byzantine empire greece

In 1830, the Royal Palace of Neuschwanstein Castle.

Late at night, the stars in the night sky emit a faint light in the cold sky.

Standing on the balcony of his bedroom, Otto Friedrich Ludwig looked up at the sky, his heart filled with ups and downs, recalling all the events in his past life, and he felt a sense of confusion in time and space, and an unreal feeling.

Otto Friedrich Ludwig, the second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxony Hildeburghausen, was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1815, and was a prince of Bavaria.

However, the Otto at this time was not the Otto in the original history. He had already been occupied by souls from the future world when he was born.

To be honest, Otto was very satisfied to be reborn as a prince. His background was noble enough. If nothing unexpected happened, he would become the king of Greece after the London Peace Conference in May 1832.

At this time, Napoleon had completely failed, but as Napoleon's army spread to all parts of Europe, the French Revolutionary thoughts and nationalist thoughts gradually flourished.

In order to better intervene in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire successfully obtained the right to protect Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire during the previous Russo-Turkish War.

Relying on this right, Russia also continued to support the spread of nationalist ideas in the Ottoman Empire, causing unrest in the Ottoman Empire, especially in the Balkans.

Rigas Feraios, an influential writer and intellectual in Greece, was deeply influenced by the French Revolution. He called on all Balkan people to unite and create a "Balkan Republic".

Finally in 1797, he was arrested by Austrian officials in Trieste and handed over to Ottoman officials along with his accomplices. He was hanged in June of the following year and his body was abandoned in the Danube River.

Rigas' death eventually sparked the flames of Greek nationalism. The nationalist poem "Surios" he wrote was translated into some Western European and Balkan languages ​​and became a rallying cry for Greeks to resist Ottoman rule.

Azamantios Colais, another Greek writer who witnessed the French Revolution, chose to promote the Enlightenment by inspiring people's wisdom. He spent a lot of time convincing many influential Greeks to establish schools and libraries to promote Greek education.

This trend of the Greek Enlightenment was not only supported by big businessmen in Western Europe and Russia, but also by pro-Greek figures from Western Europe.

Three young Greek businessmen: Nikolaus Skoufas, Emmanuel Hansos and Athanasios Teskalov secretly established the Friendship Society in Odessa in 1814.

The nascent society gained support from the wealthy Greek community in exile in Britain and the United States, and also received help from sympathizers in Western Europe.

The Society of Friendship's original goal was to restore the Roman Empire with New Rome as its capital, and turned to Alexander Ypsilantis for help.

The tsar's adjutant accepted the request, and with help from all sides, the society expanded rapidly.

In 1821, the Ottoman Empire was deeply involved in a war with its old enemy Persia, and at the same time faced the rebellion of Ali Pasha of Egypt. This forced the Ottomans to mobilize a large number of troops. The Greeks therefore judged that the time was ripe for resistance, and planned to revolt in the Peloponnese, the Danube Principality and Constantinople.

Since ancient Greece is the birthplace of many classical heritages in Europe, people generally sympathize with the Greek independence movement.

Some wealthy Americans and Western European nobles, such as the famous poet Lord Byron and later the doctor Samuel Howe, took up arms and joined the ranks of the Greek revolutionaries.

The rebel army formed its own simple political power and held the first National Congress the following year to declare independence.

The Ottomans reacted violently to the actions of the Greek rebels.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire had entered a continuous decline, but Mahmud II, who served as the Ottoman Sultan, was also not a mediocre person.

He knew very well that once the Greek rebels succeeded, it would be equivalent to opening a Pandora's box of national independence in the Ottoman Empire.

For the Ottoman Empire, whose domestic ethnic issues are no less complex than Austria's, if Greece is really allowed to gain independence, it will trigger a series of chain effects within the Ottoman Empire.

However, corruption was rampant in the Ottoman Empire at this time, and Selim III's reforms touched the interests of many people. During the reign of Mahmud II, the subsequent rebellions in Wallachia and other places in the country made him unable to concentrate on dealing with the Greek independence movement, and the counter-insurgency actions seemed extremely slow.

After the news of the uprising came out, many people gave financial assistance to the revolution. The London Pro-Greek Committee funded two floating loans to the rebellious Greece in 1824 and 1825, with amounts of up to 800,000 pounds and 2 million pounds respectively.

At the beginning, the governments of various countries responded differently, but as time went by, pro-Greek forces continued to lobby and exert their strength. At the most critical moment for the Greek rebels, they received support from Britain, France, and Russia.

In 1827, in order to prevent the Ottoman Empire from suppressing the Greek rebels, the combined fleets of the three countries also destroyed the Ottoman fleet.

In 1828, Russia even directly declared war on the Ottoman Empire, causing the Russo-Turkish War to break out again.

In this war, Russia moved southward step by step, ravaging Moldavia and Wallachia, passing through Bulgaria and approaching Constantinople, allowing the Ottoman Empire to sign a city-wide alliance and helplessly cede territory to seek peace.

At the same time, France also sent troops and took control of the Peloponnese. This series of actions by the great powers diverted a lot of energy from the Ottoman Empire, resulting in the Ottoman Empire being unable to quickly quell the "rebellion" set off by the Greek rebels.

In desperation, the current Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II could only seek the help of Muhammad Ali, who was the governor of Egypt at the time. He promised huge profits and persuaded Ali's help to brutally suppress the Greek rebels.

But even so, it still could not stop the Greeks' desire for independence. In the end, it was defeated by the combined efforts of the three major powers. The Ottoman Empire, which was completely at a disadvantage, had no choice but to accept the fact of Greek independence.

Finally in 1830, this year's Treaty of London, the countries worked together to define the territory of the independent Greek state, including the Peloponnese Peninsula, Athens, the northern Gulf of Corinthia, the island of Evia and the Cyclades Islands.

If history does not change next, by the time Ioannis Kapotistrias, the president of Greece, was assassinated in 1831, the struggle for power within Greece would begin, and the Greek political situation would fall into chaos.

In order to stabilize the situation in Greece, British Foreign Secretary Palmerston next contacted diplomats from France and Russia to discuss how to stabilize Greece.

After some deliberations, the three countries finally reached an agreement without any consultation with Greece that Greece should become a monarchy.

The three countries selected Prince Otto of Bavaria to be the king of Greece, and agreed that Otto's descendants or his brother's descendants could inherit the throne, but under no circumstances could the crowns of Greece and Bavaria be merged.

After making this decision, the three countries each contacted their ambassadors in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and signed the Treaty of Constantinople with the Ottoman Empire to ensure that the Ottoman Empire would not interfere, and at the same time, the national border of the Kingdom of Greece was determined to be the line from Arta to Volos.

In other words, if there are no changes in the development of history because of his butterfly, Otto will become the fresh king of Greece in two years, which is Otto I in history.

As a mediocre worker in his previous life, he was barely a lover of military affairs and history. In the history that Otto remembered, the situation in Greece had never been very calm.

Especially when he thought about the fact that in 1862, the original Otto I was driven out of Greece and the second son of the Kingdom of Denmark took over as the king of Greece, Otto felt a headache.

It is said that the reborn are the children of the plane. It seems that they should change their fate against the will of heaven and defeat the whole world.

But Otto doesn’t think so much now. As a small country in the Mediterranean, Greece needs industry but no industry, needs resources but no resources, and needs population but no population. It can be said that it is a typical three-no country.

In the future, people’s impression of Greece will come from myths and legends, or the scenery of the Aegean Sea.

So punching Britain and kicking the United States are just fleeting fantasies now. The small goal Otto has set for himself now is to retain the throne, and then use the international situation to achieve the expansion of Greece.

This goal doesn’t seem to be too difficult as long as you make more preparations and don’t stand on the wrong team.

Another point is to control rising nationalism and avoid being pushed into the abyss when the people are irrational.

Originally in history, Greece joined the Balkan Wars due to the rise of domestic nationalism and the so-called Magna Hellenism.

As a result, the military side was really stretched, and he was caught and beaten by the Ottoman army. If the team had not stood well during World War I, it would not have been possible to gain a large territory from the Ottomans without much effort.

From this aspect, Greece is militarily on par with the Kingdom of Sardinia, which unified Italy. In the unification war, it lost more and won less. Being able to regain lost ground depends more on taking the right team.

Correspondingly, Bulgaria, a small power in the Balkans, is a small country like Greece, but it is full of martial virtue.

Because of the national policy of Chao Qin and Mu Chu, it offended many surrounding countries, which ultimately led to poor relations with neighboring countries.

Coupled with the fact that we were on the wrong side during World War I, after the war, while the country was devastated, we had to cede territory and pay compensation, and it was completely in decline.

From this point of view, "standing in line" is an indispensable knowledge, especially for small countries. If you accidentally stand in the wrong team, you may be unable to recover, or the entire country may be gone.

No matter what happens in the future and what choices he makes, Otto is still just an ordinary prince in the Kingdom of Bavaria, with his brother Maximilian II in the future.

The reason why he was chosen as the king of Greece was because Britain, France and Russia had their own plans. In addition, from the genealogy point of view, he had the blood of the Komnenos and Lascaris dynasties of the Byzantine Empire, which gave him a slight legal advantage.

The thought changed again. As the saying goes, if you are poor, you can be alone, and if you are rich, you can help the world. Otto is not the king of Greece yet, and there is no need to think about how to rule Greece for the time being.

The most important thing for him at the moment is to make money. Otherwise, when he becomes the king of Greece in the future, there will be a question mark on whether he can guarantee his current wealthy life based on the current devastated land.