Megali Idea

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The territorial expansion of Greece, 1832-1947.

The Megali Idea (Greek: Μεγάλη Ιδέα Megáli Idéa, "Big Idea"[1]) was an irredentist concept of Greek nationalism that expressed the goal of establishing a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas, including the large Greek populations that, after the restoration of Greek independence in 1830 from the Ottoman Empire, still lived under Ottoman occupation.[2]

The term appeared for the first time during the debates of Prime Minister Ioannis Kolettis with King Otto that preceded the promulgation of the 1844 constitution.[3] This was a visionary nationalist aspiration that was to dominate foreign relations and, to a significant extent, determine domestic politics of the Greek state for much of the first century of its independent existence. If the expression was new in 1844, the concept had roots in the Greek popular psyche, nurtured as it was by prophecies and legends that had kept hopes of eventual liberation from Turkish rule and imperial (Byzantine) restoration alive.[3] This is reflected in the folk saying:

Πάλι με χρόνια με καιρούς,

πάλι δικά μας θα 'ναι!

The Megali Idea implied the goal of reviving the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire by establishing a Greek state, which would be, as ancient geographer Strabo wrote, a Greek world encompassing mostly the former Byzantine lands from the Ionian Sea to the west, to Asia Minor and the Black Sea to the east, and from Thrace, Macedonia and Epirus to the north, to Crete and Cyprus to the south. This new state would have Constantinople as its capital: it would be the "Greece of Two Continents and Five Seas" (Europe and Asia, and the Ionian, Aegean, Marmara, Black, and Libyan Seas, respectively).

The Megali Idea dominated foreign policy and domestic politics of Greece from the War of Independence in the 1820s through the Balkan wars in the beginning of the 20th century. It started to fade after the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) and the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922, followed by the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Despite the end of the Megali Idea project in 1922, the Greek state expanded five times in its history, either through military conquest or through successful diplomacy (often with British support). In particular, after the creation of Greece in 1830, the following regions were annexed and became Greek territory: Ionian Islands (1864), Thessaly (1881), southern Macedonia, Crete, southern Epirus and the Eastern Aegean Islands (1913), Western Thrace (1920), and the Dodecanese (1947).

Fall of Constantinople[edit]

Sultan Mehmed II's entry into Constantinople.


Greeks under Ottoman rule[edit]


Greek independence[edit]

The Greek Kingdom in 1831, after its independence.

After the Greek War of Independence ended in 1829, a new Southern Greek state was established, with assistance from the United Kingdom, France and Imperial Russia. However, the new Greek state under John Capodistria after the Greek War of Independence was, with Serbia, one of the only two countries of the era with ethnic population which was smaller than the population of those outside its borders; most of ethnic Greeks still resided within the borders of Ottoman Empire. This version of Greece was designed by the Great Powers, who had no desire to see a larger Greek state supplant the Ottoman Empire.



Cretan revolt and Greco-Turkish War (1897)[edit]






Partial realization and subsequent defeat[edit]

Poster celebrating the "New Greece" after the Balkan Wars.
Map of Megali Hellas after the Treaty of Sèvres and featuring a picture of Venizelos.

Balkan Wars[edit]

A major proponent of the Megali Idea was Eleftherios Venizelos, under whose leadership Greek territory doubled in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 — southern Epirus, Crete, Lesbos, Chios, Samos along with the totality of Aegean Islands and the majority of Macedonia were attached to Greece. Born and raised in Crete, in 1909 Venizelos was already a prominent Cretan and had influence in mainland Greece. As such, he was chosen after the Gpudi coup in 1909 to become prime minister of Greece. A proponent of the Megali Idea, Venizelos pressed forward a series of reforms in society, as well as the military and administration, which helped Greece succeed in its goals during the Balkan Wars.

World War I[edit]

Victory in World War I seemed to promise an even greater realization of the Megali Idea, as Greece gained the Asia Minor city of Smyrna and its hinterland, the islands of Imbros and Tenedos, and Western and Eastern Thrace, the border then drawn a few miles from the walls of Constantinople: the imperial City seemed within reach.

Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)[edit]

A major defeat followed in 1922, however, when the Turkish revolutionaries defeated and expelled the Greeks from Anatolia during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). The Treaty of Lausanne saw Greece lose Eastern Thrace, Imbros and Tenedos, Smyrna and the possibility of staying in Anatolia, although Western Thrace remained Greek. To avoid any further territorial claims, both Greece and Turkey engaged in an "exchange of populations": During the conflict, 151,892 Greeks had already fled Asia Minor. The Treaty of Lausanne moved 1,104,216 Greeks from Turkey, 40,027 Greeks from Bulgaria, 58,522 from Russia (because of the defeat of Wrangel) and 10,080 from other lands (the Dodecanese and Albania, for example).[7] In exchange, 380,000 Turks left Greek territory for Turkey and 60,000 Bulgarians from Thrace and Macedonia were moved to Bulgaria.


After the population exchange[edit]


Thus, after his coup d'état of 4 August 1936, Ioannis Metaxas proclaimed the advent of the "Third Hellenic Civilization" after the civilization of the ancient Greek and Byzantine Civilization.[8] The attack by Italy from Albania and the Greek victories enabled Greece to conquer, during the winter of 1940-1941, parts of southern Albania (Northern Epirus, as it is identified by Greeks) which were administered as a province of Greece for a short time until the German offensive of April 1941.

World War II, the annexation of the Dodecanese and the Cyprus question[edit]



The British colony of Cyprus became the "apple of discord" in Greco-Turkish relations. In 1955, a Greek army colonel of Greek Cypriot origin, George Grivas, began a campaign of civil disobedience whose purpose was primarily to drive the British from the island, then move for Enosis with Greece. The Greek Prime Minister, Alexandros Papagos, was not unfavourable to this idea. The British played the Turkish Cypriots against Greek Cypriots, resulting in the polarisation of opinion between the dominant Greek population and the minority Turks.




Youth of Greece ... you recall, in your heart and your faith, the deep sense of sacrifice. It dates back to Leonidas, "Come and take them!", to Constantine XI, "I do not wish to give the City.", and Metaxás, "No!". It is in the "Stop or I draw!".

Against the backdrop of the oil crisis in the Aegean, Brigadier General Ioannidis arranged, in July 1974, to overthrow Cypriot President Makarios, and proceed to Énosis with Greece. This led to an immediate reaction from Turkey. Turkey invaded the north part of the island. The two countries moved to a general mobilization and there was a well-founded fear of an imminent war with Turkey.

Greco-Turkish relations[edit]

In a stabilized Europe, the Great Idea has disappeared, since there is no longer any significant population of Greeks in Turkey. The Greek-Turkish disputes about the borders are now based mainly on the economy (oil or fishing). The most notable incident took place at Imia/Kardak.


See also[edit]


  2. ^
  3. ^ a b History of Greece Encyclopædia Britannica Online
  9. ^ K. Svolopoulos, Greek Foreign Policy 1945-1981. Cit, p. 134.