Chronology

1814: After the surrender of Napoleonic France on 30 May, the Congress of Vienna (September 1814 to June 1815) establishes the Conservative Order against the revolutionary wave of 1789; against the tide, at the end of 1814, in Odessa (in mod. Ukraine), three Greeks of rather humble origins found a secret Friendly Society (‘Philike Etaireia’) with the aim of working for a revolution of the Greeks against their Ottoman lords.

1818: The secret headquarters of the Friendly Society are transferred to the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and the Society starts a successful campaign to initiate large numbers of new members both in Istanbul and the Greek Lands.

1820: Alexander Hypsilantis, officer of the Russian army of Greek origins, present at the Congress of Vienna as Lieutenant of the Tsar, accepts an offer to secretly lead the Friendly Society.

1820, October: Alexander Hypsilantis and the leaders of the Friendly Society secretly meet in Izmail (in mod. Ukraine) and agree on a plan for launching the Greek Revolution in the Peloponnese.

1821, 26–9 January/7–10 February: Gregorios Dikaios, also known as Papaflessas, emissary of Alexander Hypsilantis, meets with prominent Greek members of the Friendly Society in Vostitsa (mod. Aigio) announcing to them the plan of the Revolution and the imminent arrival of the leader; those Moreot notables present in Vostitsa do not accept the invitation of the Ottoman Governor Deputy to gather in Tripolitsa (mod. Tripoli, Peloponnese) in mid-February.

1821, 22 February/6 March: Alexander Hypsilantis, having changed the revolutionary plan, crosses with a few men the river Prut, the border between the Russian and the Ottoman Empire, and arrives in Iaşi, the capital of the Principality of Moldavia (mod. Romania), announcing the Greek Revolution (24 February/8 March); when the news reaches the Congress of Laibach (mod. Ljiublana, Slovenia), the Tsar repudiates the former Russian officer (14/26 March).

1821, 22 February/6 March: Hurşid Ahmed Pasha, the Ottoman Governor General of Rumelia, having arrived from the Peloponnese in Trikkala, on his way to Ioannina, in order to fight against Tepedelenli Ali Pasha, sends a report with alarming news from the Peloponnese to the Ottoman capital.

1821, 12/24 March: When the news from the rebellion of Alexander Hypsilantis, together with an alarming report from the Peloponnese, reaches the Ottoman capital, a furious Sultan Mahmud II, after the Friday prayers, orders the Janissary Agha to massacre his Greek Orthodox subjects; prominent Greek Orthodox notables of Istanbul (Phanariots) had already escaped the capital in order to save their lives from the Ottoman retaliations and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch had repudiated the rebellion.

1821, 15/27 March: The news of the declaration of the Greek Revolution by Alexander Hypsilantis in the Danubian Principalities arrive in the Morea, giving the signal for a general uprising, culminating on 25 March.

1821, 10/22 April: After a series of executions of Greek Orthodox in Istanbul, Sultan Mahmud II gives the order for the public hanging of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Gregorios V, who, being of Peloponnese origin, is charged with alleged participation in the rebellion of the Greeks.

1821, 18/30 April: The islands of Spetses, Hydra, Psara declare that they are willing to fight for the independence of the Greek nation against the Ottoman ‘tyrants’: the three islands transform some of their merchant vessels to the Greek revolutionary fleet.

1821, 22 or 23 April, 4 or 5 May: After a successful rebellion in the southern part of Rumelia (sancak of Evripos), the revolutionary captain Athanasios Diakos is captured in the Battle of the Alamana (mod. Spercheios) Bridge and executed in Zitouni (mod. Lamia). His head and the banners of the revolutionaries are sent to Istanbul to be exhibited outside the Topkapi palace.

1821, 20 May/1 June: A combined effort of the Greek revolutionaries of the Morea and the navy from the islands of Hydra and Spetses to capture Lepanto and Patras is held off; Yusuf Muhlis Pasha saves 20,000 Albanian Muslims of the town of Lalas, escorting them to the fortress of Patras (11–12 June).

1821, 1–3/13–15 June: After an effort of the revolutionary Greek navy to foment rebellion in Ayvalık, the invading Ottomans in the town massacre 2,000 Greek Orthodox residents, capturing 3,000 women and children, while 18,000 Greek Orthodox are drowned during their efforts to escape the massacre.

1821, 7/19 June: Alexander Hypsilantis and his select Retinue (Hieros Lochos), having failed to generate popular support in the Danubian Principalities, are defeated by the invading Ottoman army in the Battle of Dragaşani; One day after (8 June), the ship Fidelissimo arrives on the island of Hydra, carrying Demetrios Hypsilantis, the younger brother of Alexander, in order to lead the Greek Revolution in the Morea on behalf of the Friendly Society.

1821, 17/29 June: Alexander Mavrokordatos, of Phanariot origins, arrives by sea from Marseilles to Missolonghi carrying a printing press and establishes a local revolutionary administration.

1821, 23 July/4 August: The fortress of Monemvasia, in the Morea, surrenders to the Greek revolutionaries; the Muslims are sent by ships towards the Anatolian coast and are rescued in Kuşadası.

1821, 26 August/7 September: In the Battle of Fontana/Vassilika between Zitouni (Lamia) and Livadeia, the invading army of Hacı Behram Mehmet Pasha is defeated by the Greek revolutionaries. This was a decisive battle, saving the revolution in the south in its critical first year.

1821, 23 September/5 October: The Greek revolutionaries capture Tripolitsa (mod. Tripoli), the Ottoman provincial capital of the Morea; the invading Greeks burn down the Serai and massacre the Muslims and the Jews, with only a few exceptions.

1822, 1/13 January: The first National Assembly of the Greeks, assembled in Piada (mod. Nea Epidavros), announces the Declaration of the Greek Independence and the first Greek democratic Constitution; Alexander Mavrokordatos is elected President of the first Greek national government.

1822, 15/27 January: Haiti, a nation of former slaves who had successfully revolted a few years earlier, is the first nation to acknowledge the Greek Revolution, with a letter from its President Jean-Pierre Boyer.

1822, 20 or 25 January/1 or 6 February: After a long siege, and the desertion of his Greek and Albanian allies, Tepedelenli Ali Pasha is executed by Hurşid Ahmed Pasha on the island of the lake of Ioannina; his head is sent to Istanbul to be exhibited in the courtyard of the Topkapi Palace.

1822, April: The Ottoman fleet and army massacre the Greek island of Chios, provoking a wave of sympathy for the Greek cause in Western Europe; after the massacre, refugees from Chios and elsewhere find refuge on the Catholic island of Syros, where they establish a new port-town, Hermoupolis.

1822, 6–7 June/18–19 June: As a revenge for the Chios massacre, the Greek captain Konstantinos Kanaris, from the island of Psara, blows up during the night the flagship of the Ottoman fleet in the port of Chios, killing the Ottoman Admiral Kara Ali.

1822, 4/16 July: The Philhellenes, young revolutionaries from all around Western Europe who had come to fight for the Greek revolution, are massacred in the Battle of the Village of Peta, Epirus.

1822, 26 July/7 August: The army of Dramalı Mahmud Pasha, invading the Morea, is defeated in the Dervenakia straits by the Greek revolutionaries under Theodoros Kolokotronis.

1822, 3/15 December: After a long siege, the town of Nafplio surrenders to the revolutionaries; Nafplio will become during the next year the first capital of the Greek revolution and the seat of the revolutionary administration.

1823, 28 February/12 March: The London Philhellenic Committee has its first meeting in the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand; the Committee later raised major loans to help the Greek cause.

1823, 8–9 August/20–1 August: Death of Markos Botzaris, an iconic warrior from the mountains of Souli, Epirus, in the Battle of Kefalovryso, on the mountains of central Greece.

1824: Internal strife in the Greek revolution: Alexander Mavrocordatos, the notables of the Morea and the Greek Islands fight against Theodoros Kolokotronis and the military leaders of the revolution and, later, the notables from the islands together with the warriors from southern Rumelia fight against the Moreots.

1824, 7/19 April: Death of the famous English romantic poet Lord Byron in Missolonghi. Lord Byron had joined the Greek Revolution in Missolonghi in 24 December 1823 as a representative of the Greek Philhellenic Committee.

1824, 27 May/8 June: After having suppressed the Greek Revolution in Crete, the Egyptian fleet and army successfully attacks the island of Kassos in the Dodecanese, one of the Greek islands with a strong fleet.

1824, 20 June/2 July: The Ottoman fleet attacks and massacres the island of Psara, one of the headquarters of the Greek fleet.

1824, 29 August/10 September: The Greek fleet under Andreas Miaoulis fights successfully against the Egyptian fleet in the naval Battle of Gerontas Bey, to the east of Leros and Kalymnos in the Dodecanese.

1825, 11 February/23 February: The fleet and army of Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt, arrives in the port of Methoni, invading the Peloponnese in order to suppress the Greek Revolution on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan; on 17 May, the Greek revolutionary Government frees Theodoros Kolokotronis in order to lead the resistance against the invading Egyptians.

1825, June: The Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha captures Tripolitsa (mod. Tripoli), the former Ottoman provincial capital in the Morea; the Greeks had already deserted the town and started a fire in order not to leave infrastructure to the invaders.

1825, 10/22 August: Konstantinos Kanaris makes a daring effort to attack the Egyptian fleet in the port of Alexandria.

1825, 21 September/3 October: The former mosque of Ragıb Pasha in Nafplio, after being remodeled, is inaugurated as the Parliament House of revolutionary Greece.

1826, 23 March/4 April: The English agree with the Russians in St Petersburg that Greece would become an autonomous part of the Ottoman Empire, whose government would pay an annual tribute to the Sublime Porte.

1826, 10–11 April/22–3 April: After a long siege, the Greek defenders of the town of Missolonghi attempt a mass breakout, resulting in a heroic defeat; Missolonghi becomes an international symbol of the Greek resistance against the Ottomans.

1827, 24 April/6 May: After the death of the leader of the revolutionary army George Karaiskakis, the Greeks make an unsuccessful effort to break the long Ottoman siege of the Acropolis, Athens. The Greek defenders on the fortress surrender the Acropolis to the Ottoman General Mehmed Reşid Pasha (aka Kioutachis) on 24 May.

1827, 8/20 October: After an agreement in London that England, France and Russia may intervene on behalf of the Greeks, the Allies crush the combined Ottoman-Egyptian fleet at the naval Battle of Navarino Bey; in the next year (1828, 6 August), the Convention of Alexandria requires Ibrahim Pasha to evacuate the Peloponnese, before the arrival of a French expedition force.

1828, 8/20 January: After his election as Governor by the Greek National Assembly and a tour of Western Europe to rally support for the Greek cause, Ioannis Kapodistrias arrives in the island of Aegina, the seat of his government.

1828, 14/26 April: Russia declares war against the Ottoman Empire.

1829, 10/22 March: According to the London Protocol, Greece would become a separate state enjoying complete autonomy under the rule of a hereditary Christian prince to be selected by England, France and Russia; the borders of the new state would run along the line of the Gulf of Arta in the west to the Pagasetic Gulf in the east.

1829, 3/15 May: The Ottomans surrender the town of Missolonghi to Avgoustinos Kapodistrias, brother of the Governor of Greece.

1829, 2/14 September: The Russians, having fought a two-year war against the Ottomans, force the Sublime Porte to accept the autonomy of Greece (Treaty of Adrianople).

1830, 22 January/3 February: The London Protocol recognises Greece as a sovereign and independent monarchy.

1831, 27 September/9 October: Following a movement of opposition against the Governor of Greece, the Maniot warriors Konstantinos and George Mavromichalis assassinate Ioannis Kapodistrias in Nafplio.

1832, 26 April/7 May: England, France and Russia, without consulting the Greeks, offer the throne of Greece to the Bavarian Prince, Otto.