaxasIoannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas was a Greek general, politician, and dictator, serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941...
) were removed while budget cuts were made in order to finance army modernisation. But his government clearly showed that the old system endured: only Finance Minister Athanasios Eftaxias
Athanasios Eftaxias
Athanasios Eftaxias was a Greek politician. He was born in Amfikleia, Phthiotis, and was briefly Prime Minister of Greece from July to August 1926. He died in Athens.-References:...
had reformist ideas. With the revolution running out of steam, the League began to crumble. It was not a real political movement: its ideology and programme lacked coherence; its leaders were popular but unskilled. They were above all soldiers ill at ease outside their barracks. The League had known how to link its corporatist demands to public discontent by using populist and nationalist slogans, but it unsettled the bourgeoisie. Although it saw the necessity of modernising the country, the middle classes feared the drift towards a military dictatorship, considered deleterious to the normal progress of affairs.
The appeal to Venizelos
Some of the officers went to Crete, which they knew well, either from having participated in the earlier events or in the formation of its civil guard during the period of autonomyCretan State
The Cretan State was established in 1898, following the intervention by the Great Powers on the island of Crete. In 1897 an insurrection in Crete led the Ottoman Empire to declare war on Greece, which led the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Russia to intervene on the grounds that the Ottoman...
. There, they had also been able to see the political talents of the man who had been Prime Minister of Crete since 9 May 1909: Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
. When Prince George of Greece was High Commissioner of Crete, he had found himself in opposition to Venizelos. This gave the latter an anti-dynastic aura that attracted the Goudi insurgents; he was also seen as free from association with the mainland oligarchy’s chaos, corruption and incompetence. Starting in October 1909 they had sent him an emissary to sound out his intentions, also suggesting to him that he take the office of Prime Minister of Greece. However, Venizelos did not wish to appear as the soldiers’ man, either in Greece or abroad. Neither did he wish to clash head-on with King George I and the “old” political parties. He thus advised them to proceed with legislative elections and entrust implementation of the reform programme to the new assembly. He went to Athens on and was greeted in Piraeus harbour by eager officers. In January, a Crown Council gathered together the main leaders of the political movements, under the aegis of the King and of Venizelos. The latter played the role of mediator between the forces present: the King, the government, the parliament, the troops and the people. The solutions proposed by the Cretan prime minister were adopted: the convocation of an assembly tasked with constitutional revision; and the resignation of the Mavromichalis government, to be replaced with a transitional government that would organise legislative elections. Leadership of the transitional government was given to Stephanos Dragoumis
Stephanos Dragoumis
Stephanos Dragoumis was a judge, writer and Prime Minister of Greece in January-October 1910. He was the father of Ion Dragoumis.-Early years:...
, considered an “independent”. Nikolaos Zorbas was made Minister of Land Forces. In exchange, Venizelos managed to convince the Military League to dissolve itself so as not to hinder the political process. In March 1910, an initially reluctant sovereign called new elections; three days later, the League announced its dissolution. Venizelos went back to Crete.
Using his Cretan citizenship as a pretext (the island had declared union with Greece but Greece had yet to recognise this), Venizelos did not take part in the elections, held in August 1910. His allies nominated him for a seat in Atticoboeotia but he stayed away from the electoral campaign. He was on a diplomatic tour of Western Europe when he learned that he had been elected and that deputies allied to him had obtained a relative majority with 146 of 362 seats. He thus returned to Athens amid rapturous public acclaim; the Dragoumis government resigned and Venizelos became prime minister in October 1910. He surrounded himself with collaborators bent on reform policies and began to apply the programme of the Goudi revolutionaries, strongly backed by public opinion. The Austrian ambassador observed on 28 October 1910: “Venizelos is a sort of popular tribune and almost the dictator of Greece. The enthusiasm of the people, who acclaim him everywhere, is striking”. He decided to call immediate new elections in order to strengthen his majority: the assembly elected in August continued to be dominated by the old politicians. These took place on . Venizelos was careful to present himself as an adversary of the “old” parties (which boycotted the elections), but also as free from influence by the Military League that had sought him out after the Goudi coup. Thus he did not hesitate to take as an aide-de-camp Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas was a Greek general, politician, and dictator, serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941...
, a bête noire of the League whom it had removed. Venizelos’ Liberal Party
Liberal Party (Greece)
The Liberal Party was one of the major Greek political parties of the early 20th century.- History :Founded as the Xipoliton party in Crete , its early leaders were Kostis Mitsotakis and Eleftherios Venizelos...
won the elections with an overwhelming majority of 300 out of 362 deputies.
Reformist policies
The reforms of the Venizelos government were numerous, and allowed Greece to modernise and thus be better prepared for the Balkan WarsBalkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
and World War I. The King supported them, seeing in his prime minister the best hope of stemming the anti-dynasticism that had surfaced in 1897 and gained renewed momentum in the 1908-1909 crisis.
To the people who wanted the assembly elected in 1910 to be a constituent assembly, Venizelos replied that he considered it more of a "revisionary assembly". The fifty constitutional amendments of 1911, prepared by a commission directed by Stephanos Dragoumis, led to the frequently-expressed opinion that after this date, Greece had an entirely new fundamental law, the Greek Constitution of 1911
Greek Constitution of 1911
The Greek Constitution of 1911 was a major step forward in the constitutional history of Greece. Following the rise to power of Eleftherios Venizelos after the Goudi revolt in 1909, Venizelos set about attempting to reform the state...
. This revision reformed the status of property by allowing for expropriation
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
in the national interest, opening up the possibility of land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
; 300000 sq_arp were distributed to 4,000 farm families in Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
. Agricultural education was encouraged, as well as farming cooperatives, a Ministry of Agriculture was created and an agronomist named in each region. Bureaucrats were given greater security of tenure and hiring for civil service posts began to be done by public examination. Judges were protected by a Superior Magistracy Council. Social legislation ameliorated the condition of the working class: child labour was abolished, as was nighttime labour by women, and a minimum wage introduced for both; Sunday was made an obligatory day of rest; primary education was made free and compulsory; and a social insurance system was created. The right of labour unions to function was recognised. Stabilisation of the drachma
Greek drachma
Drachma, pl. drachmas or drachmae was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history:...
once again allowed for foreign borrowing. The state budget showed a surplus in 1911 and 1912 after many years of deficit, and tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...
was curbed. The tax on sugar was cut by 50% and a progressive income tax introduced. Taken together, the reforms helped neutralise the development of strong socialist and agrarian movements seen elsewhere in the Balkans in that period. The army and navy were reorganised with help from France, which sent a military mission led by General Eydoux (Germany had reformed the Turkish Army). The navy was reorganised by a British mission that Admiral Tufnell headed. However, Venizelos, anxious to show that he was no military puppet, excluded soldiers from political life, released officers arrested for attempting to thwart the Goudi coup, and restored to Crown Prince Constantine (given the new post of inspector-general of the army), along with his brothers, their army posts. This angered the members of the defunct Military League, who for a time thought of recreating it; indeed of carrying out another coup.