Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence began on 21 February 1821 with an uprising in the Danubian Principalities organized by the secret revolutionary society Filiki Eteria, followed a month later by a declaration of war among the Maniots and the rapid spread of armed revolt across the Peloponnese against Ottoman rule. Greek forces under commanders such as Theodoros Kolokotronis achieved early successes, including the capture of Tripolitsa in September 1821, but the revolution was nearly crushed after 1825, when Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt landed an Ottoman-allied army that retook much of the Peloponnese, until the intervention of Russia, Britain and France turned the tide by destroying the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 and, the following year, sending a French expeditionary force that expelled the remaining Egyptian troops. The Treaty of Adrianople recognized Greek autonomy in 1829, and the London Protocol of February 1830 established Greece as a fully independent state, its borders finally settled by the Treaty of Constantinople in 1832, when Prince Otto of Bavaria became the new kingdom's first monarch. The revolution's success, the first successful nationalist uprising against Ottoman rule in the Balkans, inspired similar nationalist movements elsewhere in the region over the following century.