During 1920, the most extraordinary series of kaleidoscopic changes took place in Greece. There were few countries which had gained more than Greece from the war, in proportion to the size and importance of the country; and the Greeks ought to have regarded themselves as especially fortunate in this matter, because they had in point of fact played a somewhat doubtful part in the war, and no one could say how much sincerity there had been in their long-delayed adherence to the Allied cause. The highly favourable bargains which the Greek kingdom had been able to make with the Great Powers had been due almost entirely to the statesmanlike qualities and the extraordinary tact which had been displayed throughout the discussions by the Greek prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos.
During the first half of the year Greece was chiefly occupied with establishing its position at Smyrna and in taking over the other territories which had been allotted to it by the Supreme Council. It was decided that the portion of Thrace which had been taken from Bulgaria should be given to Greece, and Greece was authorized to occupy this district at the end of May. Turkish Thrace, including the great town of Adrianople, was also assigned to Greece and was occupied by that country at the end of July. Greece thus extended its dominions to the coast of the Black Sea.
During the summer it was announced that King Alexander had contracted a morganatic marriage with a certain Mlle Manos in the previous November.
Attempted assassination
While Venizelos was in Paris in August an attempt was made to assassinate him, and it was reported that the criminals were adherents of the royalist cause. The publication in Athens of the news of the attempted assassination led to outbreaks of serious riots against real and supposed partisans of ex-King Constantine.
Meeting of parliament
Fortunately Venizelos was not seriously wounded and he was able to attend the meeting of parliament on September 7. The prime minister received an extremely enthusiastic welcome in the Chamber of Deputies, and a speech of welcome was made by the president of the house, who proposed a resolution proclaiming that the prime minister was the saviour of Greece, and that a permanent memorial should be erected to him in the Chamber. It is worth recording that this resolution was passed unanimously. Venizelos then rose to reply to the president and to thank the Chamber for its welcome, and also to present three treaties to parliament. The treaties in question were that with Turkey, that with the Great Powers relating to the transfer from them to Greece of the portion of Thrace which had been ceded to the Powers by Bulgaria; and, thirdly, one with Italy regarding the Dodecanese. The first two of these treaties at any rate were thoroughly satisfactory to Greece, and were certainly a monument to Venizelos's statesmanship. The prime minister said that since the Chamber was to be dissolved within a few days there would not be time for the ratification of these treaties, but this need not be regarded as a serious matter, because so far as the territorial sections of the agreements were concerned, the treaties had already been carried into effect. Venizelos said that so soon as the Chamber was dissolved, martial law and the censorship would be abolished, and the general election would be held in the autumn. Replying to the charges of his opponents, Venizelos said that he would guarantee that the elections would be held under conditions of absolute liberty.
The Chamber of Deputies
The last ordinary sitting of the Chamber was on September 23. It is perhaps worth recording here that the Chamber which was now dissolved was that which had been elected in 1915 and had been dissolved by King Constantine in the following year, and had then been recalled by Venizelos in 1917. The issue of the general election was therefore fraught with the greatest possible interest.
In consequence of the peculiar history of the Chamber of Deputies which was being dissolved, the elections would under any circumstances have been of the very greatest importance to the country, but they were rendered even more critical by the tragic event which intervened between the dissolution of parliament and the day of the elections. The event in question was the death of King Alexander.
The death of the King
The king's death took place under the most tragic and unusual circumstances. On October 2 the king was walking in the grounds of the Royal Gardens behind the Royal Palace, when his pet dog was attacked by a monkey. The king endeavoured to separate the animals, and was himself badly bitten by another monkey. It was at first thought that his wounds were not serious, but blood poison ensued, and it was soon realized that the king's condition was critical. The best medical assistance was obtained from Paris, but the efforts of the physicians were unavailing and King Alexander died on October 25.
King Alexander was the second son of ex-King Constantine and ex-Queen Sophie, sister of the ex-Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. He was proclaimed king of the Greeks in June 1917. He had gained the sympathy of many people, both in Greece and abroad, by his romantic marriage with Mlle Aspasia Manos.
The election campaign was already proceeding when the king died, but the date of the elections was postponed, and Venizelos summoned the Chamber to meet for a special session on October 28. The Chamber duly met on that afternoon, but less than half the deputies were present. The prime minister announced to the deputies that King Alexander had died, and declared that in his opinion the constitutional successor to the throne was the late king's younger brother, Prince Paul. The prime minister also announced that the government had sent a message to Prince Paul offering him its sympathy on the death of his elder brother, and informing him of his succession to the Hellenic throne. The government appear to have also intimated to Prince Paul that he should not come to Greece until after the general election had proved whether the existing government enjoyed the confidence of the Greek people. Venizelos said that it was therefore necessary to elect a regent to serve during the interval, and he proposed that Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis should be elected to that post. The few members of the opposition who were present declared that they considered that the question of the succession could be satisfactorily settled in only one way – by a vote of the entire Greek people. Admiral Kountouriotis was subsequently elected regent by a large majority of the deputies present.
The funeral of the King
The funeral of King Alexander took place in the cathedral at Athens. It was, of course, one of the tragedies of the late king's position that none of his nearest relatives could be present either during his last illness or at the funeral. Ex-King Constantine, Ex-Queen Sophie, the ex-crown prince, Prince Paul, and the three princesses, were all exiled in Switzerland. The Dowager Queen Olga came to Athens, but did not arrive until after the king's death. Madame Manos was, however, constantly with her husband during his last illness. The funeral was attended by the Dowager Queen Olga, Madame Manos, Admiral Kountouriotis, the crown prince of Sweden, and Crown Prince Alexander of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
Declaration by Prince Paul
The reply of Prince Paul to the message of the Greek government caused considerable perturbation in Greece and to some extent even in Europe generally. The reply was as follows:
"I declare that I do not share the point of view of the Hellenic government that, according to the constitution, I am today called upon to ascend the throne. The throne does not belong to me; it belongs to my august father King Constantine, and, constitutionally, my eldest brother is his successor. Neither of them has ever renounced his rights, but both have been obliged to leave Greece in obedience to the dictates of their patriotic duty."
Prince Paul then went on to say that he could not ascend the throne in the existing circumstances. "I would only ascend the throne if the Hellenic people were to decide that it did not want the return of my august father, and were to exclude the Crown Prince George from his right of succession."
This declaration by Prince Paul placed the government in a difficult position, and it soon became evident that there was a strong movement aiming at the restoration of King Constantine. Venizelos was quite prepared to face the issue, and the question of the return of King Constantine immediately became the real issue of the general election. Venizelos declared openly that if he and the Liberal Party were returned to power the result would be a condemnation of the claims of King Constantine. If, on the other hand, the opposition obtained a majority, he (Venizelos) would retire altogether from political life. The opposition leader came out openly in support of King Constantine.
Georgios Streit Proclamation
In the meantime a proclamation was issued by Georgios Streit from Luzern. Streit was King Constantine's confidential adviser and had been foreign minister during the first part of the war when King Constantine was still on the Greek throne. Venizelos had stated that King Constantine and his advisers had undertaken obligations towards the Central Powers. In his proclamation Streit said that having been foreign minister he was in a position to give a formal denial to this statement. He said that King Constantine had undertaken before the war no engagement which could prevent the freedom of the foreign policy of the country. And that "at no moment during the war was any obligation assumed by King Constantine to fight by the side of the Central Powers, or imposing upon Greece a neutral attitude."
The general election was duly held on November 1, delayed by the death and funeral of King Alexander. It had long been known to those who kept in contact with affairs in the Near East that the royalist People's Party under the leadership of Dimitrios Gounaris had never ceased to be powerful. But the result of the general election, despite the fact that the Liberal Party polled over 7,000 more votes than the United Opposition, was a sweeping victory for the opposition which came as a surprise in Great Britain. The Liberals were badly defeated in almost all parts of the country, and in some provinces they were literally crushed. It was stated that in the Peloponnesus, in Thessaly, and in Macedonia, there was not a single Venizelist candidate elected. The opposition were returned with a majority of 151, having secured a total of 261 seats.
On the following day Venizelos tendered to the regent the resignation of the Liberal cabinet. A cabinet was then formed by the aged statesman Dimitrios Rallis, who thereupon requested Admiral Kountouriotis to resign the regency. The Dowager Queen Olga was then appointed regent, in the expectation that King Constantine would soon return to Greece. Rallis arranged, however, that before King Constantine was formally invited to return to the throne, a plebiscite upon the question should be held. Venizelos left Greece and went to France.
Results of the election
The result of the elections placed the Allied Powers in a somewhat difficult position. They had, of course, always favoured Venizelos, and they had certainly favoured Greece in the peace settlements. On the other hand, the Greek people appeared now to have given a decisive verdict in favour of the return of King Constantine. It was reported that the French government wished to forbid King Constantine to return. But the British and Italian governments were not in favour of placing the Allies in the position of appearing to oppose the declared wishes of the Greek people on a question which was primarily the concern of Greece. The result of these differences of opinion in the highest quarters was that a somewhat compromising proclamation was issued by the British, French, and Italian governments. The proclamation stated that the recall of King Constantine could only be regarded as a ratification by the Greek people of the actions of the king which had been hostile to the Allies. And the proclamation stated that the recall of the king would create an unfavourable situation between Greece and the Great Powers, and that in the event of that recall taking place the Great Powers would "reserve to themselves complete liberty in dealing with the situation thus created."
This proclamation made the situation difficult for Rallis, but that statesman decided to proceed with the plebiscite. This second poll of the people was held on December 5.
It was stated on behalf of the Liberals that they would refrain from taking any part in the poll. They thus confessed beforehand that they anticipated defeat. It is doubtful whether the Liberals of the rank and file obeyed the orders of their leaders to refrain from the poll. The total number of votes cast in the plebiscite appears to have been greater than in the general election a few weeks earlier. It is more probable that the Liberals of the rank and file, like their compatriots of other parties, were in truth carried away by an enthusiasm – temporary or otherwise – to see the return of the royal exile. However this may have been, there was an enormous majority in favour of King Constantine. It was stated that 1,012,742 votes were cast and that of these 999,962 were in favour of King Constantine. After a result such as this only one course of action was possible, and Rallis formally invited King Constantine to return.
Allied powers reply
The Allied Powers took no definite steps to forbid this consummation, but they issued a declaration that King Constantine would not be recognized, and withdrawing the subsidies which Greece had been receiving from the Powers.
King Constantine and Queen Sophie left Switzerland, and arrived in Athens on December 19, their return to their capital being made the occasion for a tremendous demonstration of sympathy. King Constantine was received everywhere with immense enthusiasm.
The history of modern Greece covers the history of Greece from the recognition of its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire by the Great Powers in 1828, after the Greek War of Independence, to the present day.
Constantine I was King of Greece from 18 March 1913 to 11 June 1917 and from 19 December 1920 to 27 September 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 expanded to include Thessaloniki, doubling in area and population. He succeeded to the throne of Greece on 18 March 1913, following his father's assassination.
Alexander was King of Greece from 11 June 1917 until his death three years later, at the age of 27, from the effects of a monkey bite.
Ioannis Metaxas was a Greek military officer and politician, serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for the first four months of his tenure, and thereafter as the strongman of the 4th of August Regime.
Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos was a Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement. He is noted for his contribution to the expansion of Greece and promotion of liberal-democratic policies. As leader of the Liberal Party, he was elected eight times as Prime Minister of Greece, serving from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1933. Venizelos had such profound influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece that he is credited with being "The Maker of Modern Greece", and is still widely known as the "Ethnarch".
The year 1922 was the most calamitous in the whole history of modern Greece. It witnessed the shattering of hopes and aspirations nourished by Hellenism ever since the first days of its struggle for independence and the realization of the dream of a free Hellas, the centenary of which had just been celebrated; more particularly of the idea of a greater Greece with which the name of Eleftherios Venizelos has been so closely associated ever since his first call to power in 1910. From a Balkan power of dominant magnitude Greece was thrown back into the unenviable position she occupied after the disastrous Greco-Turkish War of 1897.
The end of 1921 with the death of the King of Greece, Alexander, the fall of Eleftherios Venizelos and the dramatic return of King Constantine I to the throne, brought Greece once more to the fore in international politics. Although "unrecognized" by the great Allied Powers, King Constantine I resumed his interrupted reign amidst frantic acclamations of the population, a wave of anti-Venizelist reprisals, and dark war clouds in Anatolia where the Turkish Nationalist leader, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, was daily increasing his following.
Aspasia Manos was a Greek aristocrat who became the wife of Alexander I, King of Greece. Due to the controversy over her marriage, she was styled Madame Manos instead of Queen Aspasia, until recognized as Princess Alexander of Greece and Denmark after Alexander's death and the restoration of King Constantine I, on 10 September 1922.
Lieutenant General Theodoros Pangalos was a Greek general, politician and dictator. 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. In June 1925 Pangalos staged a bloodless coup, and his assumption of power was recognized by the National Assembly which named him Prime Minister. As a "constitutional dictator" he ruled the country until his overthrow in August 1926. From April 1926 until his deposition, he also occupied the office of President of the Republic.
Sophia of Prussia was Queen consort of the Hellenes during 1913–1917 and 1920–1922.
The Provisional Government of National Defence, also known as the State of Thessaloniki, was a parallel administration, set up in the city of Thessaloniki by former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and his supporters during World War I, in opposition and rivalry to the official royal government in Athens.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on Sunday, 14 November 1920, or 1 November 1920 old style. They were possibly the most crucial elections in the modern history of Greece, influencing not only the few years afterwards, including the Greek defeat by Kemal Atatürk's reformed Turkish Land Forces in 1922, but setting the stage for Greece's political landscape for most of the rest of the 20th century. It had been nearly five years since the last elections, a period during which all democratic procedures were suspended due to the National Schism, when Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos announced that elections would take place on 25 October. However, after the unexpected death of King Alexander, who had assumed the throne after the exile of his father, King Constantine I, the elections were postponed until 14 November.
The National Schism, sometimes called The Great Division, was a series of disagreements between King Constantine I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos regarding the foreign policy of Greece in the period of 1910–1922 of which the tipping point was whether Greece should enter World War I. Venizelos was in support of the Allies and wanted Greece to join the war on their side, while the pro-German King wanted Greece to remain neutral, which would favor the plans of the Central Powers.
Panagis Tsaldaris was a Greek politician and the 48th Prime Minister of Greece. He was a revered conservative politician and leader for many years (1922–1936) of the conservative People's Party in the period before World War II. He was the husband of Lina Tsaldari, a Greek suffragist, member of Parliament, and the Minister for Social Welfare.
The history of the Hellenic Republic constitutes three republican periods in the modern history of Greece: from 1822 until 1832; from 1924 until 1935; and from 1974 through to the present. See also the constitutional history of Greece.
Stefanos Skouloudis was a Greek banker, diplomat and the 34th Prime Minister of Greece.
The Goudi coup was a military coup d'état that took place in Greece on the night of 28 August [O.S. 15 August] 1909, 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 in 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 Theriso revolt was an insurrection that broke out in March 1905 against the government of Crete, then an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty. The revolt was led by the Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos, and is named after his mother's native village, Theriso, the focal point of the revolt.
The Noemvriana of December [O.S. November] 1916, or the Greek Vespers, was a political dispute which led to an armed confrontation in Athens between the royalist government of Greece and the forces of the Allies over the issue of Greece's neutrality during World War I.
The Kingdom of Greece was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where Greece also secured its full independence from the Ottoman Empire after nearly four centuries.
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