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Category: History
Why did you think the Greek population disappeared so completely from Anatolia after the Ottoman conquest?
To clarify what this question is likely talking about: We know that there was a continuous Greek presence in Thrace up to Constantinople, the Pontus (Black Sea), and Cappadocia, after the arrival of the Ottomans. We know that there was a substantial Greek population in Western Asia Minor in the 19th century, which is linguistically […]
What were the last years of the Byzantine Empire like in Constantinople?
Stop reading this, and go upvote Michael Pothoven’s answer to What were the last years of the Byzantine Empire like in Constantinople? I MEAN IT. I’ll wait. One of the conundrums of early Ottoman Constantinople is that there were many churches that were left alone after the Conquest, and not converted into mosques. The norm […]
Why didn’t many revolutions in 19th century (e.g., American, French, Haitian, etc.) influence people in the Ottoman Empire to initiate their own revolution?
They did. The French Revolution inspired a lot of Greek intellectuals in the two decades before the Greek Revolutionary War, laying down the theory for what a Greek state should look like. In his Memoirs, General Yannis Makriyannis mentions the great warriors who have inspired him to deeds of valour; his list includes George Vasikhton. […]
Why are miaphysite/ old Oriental churches called Orthodox when they are not Orthodox and not related to (Eastern) Orthodoxy?
Well, OP, at least you’re not calling them Monophysites. 🙂 The Greek Wikipedia, and as far as I can tell the Greek Orthodox Church, refers to Oriental Orthodoxy as Pre-Chalcedonian Orthodoxy (Προχαλκηδόνιες Εκκλησίες – Βικιπαίδεια). Of course, a church who thought Chalcedon got it wrong is not going to call itself that. Orthodoxy – Wikipedia […]
If you were the Byzantine emperor in the 14th century, what would you do to prevent the fall of your empire?
In 1300? That would make me Andronikos II Palaiologos. Well, I’ve done the best I can with the Venetians and the Genoese. I’ve played them off each other, but I don’t have the money or the navy to get rid of them. I’ve done what I can with dynastic marriages as well. The Ottomans are […]
When did Melbourne first develop its large Greek community?
It’s doubtful the Greek population of Melbourne ever exceeded 300k; and the more Greeks assimilate, the harder that is to count. I think it could be argued that Chicago had a larger Greek population at least at one point. Thessalonica has a population over a million, so Melbourne was never the largest Greek city outside […]
What led to Ancient Greeks to create such a fascinating history and culture?
It’s a good question, and a question that has been posed and discussed by many before. The history of Classical Greece is more interesting than that of other places, because it had more conflict and more players: it wasn’t a steady-state, stable empire. (That came later, with the successors of Alexander.) Of course, being more […]
Why do most people focus on ancient Greek history ignoring the rest of the Greek history?
The West claims its patrimony from the Renaissance West and Mediaeval West. The Mediaeval West claimed its patrimony from Rome. Rome, and the Renaissance West, claimed their cultural patrimony from Ancient Greece. So Ancient Greece matters to the West, because the West regarded itself as the cultural inheritor of Ancient Greece. The Byzantine Empire was […]
How is the enmity between Greece and Albania different to that between Greece and Turkey?
I’m going to speak from a Greek perspective, and I hope that Turks and Albanians will weigh in. The hostility between Greece and Turkey is very old, and definitional to their identity. They came to regard each other as the Primordial Enemy. (Hence the immortal line on Ekşi Sözlük: “The good old days, when Greece […]
Was Greece created by Germany?
Minority view here, and I’m astonished noone’s picked up on it. The Modern Greek state was established in 1829; and while Greeks like to think they won the Greek state with their sword, the Greek War of Independence had pretty much been quelled by 1827. It was the Great Powers’ intervention at the Battle of […]