The Greek Example of Creating Nation State: Megali Idea

The reflection of the political and economical revolutions which took place in Europe in the 18th century, to the Greek society living under the Ottoman rule was realized through the development of channels of commerce at the regions of the Empire (such as the Aegean shores of Anatolia, Balkans, Moldavia) where mainly the Greek population lived. Young Greeks by going for education to Europe and merchants by going to Europe adopted the ideas of the Enlightenment and the ideology of nationalism. Thus they made a contribution to the transfer of these ideas and ideology to the Greek society. While the developments of Europe were adopted with some delay, the movement that began with the Greek Enlightenment and with the available international circumstances, the Greek upheaval which started in 1821 at the Peloponnese peninsula resulted with the creation of an independent monarchical Greek state under the control of the Great Powers of the period. In this way, under the project of creating a nation state and a national identity, in 1833 the Greek Orthodox Church was established. Likewise, in 1837 the University of Athens was founded for the education of the necessary personnel in order to meet the administrative needs of the state and to convey the Western civilization to the East. Also by Hellenizing History, peace with the Byzantine past was made. On the other hand, trough securing historical continuity of Hellenism, Megali Idea gained formality. In plain terms the vision of creating a Great Greece, became a basis of existence of the Greek nation. But despite the fact that Megali Idea was detached formally from the Greek foreign policy with the end of the Turkish War of Independence (1922), it has remained always in the minds as a wish to be realized in order to keep the Greek nation together.