Episode 7: The Greek Revolution of 1821: reflections on the bicentenary

25 March 1821 is celebrated annually in Greece as Greek independence day; a day marking the birth of what some have seen as the first nation-state in Europe after post-revolutionary France. A series of localised revolts against Ottoman rule gave rise to a broad revolutionary wave that swept parts of the country. By the end of the 1820s, interventions by different European powers and the rise of philhellenic sentiment secured the state's autonomous existence from the Ottomans. This came at the price of greater dependence upon the so-called Great Powers: Britain, France, and Russia. As Greece prepares to celebrate the bicentennial of the events of 1821, we want to examine the dimensions of Greek dependence and independence from different angles. Was the war of independence a standalone event or part of a transnational process of revolutionary activity? How did the heterogeneous populations (Jews, Muslims) within what became the Greek nation-state experience the revolution and its aftermath? What kinds of sovereignty did Greece gain and how did its place in the world change over time? Finally, how is the revolution remembered in Greece today? With Mark Mazower, Ira D Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University and founding director of the new Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination Katherine E. Fleming, Provost of New York University, Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at NYU Effi Gazi, Professor of History at the University of the Peloponnese and a member of the editorial board of the journal Historein Music by Κυριάκος Τζωρτζινάκης, "4 Δημοτικές Εικόνες - 3ο μέρος: Του Βουνού" ("Four Folk Images - part 3: Of the Mountain") (1975), recording by Andreas Vlachos (2021)