Reclaiming the Unredeemed: Irredentism and the National Schism in Greece's First World War
Abstract
Greece’s role in the First World War, although short, was characterized by political and social tumult that tore the small country in half, splitting it into two political camps both with their own public supporters. This divide is known as the National Schism and is characterized by a feud between the Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, and the King, Constantine, over the question of Greek intervention in the First World War. Present within the Greek world was an irredentist ideology, the Megali Idea, which was the widely held belief that all Greeks living outside of the country’s current boundaries should be reincorporated into the state, and thus, increasing Greece’s territory and reviving the country to its former Byzantine glory. After promises of territory were offered to the Greek state by the Entente should Greece intervene on the Allies’ side, Venizelos saw the opportunity to fuel national aspirations and realize the Megali Idea. Constantine, however, was not so keen on intervention. He and his supporters stood firm in their stance on neutrality, Whereas Venizelos and his supporters negotiated intervention. This schism was not limited to politics. Some Greeks supported Venizelos and his pursuit of the Megali Idea, while others supported the King and neutrality. The First World War was not the first conflict that Greece used to realize national aspirations, it was another conflagration in nearly two decades of warfare in the name of the Megali Idea. Using political documents, state archives, memoirs, newspapers, and secondary literature, this thesis examines Greece’s long road to the First World War to suggest that the Megali Idea was not just a political feud based on the question of intervention as is argued by other modern Greek historians, but rather there was a cultural aspect associate with the National Schism that was complicated by the transfer of the Megali Idea’s symbolism form one leader to another. In essence, after Constantine’s military success in the Balkan Wars, he emerged as the embodiment of Greece’s national aspirations. However, when the First World War erupted, he refused to involve Greece in another war. This meant that for the portion of Greeks who wished to see the Megali Idea realized, they had to shift national aspirations to another leader, and during the First World War Venizelos was championing Greek irredentism. Therefore, the National Schism is also a cultural crisis in which the public’s national aspirations had to be transferred from Constantine to Venizelos, further fueling the divide.