National Schism Totally Explained

Everything about The National Schism totally explained

The National Schism (Ethnikos Dikhasmos, sometimes called The Great Division) is a historical event involving the disagreement between King Constantine and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos over whether Greece should enter World War I. During the war Greece was of strategic importance due to its position in the link between Europe and the Middle East and its position on the southern flank of the Central Powers.

Causes of the conflict

The conflict had much deeper roots than simply the ongoing world war. It was based on the wider ranging Balkan conflicts of previous years, especially the issue of the unification of southern Macedonia with Greece.

1914/Early 1915 - Beginning of the conflict

As the war began the Greek authorities had to choose between neutrality and aligning themselves with the Allied forces. Outright participation in the war on the side of the Central Powers wasn't an option, both because of Greece's vulnerability to the British Fleet and because, from early on (October 1914), Greece's traditional enemy, the Ottoman Empire, had joined in on Germany's side. Hence, neutrality was the course favoured by most pro-German Greeks, including the senior, German-educated, leadership of the General Staff, who had great influence over the King. The situation was complicated by several other factors. King Constantine's wife Queen Sofia was the sister of the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, while Constantine himself had been educated in Germany and admired German culture. In addition, Greece had an ongoing mutual defence pact with Serbia, a member of the Allied forces, who were asking for support after they were invaded by Austria-Hungary (see Serbian Campaign (World War I)).
   The King's personal links gave him an obvious bias towards supporting the Central Powers. However, he believed it was in the greater interests of Greece to remain neutral - especially as long as there was no obvious victor in the war. On the other hand the Prime Minister Venizelos was in favour of joining the Allies..
   During this time the Serbian-Bulgarian conflict deepened until Bulgaria declared war on Serbia, which posed an immediate threat to the newly regained Greek province of Macedonia, including the strategically important port of Thessaloniki. Venizelos asked Constantine for permission to formalize a defense treaty with Serbia in the interests of protecting the Greek border from direct Bulgarian attack. Constantine agreed but only on the condition that Greece was actually attacked
   August 30, 1916, saw a coup against the Royalist government by Ethniki Amyna (National Defence), a secret pro-Venizelist military organization based in Thessaloniki. The coup succeeded to the extent that a second provisional government of Greece was formed by the group in Thessaloniki. With the backing of the Allies, Venizelos returned to the Greek mainland from Crete to lead the new provisional government at the head of a triumvirate. Towards the end of 1916 France and Britain, after failing to persuade the royalist government to enter the war too, officially recognised the Ethniki Amina government as the lawful government of Greece.

Consequences

The act of entering the war and the preceding events resulted in a deep political and social division in post-World War I Greece. The country's foremost political formations, the Venizelist Liberals and the Royalists, already involved in a long and bitter rivalry over pre-war politics, reached a state of outright hate towards each other. Both parties viewed the other's actions during the First World War as politically illegitimate and treasonous. This hate inevitably spread throughout Greek society, creating a deep rift that contributed decisively to the Asia Minor Disaster and resulted in much social unrest in the interwar years. The National Schism was also one of the principal causes that led to the collapse of the Second Hellenic Republic and the institution of the 4th of August Regime in 1936, and the often violent conflict between "liberals" and "conservatives" continued to feature in Greek political life until the permanent establishment of a parliamentary republic in 1974.

Footnotes

Further Information

Get more info on 'National Schism'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://national_schism.totallyexplained.com">National Schism Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.