Kapodistrias

A first attempt to form a central government in Greece still an insurgent nation in war with Turkey, not yet an independent state was made in 1827. It was then that the National Assembly of Troegene elected count Ioannis Kapodistrias as Kivernitis or Governor / President with the blessing of France and Russia, and the reluctant approval of Great Britain. Count Kapodistrias, a native of Corfu, was a seasoned politician who had reached the highest echelons of Russia's diplomatic hierarchy. While serving as foreign minister to Tsar Alexander I, he was offered the leadership of Philiki Etairia. He declined the offer, believing that the best hope for Greeks lay not in armed revolt against the Turks but in a war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire from which Greece might emerge with autonomous status.

Having resigned from the Tsar's service in 1822, he accepted his appointment for a seven-year term and arrived in Greece on January 8, 1828. His mission was three-fold: to create the foundations of a state structure; to restore the country's ravaged economy; and to secure as much territory as possible for the new state. Utilizing initial public support, foreign financial aid, his administrative skills and diplomatic experience, he accomplished a lot in a relatively short time and under extremely adverse circumstances. He set up a government system (a kind of presidential democracy) with a strong central administration, regional authorities (resembling today's nomarchs) and elected local community leaders. He struggled to build national armed forces. He improved communications, organized the judiciary and placed emphasis on education.

On the economic front, he managed to implement a quite effective fiscal policy, establish a central bank, impose the use of a new national currency (the Phoenix), encourage commerce and shipping, strengthen agriculture through the introduction of modern methods of cultivation and new crops. It was, however, in the realm of foreign policy that his efforts were particularly fruitful. Taking advantage of Turkey's defeat in its war with Russia, he persuaded the Great Powers to grant autonomy to Greece in 1829, and sign protocols a year later promulgating the establishment of an independent Greek state.

After long negotiations a frontier was agreed for the new state which included the Peloponnese, the southern part of what is now central Greece and a number of islands near the mainland. Kapodistrias's reforms stepped on too many toes - local potentates, political and economic vested interests, thus provoking strong opposition against the Governor. On October 9, 1831 as Kapodistrias was entering a church in Nafplion, the provisional capital he was assassinated by two members of the powerful Mavromichalis clan based in Mani, a rugged region in southern Peloponnese. Following his death Greece relapsed into a new period of agitation, internal strife and anarchy.

More Greek Independence

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. For Greece it was the beginning of a long period under the Ottoman yoke, known as Turkocratia, i.e. Turkish rule.

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By the end of March 1821 sporadic fighting between Greeks and Turks had taken the form of a full-fledged uprising -with the Peloponnese as its epicenter.