Nationalism as a Claim to a State: The Greek Revolution of 1821 and the Formation of Modern Greece

272 Pages·2023·1.16 MB·English

by  John Milios

NationalismasaClaimtoaState
Historical Materialism
Book Series
EditorialBoard
LorenBalhorn(Berlin)
DavidBroder(Rome)
SebastianBudgen(Paris)
SteveEdwards(London)
JuanGrigera(London)
MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam)
PeterThomas(London)
GavinWalker(Montréal)
volume 278
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm

LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Mēlios,Giannēs,author.
Title:Nationalismasaclaimtoastate:theGreekRevolutionof1821andthe
formationofmodernGreece/byJohnMilios.
Othertitles:GreekRevolutionof1821andtheformationofmodernGreece
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,2023.|Series:Historicalmaterialismbook
series,1570-1522;278|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.|
Summary:"Intheorisingonthecauses,preconditions,dynamicsandinternal
conflictsoftheGreekRevolutionof1821,theanalysisofMiliostacklestheissue
ofbourgeoisrevolutionsingeneral.Additionally,hisinvestigationofthe
historicalemergenceandthelimitsoftheGreeknation,callsforththebroader
theoreticalandhistoricalquestionoftheeconomic,political,andideological
presuppositionsofnation-building.Thebookillustrateshownationalism
bringsthemassestothepoliticalforefront,whichthecapitaliststatethen
incorporatesintoitsapparatusesas'sovereignpeople'.Nationalismbeing
enmeshedwithinthepoliticalelement,consiststhebasisuponwhich
irredentismdevelops,recruitingpopulationsintotheexpansionist-imperialist
strategiesoftherulingclasses"–Providedbypublisher.
Identifiers:lccn2022055715(print)|lccn2022055716(ebook)|isbn
9789004533516(hardback)|isbn9789004533523(ebook)
Subjects:lcsh:Greece–History–WarofIndependence,1821-1829.|Greece–Politics
andgovernment–1821-|Nationalism–Greece–History–19thcentury.|
Revolutions–Philosophy.|Historicalmaterialism.
Classification:lccdf805.m4552023(print)|lccdf805(ebook)|ddc
949.5/06–dc23/eng/20221230
lcrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022055715
lcebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022055716
TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface.
issn1570-1522
isbn978-90-04-53351-6(hardback)
isbn978-90-04-53352-3(e-book)
Copyright2023byJohnMilios.PublishedbyKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillNijhoff,BrillHotei,BrillSchöningh,BrillFink,
Brillmentis,Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht,Böhlau,V&RunipressandWageningenAcademic.
KoninklijkeBrillnvreservestherighttoprotectthispublicationagainstunauthorizeduse.Requestsfor
re-useand/ortranslationsmustbeaddressedtoKoninklijkeBrillnvviabrill.comorcopyright.com.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner.
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
part 1
TheNationandtheRevolution
1 TheRevolutioninMoldaviaandWallachia:QuestionsontheBordersof
theGreekNation 11
1 TheDeclarationsofAlexandrosYpsilantis:HellasinSerbiaand
Bulgaria 11
2 TheEvolutionandFailureoftheCampaigninMoldaviaand
Wallachia 15
3 QuestionsforConsideration:Nation,StateandBordersofClaimed
Territory 20
2 The‘Hellas’of1821:InitialThoughtsontheDisseminationofGreek
NationalPoliticisation 23
1 TheBoundariesof‘Hellas’,BeginningwithRigasPheraios(1797)to
1821 23
2 VariousAssessmentsofthe‘Transnational’ElementoftheRevolutionin
theNationalHistoriography 28
3 Language,Originsandthe‘PlansoftheFriends’ 32
3 ApproachestotheNation:AGeneralTheoreticalAssessment 39
1 TheTraditionalEthnocentricApproach 39
2 The‘Objective’Approach 40
3 The‘Subjective’Approach 43
4 ThePriorityofthePoliticalElement:TheNationasState-Instituted
‘PopularWill’ 49
5 TheNationofCapital:FurtherPointsonaTheoryoftheNation 52
4 RomansandGreeksintheOttomanEmpire:FromPre-nationalSocial
CohesiontoaGreekNation 57
1 IntroductoryRemarksconcerningtheBirthoftheGreekNation 57
2 RemarksontheStructureoftheOttomanEmpire 59
vi contents
3 Languageandthe‘UniversalistHermeneutics’ofNationalism 65
4 TheChronicleofGalaxidi,oraPre-national,‘Roman’HistoricalNarrative
ofthePeriod981–1703 69
5 TwoEventsNon-nationalinCharacter 78
6 TheOttomanEmpireandtheBirthoftheGreekNation 83
part 2
TheRevolutionandItsState
5 TheFirstStateoftheRevolution:TheVictoriousPeriod(1821–1824) 99
1 ConstitutionsandInstitutions:TheFormationofaBourgeoisState 99
2 Lords,PoliticiansandMilitaryCorps:ThePoliticalUpliftingofthe
Masses 104
3 PoliticalTrendsandCivilWars 112
4 RegardingClassAntagonismswithintheRevolutionaryForces 117
6 TheEbboftheRevolution,theInterventionofthe‘GreatPowers’and
theEndofConstitutionalRepublicanism(1825–1833) 123
1 TheUnfavourableTurnintheWar 123
2 International-PoliticalRelationsandDiplomaticRecognitionofthe
Greekstate 124
3 InternalConflicts,Dead-Ends,andtheEndofConstitutional
Republicanism 133
7 TheFormationofaCapitalistStateandSocialFormation 152
1 TheRevolutionandItsStateasaPointofNoReturnintheProcessof
ConsolidatingCapitalistSocialRelations 152
2 CapitalasaRelationship:Manufacture,Shipping,TradeandFinancial
Activities 154
3 AgriculturalProduction,RuralPropertyRelationsand‘National
Lands’ 158
4 RemnantsandResistanceofthe‘ancienrégime’ 164
part 3
TheRevolutionasthe‘GrandIdea’andasthe‘Present’
8 ‘HellenisationoftheEast’:TheVisionandtheReality 171
1 APartialReview:AGenuineBourgeoisRevolution 171
2 TheGrandIdeaoftheRevolution 178
contents vii
3 GreekandtheGreek-SpeakingPopulationsoftheOttoman
Empire 182
4 TheEconomicDimensionoftheGrandIdea 187
5 Contractionandthe‘Stability’oftheGrandIdeaFollowingthe
DevelopmentofBalkanNationalisms 192
6 AftertheGrandIdea:‘ARupturewithinContinuity’ 197
9 1821‘inthePresent’:OntheIdeologicalUsesoftheRevolution 202
1 Introduction:ontheIdeologicalUsesofHistory 202
2 TheTraditionofthe‘ContinuityofHellenism’andItsTransformations
intheNineteenthCentury 203
3 TheIdeologyof‘NationalContinuity’asaDevaluationoftheRevolution
andasaSelf-Contradiction 207
4 ‘NationalContinuity’andRacism 211
5 HistoricalApproachesintheContextoftheLeft(1907–1946):From
AttemptsatScientificAnalysisfortheDocumentationofaSocialist
StrategytoIdeologicalUsesofHistory 214
6 DoesHistoryUniteaNation? 225
References 231
Index 254

Acknowledgements
AfirstversionofthisbookwaspublishedinGreekon15December2020under
thetitle1821:TracingtheNation,theStateandtheGrandIdea(1821.Ihnilatontas
toEthnos,toKratoskaitiMegaliIdea,AlexandreiaPublications).
I would like to thank Marios Emmanouilidis and Dimitris C. Sotiropoulos
for reading the chapters of the book while they were being written, and for
helpingmetoimprovetheirqualitywithwell-foundedcomments.Ialsothank
PanagiotisSotirisforhissuggestionsregardingtheadaptationofthetextforan
English-literateaudience.
Iowethankstotheparticipantsoftheseminar‘TheoryandHistoryofCap-
italismandtheNationalPhenomenon:TheGreekCase’(October2018–March
2019),whosequestions,commentsandinterventionshelpedmetoshapethe
argumentsdevelopedinthisbook.
Aspecialmentionis,of course,owedtoBarbaraSantosfortranslatingthe
greaterpartofthebook,forhervaluablesuggestionsandforhavingimproved
theoverallstyleofthemanuscript.
About Nationalism as a Claim to a State
Who were the Greeks whom the Revolution of 1821 sought to liberate into
a national-constitutional state? In this fascinating book, distinguished polit-
icaleconomistJohnMiliosinvestigatestheprocessesofeconomic,social,and
political-ideological unification through which, from the second half of the
eighteenthcentury,Greek-speakingandotherOrthodoxcapitalistspromoted
abroadnationalpoliticisationoflargeOrthodoxChristianpopulationsinthe
OttomanEmpireandturnedthemintoGreekfreedomfighters.Heshowshow
therevolutionofthemassesdemandingrepresentativeinstitutionsledtothe
formation of a constitutional bourgeois state and a national capitalist social
formation (1821–27) before taking a Bonapartist and, later, monarchist turn.
Thisisthefirstbooktoconsidertheroleofcapitalism,nationalism,republic-
anism,racism,andimperialismintheformationofmodernGreece.
– VassiliosLambropoulos,C.P.CavafyProfessorEmeritus,UniversityofMichi-
gan
Nationalism as a Claim to a State provides a groundbreaking account of the
GreekRevolutionanditsaftermath.OpposingthemythofHelleniccontinuity,
MiliosanalysestheGreeknationalistmovementintermsofcapitalistinterests
within – and at odds with – the Ottoman Empire. He emphasises that early
proclamationsof HellenicindependencealsoincludedAlbanians,Serbs,and
Bulgars;later,theGreekstatedefineditself againstthosegroupsandpursued
territorial expansion. Part of a broader historical movement, the emergent
Greek state reveals how nationalist ideologies get twisted this way and that
toavoidconfrontingtherealitiesof capitalism.Carefullyresearchedandper-
suasivelyargued,Milios’sstudytakesusdeepintotheGreekRevolutionand
beyond,offeringcruciallessonsforthecontemporaryworld.
– RushRehm,Professor,TheaterandPerformanceStudies,andClassics,Stan-
fordUniversityArtisticDirector,StanfordRepertoryTheater(srt)
John Milios offers us a timely and important intervention in the discussions
on the character and role of the 1821 Greek Revolution, a necessary antidote
tothenationalistconsensuswhichseemstohaveprevailedinthebicentenary
celebrationsofthatevent.Throughthelensofpoliticaleconomy,hecritically
analysestheroleoftheemergingmiddleclassesintheformationofthenation
stateofGreece.Atthesametime,heshowsthattheprotagonistsofthenational
strugglehadimperial(Iwouldprefertocallthemcolonial)ambitionsfromthe
verystart,ambitionsthatwereburntintheashesofSmyrnaacenturylater.The