The Greek Revolution, A Critical Dictionary, Paschalis M. Kitromilides, Constantinos Tsoukalas, March 25, 2021

Note to the Reader
This book is intended as a guide to readers wishing to acquaint themselves with
the events, people, and ideas that make up the drama of the 1820s in Eu ro pean
and global history. Our point of departure and main purpose is to rec ord the
many facets of the Greek Revolution, the rising of the Greek people in 1821 after
many centuries of Ottoman rule. Coming as it did at the heyday of repression
in Restoration Eu rope following the defeat of the French Revolution, the Greek
Revolution represented the earliest instance of questioning the oppressive order
imposed by the Congress of Vienna on the peoples of the old Continent. Whereas
the revolts in Naples and Piedmont in 1820–1821 were quickly put down, the
revolution of the Greeks developed into a full- scale war of in de pen dence that
lasted for more than a de cade.
The Greek strug gle for liberation breathed new life into the Age of Revolution
and rekindled the hopes of liberal spirits throughout the continent and the
rest of the world. The Philhellenic movement involved not only enthusiasm and
support for the fighting Greeks, but also a broader assertion of the aspiration
of freedom and the hopes of the oppressed around the world. It is not accidental
that the first international recognition of the new Greek polity came from the
Republic of Haiti in 1822. It was a gesture of solidarity among emerging new
states, highly symbolic of the expectations of the age.
The pre sent volume explains what actually happened in the broader Greek
world, the world delimited by Greek culture and language in the eastern Mediterranean
and in southeastern Eu rope, during the turbulent de cade of revolution
and war. We have attempted to demonstrate the global repercussions and
impact of those events on the politics, the culture, and especially the arts of the
rest of Eu rope and the world, particularly the Amer i cas. The fighting Greeks