The government in London paid special attention to the powerful role of the Royal Navy throughout the entire Mediterranean region. The British were motivated by strong public support for the Greeks. Russia gave strong emotional support for the fellow Orthodox Christian Greeks. Austria feared the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire would destabilize its southern borders. However Russia's ambitions in the region were seen as a major geostrategic threat by the other European powers. The context of the three Great Powers' intervention was Russia's long-running expansion at the expense of the decaying Ottoman Empire. However, when Ottoman behavior was outrageously oppressive against Christians, London demanded reforms and concessions. British policy down to 1914 was to preserve the Ottoman Empire, especially against hostile pressures from Russia. They agreed that the Ottoman Empire was "barbarous" but they decided it was a necessary evil. However the top British foreign policy makers George Canning (1770–1827) and Viscount Castlereagh (1769–1822) were much more cautious. Sympathizers like British poet Lord Byron played a major role in shaping British opinion to strongly favor the Greeks, especially among Philosophical Radicals, the Whigs, and the Evangelicals. Despite harsh Ottoman reprisals they kept their rebellion alive. The Greeks had strong intellectual and business communities which employed propaganda echoing the French Revolution that appealed to the romanticism of Western Europe. The Greek rebellion came next starting in 1821, with a rebellion indirectly sponsored by Russia. Serbia had gained its autonomy from Ottoman Empire in 1815. Allied victory over Ottomans at Navarino enables Greek independence (1827)Įurope was generally peaceful the Greek's long war of independence was the major military conflict in the 1820s.
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