Greece: The Balkan Wars to the 1930s

The Balkan Wars to the 1930s

Venizelos and Zaïmis were the leading Greek political figures from the late 1890s to the mid-1930s. In the Balkan Wars (1912–13) Greece obtained SE Macedonia and W Thrace; the frontier with newly independent Albania gave a larger part of Epirus to Greece, but neither country was satisfied, and the area remained in dispute until 1971, when Greece, at least temporarily, dropped its claims to N Epirus. George I was assassinated in 1913 and was succeeded by Constantine I.

In World War I, Venizelos, who favored the Allies, negotiated (1915) an agreement allowing them to land troops at Thessaloníki (see Salonica campaigns). However, King Constantine, who favored neutrality, refused to aid the Allies and dismissed Venizelos as premier. Venizelos organized (1916) a government at Thessaloníki, and in 1917 Allied pressure led to Constantine's abdication in favor of his younger son, Alexander. Venizelos again became premier, and Greece fully entered the war. At the peace conference (see Neuilly, Treaty of; Sèvres, Treaty of) Greece received the Bulgarian coast on the Aegean and the remnants of European Turkey including E Thrace and the Dodecanese (except Rhodes) but excluding the Zone of the Straits. Izmir was placed under Greek administration pending a plebiscite.

Encouraged by the Allies, the Greeks invaded (1921) Asia Minor, but were defeated (1922) by the Turkish forces of Kemal Atatürk. The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) restored the Maritsa River as the Greco-Turkish frontier in Europe. A separate agreement provided for the compulsory exchange of populations. Under the supervision of a League of Nations commission about 1.5 million Greeks of Asia Minor were resettled in Greece and about 800,000 Turks and 80,000 Bulgarians left Greece and were repatriated in their respective countries. Constantine, who had returned after the death (1920) of King Alexander, was again deposed in 1922. George II succeeded Alexander, but was soon also deposed (1923), and in 1924 a republic was proclaimed and then confirmed by a plebiscite.

The years 1924–35 were marked by unsettled economic conditions and by violent political strife (including coups and countercoups), in which Paul Kondouriotis, Theodore Pangalos, George Kondylis, Panayoti Tsaldaris, Zaïmis, and Venizelos were the chief protagonists. The defeat (1935) of the rebelling Venizelists in Crete marked the end of the republic. Kondylis ousted Tsaldaris and arranged for a plebiscite that resulted in the restoration of the monarchy and the return of George II. In 1936, Premier John Metaxas, supported by the king, established a dictatorship, ostensibly to avert a Communist takeover of the country. In foreign relations, Greece abandoned its anti-Turkish policy by establishing (1934) the Balkan Entente with Yugoslavia, Romania, and Turkey.

Sections in this article:

Introduction
The New Greece
Military Rule
Constitutional Government
World War II and Civil War
The Balkan Wars to the 1930s
The Struggle for Independence
Medieval Greece to Ottoman RuleMedieval and Modern Greece
Ancient Greece
Government
Economy
Land and People
Later Greece

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