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FREE GREECE, THE HIDDEN CENTURIES: TURKISH RULE FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO GREEK INDEPENDENCE PDF David Brewer | 320 pages | 04 Sep 2012 | I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd | 9781780762388 | English | London, United Kingdom The Historical Memory of Constantinople, Years After the Fall | May 29, the final Ottoman assault on Constantinople succeeds. Ottoman cannon fire had battered the great Theodosian Walls of the city. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos-Dragases, had torn off his imperial regalia and died fighting as a common soldier. Ottoman troops plundered as Ottoman Greece Mehmet II marched through the city before coming to that most famous of Christian cathedrals, Hagia Sophia, converting it to a mosque, and thanking God for his victory. Constantinople was to be the new capital of the growing Ottoman Empire. The Byzantine Empire, this state of the Romans which stretched more than two millennia back into history, was, at last, no more. Europe received the news of the fall of Constantinople with unmitigated horror. The great city, the bastion of Christendom against the Muslim tide, had fallen. Pope Nicholas V called for yet another Crusade. O City, City, the center of the four corners of the earth! And you too, O Earth, heave a heavy sigh at the utter abandonment by God. To the triumphant Ottoman Turks, glorious Constantinople, that greatest of prizes, was now theirs. Following the fall of Constantinople, the rest of the Greek-speaking world was swiftly conquered by the Ottomans. Athens fell inthe Morea inTrebizond in Cyprus and Crete held out for longer, but bypractically the entire Greek world was under Ottoman rule. Yet the Romaioi did not become assimilated, but miraculously maintained their distinct culture. Throughout this year period of Ottoman domination, the historical memory of independence which was most prominent for the Romaioi was not that of classical, ancient Greece, but of Christian Byzantium. The Greek political thinker Rigas Feraios conceived of a Pan-Balkan federation in the late eighteenth century, using the Byzantine Empire as his the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence. When the island of Lemnos was finally liberated from Ottoman rule by the Greek Army inthe local boys went to look at the soldiers. The memory of the past for ethnic Greeks — even up to a century ago — was primarily not ancient Greece, but their identity as Romaioi, their collective memory of Byzantium, and the dream of its recovery. After Greece won its independence inthe recovery of Constantinople began to seem that it might not be just a dream, but could possibly become reality. While the newly independent Greek state consisted of little more than the Peloponnese and Attica, modern Greece had dreams of regaining its historical grandeur. Throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Greece pushed forward, recovering more and more Greek-settled lands from Ottoman rule. Thessaly was retaken in ; Epiros, the Aegean islands and Macedonia were conquered from the Ottomans in The new king in was Constantine I, aptly named just like the first and last emperors of Constantinople; he was even referred to on occasion as Constantine XII, the direct successor of Constantine XI Palaiologos-Dragases. Finally, in the aftermath of World War I, Greece was granted Ionia, the area around the city of Smyrna, in Anatolia, as well as Thrace, with the boundaries of the new Greek territory now approaching the very gates of Constantinople itself. Greek forces were initially successfully in occupying these new Greece and countering Turkish forces, with the dream of recovering Constantinople seemingly within their grasp. The ruinous aftermath of the campaign was the torching of Smyrna by Turkish soldiers as Greeks Greece attempted to flee the flames and the ensuing bloodshed. Along with Smyrna, the glorious dreams of the Megali Idea and a restored Byzantium also went up in flames. Greece lost its newly-won Turkish territories and the Greek population in Anatolia was forcibly transported to Greece as part of a population exchange under the resulting Treaty of Lausanne. Although the recovery of Constantinople and the restoration of Byzantium appeared to die on the docks of Smyrna, Constantinople has not fully disappeared from the historical and collective memory of the Greek people. The Greek population in Constantinople was exempted from the population exchange ofbut their gradual exodus from the city was accelerated by the anti-Greek Turkish pogrom of September, which resulted in the destruction of Greek property and the injury and even deaths of ethnic Greeks living in Constantinople. The Greek population in Constantinople today is no more than a remnant of a few thousand, with some estimates as low as 2, Yet Constantinople still holds a precious place in history and in the minds of Greeks around the world. Perhaps most important among the surviving Greek community in Istanbul is the Patriarchate of Constantinople, that most revered of Orthodox Christian Greece institutions; indeed, most of its funding today comes from the Greek government. In addition, Byzantine-era monuments Greece exist in Constantinople, including the Theodosian Walls, the ruins of two Byzantine palaces, and approximately a dozen Byzantine churches albeit most having been converted to mosquesincluding the great Hagia Sophia, still open as a museum today. The picture in Greece itself and among Greece diaspora, however, is more complicated. The importance of classical Greece in the Greek mind steadily rose during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, influenced by the stress on ancient Greece by the first Greek king, Otto, but also because of the placement of the new Greek capital. Athens was an important city in classical Greece but had dwindled in importance, serving as only a minor provincial town during the Byzantine era, and it has few Byzantine monuments today. Yet despite this emphasis, Constantinople does still matter for Greeks. Major diaspora publications such as Greek Reporter and Greek City Times also frequently publish articles on Byzantium, and Constantinople in particular. It may no longer elicit the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence same recognition among Greeks or the global population as does ancient Greek history, but it has continued to make its mark on Greek historical memory from through today, both as an influence on policy and as a source of pride in the past. He has been published in a variety of academic and general-interest publications on history and law, including Le Monde Diplomatique, The Medieval Magazine, and the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law. All Basketball Soccer tennis. Culture History Columns Opinion. Oct 21, Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. For almost years, between the fall of Constantinople and the Greek War of Independence, the history of Greece is shrouded in mystery, distorted by Greek writers and begging the question: What was life really like for the Greeks under Ottoman rule? In this wide-ranging yet concise history, David Brewer explodes many of the myths about Turkish rule of Greece. He places For almost years, between the fall of Constantinople and the Greek War of Independence, the history of Greece is shrouded in mystery, distorted by Greek writers and begging the question: What was life really like for the Greeks under Ottoman rule? He places the Greek story in wider, international context and casts fresh light on the dynamics of power not only between Greeks and Ottomans, but also between Muslims and Christians, both Orthodox and Catholic, throughout Europe. The Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence absorbing account of a crucial period will ensure that the history of Greece under Turkish rule is no longer hidden. Get A Copy. Hardcoverpages. Published May 11th by I. Tauris first published February 20th More Details Original Title. Other Editions 8. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Greece, The Hidden Centuriesplease sign up. Be the first to ask a question about Greece, The Hidden Centuries. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. The second half is much better. Shelves: european-history. For someone who has it is at best a three star work. The problem is that Brewer has a superb understanding of the political, social and intellectual trends of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries but is totally lost in the Renaissance and Byzantine eras. Moreover, his skills as a researcher are aligned with the abundant archival and secondary the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence available for the modern era. He is much less at ease when there is no archival data of any sort as is the case for the middle ages and renaissance leaving the modern historian to attempt to piece together a version of events based on unreliable pre- modern chroniclers who almost invariably wrote many years after the events occurred. Consequently, the first half of the book which deals with the primarily on the wars between Venice and the Ottoman empire for the control of commerce in the eastern Mediterranean is pedestrian verging on incompetent. In the second half of the book, as the narrative moves Greece the 18th century Brewer's facility with demotic Greek the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence his understanding of modern Greek culture comes into play.

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