First even at the peak of the Greek victories, the Turkish nationalists still control an area roughly the size of France, into which the Entente cannot advance, unless Britain and/or France commit armies and lots of money which they have no reason to do. Second the Greeks got nearly everything they were asking for in 1919, with the exception of the area controlled by Italy. Annexing territory further east, assuming the great powers were amenable to this in the first place merely adds large Muslim populations for very little or no long term gain.
Of lost monkeys and broken vehicles
- Thread starter Lascaris
- Start date
First even at the peak of the Greek victories, the Turkish nationalists still control an area roughly the size of France, into which the Entente cannot advance, unless Britain and/or France commit armies and lots of money which they have no reason to do. Second the Greeks got nearly everything they were asking for in 1919, with the exception of the area controlled by Italy. Annexing territory further east, assuming the great powers were amenable to this in the first place merely adds large Muslim populations for very little or no long term gain.
Exactly, far better to focus on getting a defensible border and ensuring that you can keep what you have rather than grabbing more in the short-term and loosing it all in the inevitable Round 2. (Even if Round 2 never actually happens, a responsible leader has to assume that it will.)
Part 16 The land of eagles against the double headed eagle
Paris, January 25th, 1922 (old calendar)/ February 7th (new calendar)
After the ambassador's conference back in November had decided on North Epirus union with Greece, its exact border had remained in limbo. Greek backed rebels had already taken control of the western part. Albanian irregulars with tacit Italian support had taken control of the eastern part. Now the Italians proposed that Greece should be given only a coastal strip from Himara to the current Greek border, with the town of Argyrokastro/Gjirokaster and everything to the east of it left to Albania. Venizelos merely pointed to the proposed border by France and Britain back in 1920 and with his trademark smile said he was willing to accept that. Behind the scenes he sounded the Italian government over accepting as a minimum the Aoos/Vjose river border proposed by the United States in 1919 in exchange of the Soke district in Ionia.
It was not a negotiation going particularly well from the Italian point of view. Italy was headed either for a diplomatic defeat as it appeared that the French and British governments would stand by their earlier position on the status of the border or would have to give up territory under its control to gain Albania a sliver of territory. Worse yet with the treaty with Turkey finalized, Lord Curzon, the British foreign minister, was making increasing noises over when Italy would finally conform to the Sevres agreement about the Dodecanese and pass control of the islands to the Greek government. Something had to be done, claiming as the Italians were doing that North Epirus was in its grand majority Albanian, with half of it under the control of Greek irregulars wouldn't do. During the winter the Italians had quietly shipped arms and equipment to the Albanian irregulars. The signal went out that the Albanians that they had to act now or accept the loss of South Albania without a shot.
North Epirus/Southern Albania, January 27th, 1922 (old calendar)/ February 9th (new calendar)
Ten thousand Albanians attacked in weather that could be best described as atrocious, while a similar number covered the Greek border. The Greek irregulars opposite them were roughly half as many It didn't matter. Three days later Venizelos had British and French approval for the Greek army to intervene, neither government was particularly keen to accept an Italian fait accopli and Venizelos had made sure to take advantage of the sentiment just like he had back in 1919 with Smyrna when it had looked like the Italians where about to land there. Twenty five thousand Greek regulars crossed the border into North Epirus.
Rome, February 28th, 1922
The Italian government, had to accept its failure in North Epirus as soon as the French and British governments had greenlighted Greek intervention there. At least the human cost had fallen solely on the Greeks and Albanians, it had taken the Greeks twelve days to take Korytza/Korce in the face of Albanian resistance. What it did not have to accept was giving the Greeks any more easy gains. The Greek ambassador was served a note that the Italian government unilaterally cancelled the Sevres agreement about the Dodecanese and saw no reason to accomodate Greek views relating to Soke "in view of the recent Greek actions in Albania". The Greeks of both areas would have to wait another day for union with the motherland. For good measure by the same notice the Italian government, denied the extradition of Ioannis Metaxas, sentenced to death in 1920, for his pro-German activities during the National Schism, to Greece. Metaxas would remain in his Roman exile for a while yet...
Constantinople, March 1922
Meletius Metaxakis had been elevated from metropolitan of Athens (and thus head of the autocephalous church of Greece) to the throne of the ecumenical patriarchate as Meletius IV in the previous December and brought to Constantinople aboard the armoured cruiser Georgios Averof. Till then he had gone ahead with a flurry of activity from recognizing the ordainments of Anglican priests as valid, to creating a new exarchy of Western and central Europe, to organizing the orthodox churches in the Americas and Australia under the patriarchate. Now he went a step further declaring that with the ecumenical patriarchate "free of its centuries long Turkish captivity" the reasons that had made necessary the autocephaly of the church of Greece no longer existed and the bishopics of old Greece returned to the direct patriarchate control. With a bit or more than a bit of prompting from the government in Athens and in the midst of nationalist fervour, there wasn't any opposition within Greece to the move, after all from the very start the church of Greece was autocephalous but still under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate. Meletius at the instigation of Athens now set his sights on the church finally accepting the Gregorian calendar. A "pan-orthodox council" was called to decide on the matter. This piece of common sense would prove rather more controversial than the patriarch's other actions...
The Near East after the end of World War 1, March 1922
After the ambassador's conference back in November had decided on North Epirus union with Greece, its exact border had remained in limbo. Greek backed rebels had already taken control of the western part. Albanian irregulars with tacit Italian support had taken control of the eastern part. Now the Italians proposed that Greece should be given only a coastal strip from Himara to the current Greek border, with the town of Argyrokastro/Gjirokaster and everything to the east of it left to Albania. Venizelos merely pointed to the proposed border by France and Britain back in 1920 and with his trademark smile said he was willing to accept that. Behind the scenes he sounded the Italian government over accepting as a minimum the Aoos/Vjose river border proposed by the United States in 1919 in exchange of the Soke district in Ionia.
It was not a negotiation going particularly well from the Italian point of view. Italy was headed either for a diplomatic defeat as it appeared that the French and British governments would stand by their earlier position on the status of the border or would have to give up territory under its control to gain Albania a sliver of territory. Worse yet with the treaty with Turkey finalized, Lord Curzon, the British foreign minister, was making increasing noises over when Italy would finally conform to the Sevres agreement about the Dodecanese and pass control of the islands to the Greek government. Something had to be done, claiming as the Italians were doing that North Epirus was in its grand majority Albanian, with half of it under the control of Greek irregulars wouldn't do. During the winter the Italians had quietly shipped arms and equipment to the Albanian irregulars. The signal went out that the Albanians that they had to act now or accept the loss of South Albania without a shot.
North Epirus/Southern Albania, January 27th, 1922 (old calendar)/ February 9th (new calendar)
Ten thousand Albanians attacked in weather that could be best described as atrocious, while a similar number covered the Greek border. The Greek irregulars opposite them were roughly half as many It didn't matter. Three days later Venizelos had British and French approval for the Greek army to intervene, neither government was particularly keen to accept an Italian fait accopli and Venizelos had made sure to take advantage of the sentiment just like he had back in 1919 with Smyrna when it had looked like the Italians where about to land there. Twenty five thousand Greek regulars crossed the border into North Epirus.
Rome, February 28th, 1922
The Italian government, had to accept its failure in North Epirus as soon as the French and British governments had greenlighted Greek intervention there. At least the human cost had fallen solely on the Greeks and Albanians, it had taken the Greeks twelve days to take Korytza/Korce in the face of Albanian resistance. What it did not have to accept was giving the Greeks any more easy gains. The Greek ambassador was served a note that the Italian government unilaterally cancelled the Sevres agreement about the Dodecanese and saw no reason to accomodate Greek views relating to Soke "in view of the recent Greek actions in Albania". The Greeks of both areas would have to wait another day for union with the motherland. For good measure by the same notice the Italian government, denied the extradition of Ioannis Metaxas, sentenced to death in 1920, for his pro-German activities during the National Schism, to Greece. Metaxas would remain in his Roman exile for a while yet...
Constantinople, March 1922
Meletius Metaxakis had been elevated from metropolitan of Athens (and thus head of the autocephalous church of Greece) to the throne of the ecumenical patriarchate as Meletius IV in the previous December and brought to Constantinople aboard the armoured cruiser Georgios Averof. Till then he had gone ahead with a flurry of activity from recognizing the ordainments of Anglican priests as valid, to creating a new exarchy of Western and central Europe, to organizing the orthodox churches in the Americas and Australia under the patriarchate. Now he went a step further declaring that with the ecumenical patriarchate "free of its centuries long Turkish captivity" the reasons that had made necessary the autocephaly of the church of Greece no longer existed and the bishopics of old Greece returned to the direct patriarchate control. With a bit or more than a bit of prompting from the government in Athens and in the midst of nationalist fervour, there wasn't any opposition within Greece to the move, after all from the very start the church of Greece was autocephalous but still under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate. Meletius at the instigation of Athens now set his sights on the church finally accepting the Gregorian calendar. A "pan-orthodox council" was called to decide on the matter. This piece of common sense would prove rather more controversial than the patriarch's other actions...
The Near East after the end of World War 1, March 1922
Attachments
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Now that is a big greece..just one question....i think a very similar map was posted a while back in pride goes before a fall..is that the same map??
Is it's possible for greece to host white russian refugees? Or it will comprise the diplomatic situation between greece and the Soviet Union
formion
Banned
A small note on the map: the Cine and Bozdogan kazas appear turkish instead of italian.
What is the population of this Greece? What is the population of the Constantinopolitan State?
What will happen to the old ottoman arsenals and ammo factories of Constantinople?
This map is almost perfect, (from a Greek POV). It just needs Dodecanese, Cyprus and of course Constantinople becoming Greek 
.
While Turkey looks big on the map, it has some serious issues to solve (not that Greece doesn't have big problems to solve).
The OTL population of Greece in the 1920 census was 5.536.375 (it included Eastern Thrace and Imvros, Tenedos islands but not Ionia). If we take into account the population exchanges, the Greek population after peace should be around 7,5 million people I think.
In 1920 Greece covered 149.150 km² (without Smyrna). Including Smyrna vilaet, Northern Epirus and all Dodecanese (except Rhodes) it covered 173.775 km² and had a population of 7.156.000 people.
.While Turkey looks big on the map, it has some serious issues to solve (not that Greece doesn't have big problems to solve).
The OTL population of Greece in the 1920 census was 5.536.375 (it included Eastern Thrace and Imvros, Tenedos islands but not Ionia). If we take into account the population exchanges, the Greek population after peace should be around 7,5 million people I think.
In 1920 Greece covered 149.150 km² (without Smyrna). Including Smyrna vilaet, Northern Epirus and all Dodecanese (except Rhodes) it covered 173.775 km² and had a population of 7.156.000 people.
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When will the Greeks get their battleships: the Salamis and the Vasilefs Konstantinos (Bretagne-class warship)?
I can see Salamis getting completed with a wealthier Greece, but Konstantinos isn't even started at present, the Greeks would likely order something newer.
If you look carefully at the map, the OTL borders are still showing, they are the black outlines.
Possible? Yes. Likely? Not so much. Besides me not holding into such great esteem the White Russians of OTL, the Greeks had seen the White Russian armies in action first hand in the Ukraine. I very much doubt they were impressed... On the other hand there were 200,000 White Russian refugees in Constantinople in the end of 1920. The number had fallen to about 35,000 by spring 1922 and further to 18,000 by fall 1922. TTL I can see a much stronger White Russian presence.
Older map version, the same one I had uploaded earlier in the Pride goes before a fall thread.
The population of Constantinople... that's an estimate on my part based on the data from Alexandris, McCarthy and Karpat mostly as well as projecting backwards from 1927, but I think it's fairly accurate (hey I'm a good engineer, I tend to believe in my own numbers). Either way I'm god here, so after population movements et all that's the new reality.
Constantinople
Greeks: 318,605
Turks: 459,997
Armenians: 163,670
Jews: 53,606
Other: 154,156
Total: 1,150,014
Dardanelles
Greeks: 31,165
Turks: 149,903
Armenians: 2,474
Jews: 3,642
This map is almost perfect, (from a Greek POV). It just needs Dodecanese, Cyprus and of course Constantinople becoming Greek
While Turkey looks big on the map, it has some serious issues to solve (not that Greece doesn't have big problems to solve).
The OTL population of Greece in the 1920 census was 5.536.375 (it included Eastern Thrace and Imvros, Tenedos islands but not Ionia). If we take into account the population exchanges, the Greek population after peace should be around 7,5 million people I think.
In 1920 Greece covered 149.150 km² (without Smyrna). Including Smyrna vilaet, Northern Epirus and all Dodecanese (except Rhodes) it covered 173.775 km² and had a population of 7.156.000 people.
View attachment 588915
Taking into account all population exchanges the 1922 Greek population would stand at 6,915,959. This breaks down as follows:
| Ethnic composition | ||
| Greek | 6210343 | 89,80% |
| Armenian | 275358 | 3,98% |
| Jewish | 132991 | 1,92% |
| Albanian | 126106 | 1,82% |
| Muslim | 171161 | 2,47% |
Note that Greek also includes at least 82,000 slavic speakers (81,844 to go by the Greek census of 1928). Muslims include ~77,000 Pomaks (over two thirds in Thrace), ~55,000 Circassians, ~23,000 Cretans and ~11,700 Vallhads, along with ~3,200 Ioannina Muslims and 1,200 Muslim Vlachs.
Territorial wise my estimate is 192,918 square km. 150,176 is the Sevres Greece (the census publication of the Greek statistical service gave this so I'm going to stick with it), 36,855 is Greek Ionia, 5,857 North Epirus.
Vasileus Konstantinos? Never. Only laid down at the start of the war, completely obsolete at this point.
Salamis could had been completed even in OTL it was largely a political decision not to do so. What happens here... on one hand Venizelos will be hellbent on Greek naval supremacy in the Aegean. On the other he was always against battleships favouring a flotilla navy.
No plausible way to make that Greek in 1922...
formion
Banned
Well, the Pontic Greeks Genocide just ended. The survivors will depart for Greece as in OTL.
Oh I know... The map in Pride was a spoiler for things to come... The same goes for your old posts on naval policy!Older map version, the same one I had uploaded earlier in the Pride goes before a fall thread.
Thanks for the detailed and neat population figures. Do they include the additional Russian Greeks ?
Did the Greeks keep the captured rolling stock (steam engines and cars) ?
Also, in the map is Antep french ?
And now it's time to get in the economic development of greece... Maybe a third university in Thessaloniki?..hint hint😂
Certainly the Ionian University, which had as prime organizer in OTL the famous mathematician Constantin Carathéodory, but never admitted any students due to the Minor Asia War. ITTL it could start its operation in 1922-23.
Constantin Carathéodory - Wikipedia
-
That's why i said third university not the secondCertainly the Ionian University, which had as prime organizer in OTL the famous mathematician Constantin Carathéodory, but never admitted any students due to the Minor Asia War. ITTL it could start its operation in 1922-23.
Constantin Carathéodory - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Part 17 Of peace and arms
Constantinople, March 1922
The peace treaty had not specifically mentioned the Ottoman munitions factories in Constantinople, technically they were still the property of the Turkish government. The Turks had no intention of giving the Entente any time to rectify this omission. All machinery in the Tophane arsenal and the Zeytinburnu munitions plant that could be of use was being dismantled and shipped off to Samsun. From there it would be loaded to everything from carts to camels and moved to Sivas were it would be reassembled. It was not the only thing being removed. All Ottoman war stocks under Turkish control in Constantinople was being moved away, well most of it, some arms and ammunition found its parh instead into secret caches in the Turkish quarters of the city and the Ottoman palaces, to be utilized in the future.
Sivas, March 1922
The grand national assembly proclaimed Istanbul would perpetually remain the capital of Turkey even if it was "temporarily occupied" by the Entente powers. For the duration of the "occupation" Sivas was declared the provisional capital of Turkey. It was a political defeat of the supporters of the sultan, who would had preferred Bursa or Konya as he capital but it was also a matter of military consideration. Bursa was only 60 kilometers from the new border. Ankara and Konya had fallen to the Greeks during the war. But Sivas would be practically invulnerable in case of a new war.
Izmit, March 1922
Under the peace treaty Sultan Selim Yavuz, the former battlecruiser Goeben, had to be broken up and broken up it was. The Turkish government had been quick to contract German engineers from Blohm und Voss, the very people that had built the ship to do the dismantling. It was a very... careful dismantling. The main gun turrets were being lifted out intact and being stored ashore. All secondary armament and everything else that could be of military value was also being stored ashore. They might not be of immediate use but they would be valuable once Turkey managed to start standing on her feet again. Royal Navy officers watched with interest but did not stop any of this. After all what did they have to complain about? Turkey was certainly abiding by the letter of the treaty...
Mount Sipylus, east of Smyrna, April 1922
The massive 270mm gun of the former battleship Hydra, test fired for the first time in her new role as part of the Smyrna fortified zone. The work start back in late 1920 had made considerable strides. In total 17 forts were being built covering a front of 130 km. Coupled with the mountains around Smyrna they made taking Smyrna a costly proposition. As long as the city could be supplied and reinforced by sea of course, otherwise even if the forts held the over 400,000 people within the fortified zone, soldiers not counting could always be starved. But the Royal Hellenic Navy dominated the Aegean, so this was surely impossible...
Athens, May 3rd, 1922 (old calendar)/May 16th, 1922 (new calendar)
Sir Basil Zaharoff, man of mystery, merchant of death, arms trader extraordinaire, had remembered he was a Greek patriot only when he had met Eleutherios Venizelos and the Cretan had managed to woe even an old cynic like Zaharoff. Even then Vickers had made deals with the Ottoman empire but Zaharoff had helped his motherland wherever he could behind the scenes. After the Greeks had landed in Asia Minor for a change he had even helped without an ulterior motive. It wasn't true that the Greek army had gone to battle mostly kitted in Vickers provided gear, but Zaharoff certainly had used his shady and not so shady connections for the Greek cause beyond an unknown amount of financial contributions to the Greek state, unsubstantiated rumours varied from 4 million pounds sterling to 20 million. [1] But patriotism did not mean he would forego a profit if it could be made and Venizelos had now given a way to both make money an be patriotic simultaneously. Venizelos wanted to see Greece industrialized and having her own arms industries instead of importing everything from abroad. Already from 1919 there were plans for an aircraft factory and also at the prompting of the British naval mission under admiral Kelly of naval construction facilities. Who better than Zaharoff to bring such plans to fruition? The Greek government signed an agreement with Vickers, for the creation of shipyards at Skaramanga to the west of Piraeus, with floating docks suitable for 10,000t ships. Vickers would be providing the technical expertise and training for Greek workers and engineers. The aircraft factory would be built on the other side of Piraeus at Phaleron, with Vickers gaining a contract to provide technical expertise and training.
Zaharoff would have hardly minded to monopolize Greek army sales as well. Venizelos on the other hand would most certainly have minded, the Greek politician was too wily to accept a shadowy figure like Zaharoff completely dominating the Greek arms industry being born. There was an up and coming young Greek businessman from Cappadocia, Prodromos "Bodossakis" Anthanasiadis, starting with a rented watermill at age 17 now at 32 his fortune was worth already millions of pounds including the prestigious Pera Palace in Constantinople as well as Sporting club in the Smyrna quay, who has interested in getting involved in Greek industrial endeavours. [2] Venizelos trusted the young Cappadocian far more than the merchant of death and for good reason. Bodosakis had thought about utilizing German and Austrian war reparations to build up factories in Greece. In particular he sensed an opportunity if he could get his hands on Steyr tooling to build rifles for a start, the Greek army had four main rifle calibres at the moment, it was certain it was going to standardise sooner or later. Zaharoff was quite taken by the young enterprauner and was willing to cooperate. Bodosakis would take over the sole existing arms company EEPK from the National Bank of Greece and form a consortium with Vickers, as "Hephaestus arms company", some classically minded British aide had gotten the best of both Greeks when naming the new company. With Vickers financial backing and the Greek government's gurrantee he could use funds from the war reparations due to it, Bodosakis and his agents were soon off to Austria and Germany. Within the next two years Hephaestus would secure sufficient tooling to be able to produce the Mannlicher-Schoeneuer rifle in Greece [3], while thanks to German reparations Greece's first steel factory would be built in Eleusis...
Chania, Crete, May 15th, 1922
The shots could be heard throughout the town. Many shots, from old Gras and Martini-Henry rifles, to modern Mannlichers and Mausers to pistols. Someone uninitiated might think there was a battle going on. There wasn't of course. Eleutherios Venizelos was back into his hometown. He wasn't just back he was also married with Elena Skylitzi the daughter of extremely rich Anglo-Chiot merchants. The relationship with the "queen of pound sterling" as Elena had been nicknamed was already ongoing for some years. Now with the war over it was time to finalize it and where else could the marriage take place but in Venizelos native Crete. And his fellow Cretans were determined to celebrate the marriage in the traditional manner. How could a marriage be celebrated without shots fired in the air?
Damascus, June 28th, 1922
Henri Gouraud proclaimed the federation of the autonomous states of Syria. Syrian nationalists had every reason to be unhappy with it. Gouraud, a protege of Hubert Lyautey, had taken a page from his old mentor and broken up France's Syrian mandate to no less than six states. There was Greater Lebanon, kept outside Syria outright. There were the states of Damascus and Aleppo, the nationalists were already pressing for their merger. There were the Alawite and Jabal Druze states. And lastly there was the Kurdish state. Kurdish support when the French army had entered Damascus during the French-Syrian war had not gone unnoticed by the French authorities, and the end of the war with Turkey had left over 50,000 more Kurds under French control including heavily Kurdish areas in Mardin and Sirnak. It wasn't difficult to see how the Kurds could be useful both against Arab nationalists to their south and a potentially hostile Turkey to their north...
[1] I frankly doubt the second number if the Greeks had gotten 20 million from Zaharoff they wouldn't be in financial trouble in 1921-22 and the first may be too high as well. But Zaharoff did help and didn't even bother to publish he was helping...
[2] TTL Bodosakis suffered a massive economic hit from the Asia Minor disaster. He still recovered and ended up in control of 35% of the whole Greek industry later in life. TTL he starts his industrial involvement from a far stronger economic position. Of course he is not the only one. There is a certain young Smyrniot who's in far less dire economic circumstances for example...
[3] In OTL Bodosakis did manage to buy some of the Steyr tooling but Greece ordered rifles from Italy in 1925. According to some accounts at least, the Italians apparently had gotten the rest of the tooling or the only Italian part of the rifles was stamping Breda instead of Steyr on them...
The peace treaty had not specifically mentioned the Ottoman munitions factories in Constantinople, technically they were still the property of the Turkish government. The Turks had no intention of giving the Entente any time to rectify this omission. All machinery in the Tophane arsenal and the Zeytinburnu munitions plant that could be of use was being dismantled and shipped off to Samsun. From there it would be loaded to everything from carts to camels and moved to Sivas were it would be reassembled. It was not the only thing being removed. All Ottoman war stocks under Turkish control in Constantinople was being moved away, well most of it, some arms and ammunition found its parh instead into secret caches in the Turkish quarters of the city and the Ottoman palaces, to be utilized in the future.
Sivas, March 1922
The grand national assembly proclaimed Istanbul would perpetually remain the capital of Turkey even if it was "temporarily occupied" by the Entente powers. For the duration of the "occupation" Sivas was declared the provisional capital of Turkey. It was a political defeat of the supporters of the sultan, who would had preferred Bursa or Konya as he capital but it was also a matter of military consideration. Bursa was only 60 kilometers from the new border. Ankara and Konya had fallen to the Greeks during the war. But Sivas would be practically invulnerable in case of a new war.
Izmit, March 1922
Under the peace treaty Sultan Selim Yavuz, the former battlecruiser Goeben, had to be broken up and broken up it was. The Turkish government had been quick to contract German engineers from Blohm und Voss, the very people that had built the ship to do the dismantling. It was a very... careful dismantling. The main gun turrets were being lifted out intact and being stored ashore. All secondary armament and everything else that could be of military value was also being stored ashore. They might not be of immediate use but they would be valuable once Turkey managed to start standing on her feet again. Royal Navy officers watched with interest but did not stop any of this. After all what did they have to complain about? Turkey was certainly abiding by the letter of the treaty...
Mount Sipylus, east of Smyrna, April 1922
The massive 270mm gun of the former battleship Hydra, test fired for the first time in her new role as part of the Smyrna fortified zone. The work start back in late 1920 had made considerable strides. In total 17 forts were being built covering a front of 130 km. Coupled with the mountains around Smyrna they made taking Smyrna a costly proposition. As long as the city could be supplied and reinforced by sea of course, otherwise even if the forts held the over 400,000 people within the fortified zone, soldiers not counting could always be starved. But the Royal Hellenic Navy dominated the Aegean, so this was surely impossible...
Athens, May 3rd, 1922 (old calendar)/May 16th, 1922 (new calendar)
Sir Basil Zaharoff, man of mystery, merchant of death, arms trader extraordinaire, had remembered he was a Greek patriot only when he had met Eleutherios Venizelos and the Cretan had managed to woe even an old cynic like Zaharoff. Even then Vickers had made deals with the Ottoman empire but Zaharoff had helped his motherland wherever he could behind the scenes. After the Greeks had landed in Asia Minor for a change he had even helped without an ulterior motive. It wasn't true that the Greek army had gone to battle mostly kitted in Vickers provided gear, but Zaharoff certainly had used his shady and not so shady connections for the Greek cause beyond an unknown amount of financial contributions to the Greek state, unsubstantiated rumours varied from 4 million pounds sterling to 20 million. [1] But patriotism did not mean he would forego a profit if it could be made and Venizelos had now given a way to both make money an be patriotic simultaneously. Venizelos wanted to see Greece industrialized and having her own arms industries instead of importing everything from abroad. Already from 1919 there were plans for an aircraft factory and also at the prompting of the British naval mission under admiral Kelly of naval construction facilities. Who better than Zaharoff to bring such plans to fruition? The Greek government signed an agreement with Vickers, for the creation of shipyards at Skaramanga to the west of Piraeus, with floating docks suitable for 10,000t ships. Vickers would be providing the technical expertise and training for Greek workers and engineers. The aircraft factory would be built on the other side of Piraeus at Phaleron, with Vickers gaining a contract to provide technical expertise and training.
Zaharoff would have hardly minded to monopolize Greek army sales as well. Venizelos on the other hand would most certainly have minded, the Greek politician was too wily to accept a shadowy figure like Zaharoff completely dominating the Greek arms industry being born. There was an up and coming young Greek businessman from Cappadocia, Prodromos "Bodossakis" Anthanasiadis, starting with a rented watermill at age 17 now at 32 his fortune was worth already millions of pounds including the prestigious Pera Palace in Constantinople as well as Sporting club in the Smyrna quay, who has interested in getting involved in Greek industrial endeavours. [2] Venizelos trusted the young Cappadocian far more than the merchant of death and for good reason. Bodosakis had thought about utilizing German and Austrian war reparations to build up factories in Greece. In particular he sensed an opportunity if he could get his hands on Steyr tooling to build rifles for a start, the Greek army had four main rifle calibres at the moment, it was certain it was going to standardise sooner or later. Zaharoff was quite taken by the young enterprauner and was willing to cooperate. Bodosakis would take over the sole existing arms company EEPK from the National Bank of Greece and form a consortium with Vickers, as "Hephaestus arms company", some classically minded British aide had gotten the best of both Greeks when naming the new company. With Vickers financial backing and the Greek government's gurrantee he could use funds from the war reparations due to it, Bodosakis and his agents were soon off to Austria and Germany. Within the next two years Hephaestus would secure sufficient tooling to be able to produce the Mannlicher-Schoeneuer rifle in Greece [3], while thanks to German reparations Greece's first steel factory would be built in Eleusis...
Chania, Crete, May 15th, 1922
The shots could be heard throughout the town. Many shots, from old Gras and Martini-Henry rifles, to modern Mannlichers and Mausers to pistols. Someone uninitiated might think there was a battle going on. There wasn't of course. Eleutherios Venizelos was back into his hometown. He wasn't just back he was also married with Elena Skylitzi the daughter of extremely rich Anglo-Chiot merchants. The relationship with the "queen of pound sterling" as Elena had been nicknamed was already ongoing for some years. Now with the war over it was time to finalize it and where else could the marriage take place but in Venizelos native Crete. And his fellow Cretans were determined to celebrate the marriage in the traditional manner. How could a marriage be celebrated without shots fired in the air?
Damascus, June 28th, 1922
Henri Gouraud proclaimed the federation of the autonomous states of Syria. Syrian nationalists had every reason to be unhappy with it. Gouraud, a protege of Hubert Lyautey, had taken a page from his old mentor and broken up France's Syrian mandate to no less than six states. There was Greater Lebanon, kept outside Syria outright. There were the states of Damascus and Aleppo, the nationalists were already pressing for their merger. There were the Alawite and Jabal Druze states. And lastly there was the Kurdish state. Kurdish support when the French army had entered Damascus during the French-Syrian war had not gone unnoticed by the French authorities, and the end of the war with Turkey had left over 50,000 more Kurds under French control including heavily Kurdish areas in Mardin and Sirnak. It wasn't difficult to see how the Kurds could be useful both against Arab nationalists to their south and a potentially hostile Turkey to their north...
[1] I frankly doubt the second number if the Greeks had gotten 20 million from Zaharoff they wouldn't be in financial trouble in 1921-22 and the first may be too high as well. But Zaharoff did help and didn't even bother to publish he was helping...
[2] TTL Bodosakis suffered a massive economic hit from the Asia Minor disaster. He still recovered and ended up in control of 35% of the whole Greek industry later in life. TTL he starts his industrial involvement from a far stronger economic position. Of course he is not the only one. There is a certain young Smyrniot who's in far less dire economic circumstances for example...
[3] In OTL Bodosakis did manage to buy some of the Steyr tooling but Greece ordered rifles from Italy in 1925. According to some accounts at least, the Italians apparently had gotten the rest of the tooling or the only Italian part of the rifles was stamping Breda instead of Steyr on them...
@Lascaris I'm greatly enjoying reading this timeline. I'm thinking of making a map for your timeline. I was partly inspired to make my own Greater Greece map (see below) reading this tl. I can't wait to see how this Greece develops. Though do you think the Russian whites would probably flee to Greece due to it being a now being a more significant regional power in the Balkans and Mediterranean?
How do you think Greek society will develop in ttl? Do you see a revival of the "Rhomaoi" identity for Greeks in some sense with how they retook lands in Anatolia? Something like this happened in Italy with Italian nationalists of this era hailing Italy as a successor to the Romans expressing a desire to make Italy a new Mediterranean power.
How do you think Greek society will develop in ttl? Do you see a revival of the "Rhomaoi" identity for Greeks in some sense with how they retook lands in Anatolia? Something like this happened in Italy with Italian nationalists of this era hailing Italy as a successor to the Romans expressing a desire to make Italy a new Mediterranean power.
The Marble Emperor's Revenge! - An Alternate Ending to the Greco-Turkish War
A map depicting Greece's borders after the Greco-Turkish Wars c. 1936 just prior to WWII
As you can see, in ttl, Greece emerged as a victor of the Greco-Turkish War, which in ttl is known also known as the Roman of Restoration within Greece. In ttl Greek propagandists and historians paint the war and the years following Greek independence as part of a larger national struggle for liberation. From an objective perspective, the success of the Balkan Wars and the subsequent Greco-Turkish Wars did allow Greece to emerge as a truly independent state free from economic hegemony under the French and British where it emerged as a strong regional power and the focus of the Orthodox world as Greece with control over Mt. Athos and the restored Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The main pod for this is that the Assassination attempt against King George I is thwarted, and thus Greece has a more pro-entente government which enters WWI earlier after the British promise Cyprus and Northern Epirus to the Greeks. One critical divergence from otl here is that Greece has a much more stable government. A major consequence of this is that the schism between the Venizelists and Constantine's supporters are avoided with King George serving as a mediator between both sides. Thus Prince Constantine is made the head of a better prepared Greek army which helps to relieve the Serbians and has a better military performance in the war which leaves it seen as a much more respected nation at the peace table. Here Greece manages to take Constantinople, but are forced to give it up as part of an international zone. Greece is instead compensated with land in Smyrna. In ttl, Attaturk is killed at Gallipoli leaving Turkey with much less competent government under the Sultanate.
With Smyrna under Greek occupation, the Megali idea of "liberating" the Greeks in Asia and creating a Trans-Aegan state becomes popular. And following King George's death after the end of the War, the new King Constantine takes the throne as "Constantine I and XII." As both Venizelos and Constantine were forced to compromise during the war, the two form a working relationship which leads to a general rapprochement following Constantine's ascension to the throne with the two united in a desire to realize the vision of a "Greater Greece." The Greco-Turkish War here results in a much better prepared and led Greek Army which manages to take over the Western Aegean with the Greek and French armies forcing the Turks to sign a humiliating peace deal after the Greeks capture the main army and eventually Anakara. This left Turkey to a very much reduced in size and out for revenge in the Second World War.
As for the French, Cilicia is ceded back to Turkey which forces many Cilician Armenians to flee to Greece and Armenia fearing reprisals from a vengeful Turkish army. Though the a Kurdish state is setup as a joint Anglo-French puppet alongside an independent Assyrian state. Here in ttl, rather than Wilsonian Armenia being created, the Armenia is a slightly bigger version of the First Republic with it having sea access by virtue of the port city of Batumi. This is a point of contention between the Georgia and Armenia, but these concerns are swept aside with the later rise of the Turkish State forcing the two to band together for mutual protection with Greek support who also allies with Kurdistan mirroring the interbellum "Little Entente" formed in the Balkans to contain a Revanchist Hungary.
With their hold on Constantinople tenuous, it is handed to Greece who re-establish it as their Capital where King Constantine crowns himself in a ceremony reminiscent of the Romans of old as Constantine XII fulfilling the legend of the Marble Emperor retaking the Imperial City. Though this title isn't initially taken seriously until after WW2 when the Empire was cemented as an enduring political entity. Within Greece King Constantine is seen as a highly popular figure (even more than otl) as a "liberator" for the Greeks. Prior to the seizure of Constantinople Prime minister Venizelos was assassinated by a Communist which shocked the public. And with fears of Bolshevism on the rise the Soviets winning the Russian Civil War and the later Battle of Warsaw, which causes the Venezelists rally around the Emperor who created a new more monarchical government. This coalition party of Conservatives, Nationalist, and Venezelists unite against the rising Red Tide sweeping through Europe. This sees a more nationalist government take hold rallying around the Emperor turning Greece into more of de-facto one party Royalist dictatorship.
While things look bright on the surface for the Greeks, the issue of Ethnic tensions remains which leads to a dark chapter in the human history as this period is rife with atrocities committed against each other. In accordance with the treaty of Lausanne, a population transfer was to take place. Though this ended causing a massive humanitarian crisis as millions of people were displaced from their homes.
And with the Fall of Poland and the Caucuses, many in Europe began to fear a wider Communist Revolution throughout Europe. And with the fall of the Caucuses to the Red Tide in the early 1920's, the Ottoman Sultan was overthrown in favor of a shaky and short-lived Turkish Republic which too collapses further into civil war where a new Turkish Socialist Republic emerges victorious both friendly to Moscow and burning with a desire to retake its lost land and avenge its humiliation.
Within Germany, panic spread which led to instability within the Weimar Republic that led to its eventual downfall. Within Austria Kaiser Karl was able to reclaim his throne, and through a plebiscite, managed regain South Tyrol except for Trentino following pro-Austrian riots leading to an internationally mediated plebiscite being held. From there he reclaimed the Hungarian Throne recreating a greatly reduced, but restored Austro-Hungarian Empire. This feeling of a mutilated victory within Italy would contribute to the rise of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1920's.
The year is now 1936 and the young Empire of the Romans now finds itself on shaky ground as its surrounded by enemy nations and an unstable economic situation. Will the legacy of the Marble Emperor be preserved, or will it be smashed to pieces by the oncoming Red Tide?
What do you guys think of this map and lore? I'm thinking of making a larger map encompassing Europe around this time period if you guys are interested.
formion
Banned
Here comes the father of the greek industry. Obtaining EEPK in 1922 along with Steyr machine tools and not losing his Smyrna and Constantinople assets, will do wonders for Bodossakis' liquidity. As it was hinted a major rifle order is coming in the near future.
The question is what direction would Bodossakis choose? Would he follow his OTL interwar strategy of becoming an even more important Greek Army supplier by building a textile industry for blankets and uniforms for the military? Would he follow his OTL post-war strategy when the became the heart and brain of the greek industry with investments in mines, metal factories and chemical/ fertilizer plants?
There are arguments for both strategies. From one side, I would guess that Bodossakis would still have an "army supplier" mentality. From the other side, the greek export agriculture will go in a boom period until 1929 and the subsequent crash. So, an increasing demand for fertilizers will exist.
In general, greek industry has a golden opportunity to kickstart. Perhaps only half of the OTL £80 million are needed for refugee resettlement. As mentioned before, Asiatic Greece has a lot of cash crops that constitute a most valuable source of hard currency. Moreover, East Thrace is an important cereal producer: in OTL interwar Greece, cereal imports constituted 15,20-17,75% of the total value of imports -by far the most important import. To put a price on the above figures, Greece between 1926 and 1928 imported per year $20,7-34,7 million worth of grain and $4,4-8,5 million worth of machinery.
Now Greece has to pay much less hard currency to import grain, while more hard currency is earned by exporting cash crops. Therefore, I believe that Greece can invest much more hard currency to import machinery and industrialize faster.
source: https://www.persee.fr/doc/hism_0982-1783_2000_num_15_3_1798
Commerce Yearbook
books.google.com
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