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9
The Nineteenth Century
Turkish rule is marked by a uniformity which enables one to pass
quickly over the last hundred and fifty years. Before 1821 Crete was, in
Pashley’s words, the worst governed province of the Turkish empire.
The reports of contemporary eye-witnesses confirm his judgement.
Thus, the French consul at Canea, in 1820: ‘L’autorite du Pacha est, pour
ainsi dire, nulle en ce pays, Us Agas et les Chefs de regiments font des avanies
qiCils veulenl sans quepersonnelose s’enphindre: les malfaiteurs dechaque corps
se Hvrent a toute sorte (Vexces, et se permettent mime d’enlrer d’autorite dans les
maisons des Rayas, et s’en disposer entierement d leur gre.’ At one time these
turbulent janissaries were in the practice of sending to some unfortunate
Christians a bullet wrapped in a paper which carried the message that
a certain sum must be paid by a certain date. Failure to pay meant
death. They would take Christians, too, for target practice on the
ramparts of Canea, and wager on which way they would fall. It is
proved beyond doubt that the janissaries at this time were beyond
control, taking the Christians’ money and their women at will; in 1819
they deposed an obnoxious pasha, and disobeyed the orders which
came from the Sultan at Constantinople, Once again, it must be
emphasized that the worst offenders were Cretan renegades from the
towns.
Thus Crete was differently placed in 1821 from mainland Greece.
For among the causes of the War of Independence which started in
1821 the oppression of the Turks was only one. In fact, in many parts
of Greece conditions before the war were not desperate. Turkish rule
had improved in the eighteenth century; the tribute of children had
stopped even earlier; and the Greeks had established themselves as the
masters of Levantine trade. Rather than systematic oppression, it was
the ferment of new ideas which spread after the French Revolution
and were propagated in Greece by Koraes which aroused latent
nationalism.
25 March 1821 is the date conventionally assigned as the beginning
of the War of Independence; on this day Bishop Germanos raised the
standard of revolt at the monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese.
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