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

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Foreword
an in de pen dent Greek state founded on the liberal demo cratic princi ples and
values of the American Revolution, outlined in the Declaration of In de pendence
signed on July 4, 1776, and of the French Revolution, embedded in the
1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. This was evident in the early
and rather rudimentary Declaration of the Messenian Senate, convened in Kalamata
on March 23, 1821. It was even more clearly manifested in the successive
initiatives of the Greeks to draft a constitution that culminated in the “Po liti cal
Constitution” Greece adopted in Troezen on May 1, 1827. Despite its limited
implementation due to the conditions at the time, the “Po liti cal Constitution”
can still be regarded as one of the most consummate Greek constitutions, on
account of its pronounced liberal demo cratic temper. The innovative institutional
ele ments in the establishment of the princi ple of national sovereignty
were one of its distinguishing features. These ele ments comprise the plenitude
and comprehensiveness of the institutionalization of the fundamental human
rights and the fully elaborated formulation of the princi ple of the division of
powers, which is of key importance for the institutional foundations of representative
democracy and the rule of law.
However, the national revolution of the Greeks and the establishment of the
modern Greek state as per the 1830 Protocol of London should be also considered
from the additional perspective of how and why the nascent Greek state
became the herald and mold of the type of nation- state that was to become prevalent
in Eu rope as a general model of state organ ization. This state model entails
a form of sovereignty that ensures the state’s autonomy and self- government
while retaining its core national attributes. This line of inquiry is suggested by
a historiographical view that points out that the modern Greek state, by virtue
of its birth and of the rapid propagation of the model on which it was based,
became a quasi foundation of Eu rope in its pre sent form. We take the term Europe
to signify indiscriminately both the member- states of the Eu ro pean
Union as well as those that currently are not.
As we have already noted, the formative period preceding the birth of the
first nation- state in Eu rope was anything but straightforward. Several earlier
Greek attempts at in de pen dence had failed. Numerous obstacles and the attendant
la men ta ble vicissitudes are the hallmark of post-1821 developments. To a
substantial extent, this was due to the ambivalence and the ensuing irresolution
of the great powers of the era, which had conflicting interests and were
incapable of deciding on a clear position regarding the fate of the Ottoman Empire,
even though the latter had already shown multiple and substantial signs
of decline. The failure of the great powers to wean themselves from the despotic
empires that had formerly been dominant in Eu rope was undoubtedly