"Greater Greece" redirects here. For the Ancient Greek settlements in southern Italy, see Magna Graecia.
Map showing Greek ambitions at the Paris Peace Conference after WWI, 1919Map of Megali Hellas (Greater Greece) as proposed at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Eleftherios Venizelos, the leading major proponent of the Megali Idea at the time.The territorial expansion of Greece, 1832–1947.
The Megali Idea (Greek: Μεγάλη Ιδέα, romanized: Megáli Idéa, lit. 'Great Idea')[1] is a nationalist[2][3] and irredentist concept that expresses the goal of reviving the Byzantine Empire,[4] by establishing a Greek state, which would include the large Greek populations that were still under Ottoman rule after the end of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) and all the regions that had large Greek populations (parts of the southern Balkans, Anatolia and Cyprus).[5]
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.[6] It came to dominate foreign relations and played a significant role in domestic politics for much of the first century of Greek independence. The expression was new in 1844 but the concept had roots in the Greek popular psyche, which long had hopes of liberation from Ottoman rule and restoration of the Byzantine Empire.[6]
Πάλι με χρόνια με καιρούς,
πάλι δικά μας θα 'ναι!
(Once more, as years and time go by, once more they shall be ours).[7]
The Megali Idea implies establishing a Greek state, which would be a territory encompassing mostly the former Byzantine lands from the Ionian Sea in the west to Anatolia and the Black Sea to the east and from Thrace, Macedonia and Epirus in 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, the Ionian, Aegean, Marmara, Black and Libyan Seas). If realized, this would expand modern Greece to roughly the same size and extent of the later Byzantine Empire, after its restoration in 1261 AD.
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 Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), followed by the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Despite the end of the Megali Idea project in 1922, by then the Greek state had expanded four times, either through military conquest or diplomacy (often with British support). After the creation of Greece in 1830, it annexed the Ionian Islands (Treaty of London, 1864), Thessaly (Convention of Constantinople (1881)), Macedonia, Crete, (southern) Epirus and the Eastern Aegean Islands (Treaty of Bucharest), and Western Thrace (Treaty of Neuilly, 1920). The Dodecanese were annexed after the Second World War (Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947).
A related concept is enosis.
^Mateos, Natalia Ribas. The Mediterranean in the Age of Globalization: Migration, Welfare & Borders. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9781412837750.
^Miller, James Edward (2009-02-01), "Introduction: Manifest Destiny Meets the Megali Idea", The United States and the Making of Modern Greece, University of North Carolina Press, pp. 1–22, doi:10.5149/9780807887943_miller.6, ISBN 9780807832479, retrieved 2022-10-21
^A., Jenkins, Mary (1994). To megali idea - dead or alive? : the domestic determinants of Greek foreign policy. Naval Postgraduate School. OCLC 35675237.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Roumen Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies; BRILL, 2013; ISBN 900425076X, p. 200.
The MegaliIdea (Greek: Μεγάλη Ιδέα, romanized: MegáliIdéa, lit. 'Great Idea') is a nationalist and irredentist concept that expresses the goal of reviving...
concessions in Western Anatolia and Thrace in an attempt to accomplish the MegaliIdea, which would have united all Greek-speaking people along the Aegean Sea...
lands, with Constantinople as its capital. This was called the Great Idea (MegaliIdea), and it was sustained by almost continuous rebellions against Ottoman...
British administration would lead to enosis. The idea of enosis was historically part of the MegaliIdea, a greater political ambition of a Greek state...
characteristics of Venizelism were: Greek irredentism: The support of the MegaliIdea. Greek nationalism (liberal nationalism) Liberal democracy: Venizelists...
the "unredeemed" Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the MegaliIdea, i.e., the goal of uniting all Greeks in one country. As a people, the...
unification of Moldova and Romania. The idea is comparable to other similar conceptions such as the Greater Bulgaria, MegaliIdea, Greater Yugoslavia, Greater Hungary...
Austrian government, as is also the case in Germany. In Greece, the MegaliIdea ("Great Idea") developed shortly after the War of Independence of recreating...
shortly prior to, and during World War I, when the Greeks, inspired by the MegaliIdea, managed to liberate parts of Greece in the Balkan Wars and after World...
ally of the Ottoman Empire and openly opposed the construction of the MegaliIdea, which could establish a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic...
Allies were more open to making promises to Greece about fulfilling the MegaliIdea. However, the Allies still wanted to keep Bulgaria neutral, and through...
all, with Constantinople as its capital. This was called the Great Idea (MegaliIdea), and it was sustained by almost continuous rebellions against Ottoman...
this period. Some of them were new settlements, others were renamed. MegaliIdea "Российские города с греческими именами" Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback...
Cypriots advocated for Enosis (Union with Greece) which was a part of the Megaliidea. The origins of Enosis date back to 1821, the year when the Greek War...
reworked. For Greece, the treaty brought to an end the impetus behind the MegaliIdea, the notion that modern Greece should encompass those territories in...
of the regions that they inhabit into the Greek state. The idea is related to the MegaliIdea, an irredentist concept of a Greek state that dominated Greek...
ended when Turkish forces entered Smyrna (İzmir) on September 9, 1922. MegaliIdea Occupation of Smyrna Hasan Tahsin Outline and timeline of the Greek genocide...
Kingdom of Greece set up consulates in the Ottoman Empire to spread the MegaliIdea. While the Anatolians recognized a shared cultural heritage, most weren't...
damage their own walls. According to David Nicolle, despite many odds, the idea that Constantinople was inevitably doomed is incorrect and the situation...
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