The Greek War of Independence Begins
A secret society, an uprising in the Peloponnese, and nearly a decade of war against the Ottoman Empire
Quick facts
- Filiki Eteria founded
- 1814, Odessa
- Peloponnese uprising
- 25 March 1821 (traditional date)
- Ottoman sultan
- Mahmud II, r. 1808-1839
- Egyptian intervention
- Mehmed Ali Pasha's army and navy, from 1825
What happened
The Filiki Eteria, a secret society founded in Odessa in 1814 to organize Greek independence, launched an uprising in the Danubian Principalities in early 1821 under Alexandros Ypsilantis; Ottoman forces suppressed it within weeks. The rebellion that mattered began separately in the Peloponnese, traditionally dated to 25 March 1821, and spread rapidly across mainland Greece and the islands. Sultan Mahmud II's forces, reinforced by the army and navy of Egyptian governor Mehmed Ali Pasha, spent the following years grinding down the revolt, capturing Missolonghi and besieging the rebel stronghold of Navarino by 1825; by that point the rebellion was close to fully suppressed on land.
Why it matters
The uprising that began in 1821 was the first sustained attempt by a Christian population to break away from Ottoman rule, and though the Ottomans nearly crushed it militarily, it drew in Britain, France, and Russia, whose intervention would decide the war's outcome and create the first new nation-state to emerge from the Ottoman Empire.
How we know
The 1821 uprising and Ottoman suppression efforts through the mid-1820s are documented in World History Encyclopedia's account of Mahmud II's reign, drawing on the Ottoman historian Stanford Shaw, and cross-referenced in university archival collections marking the war's bicentennial.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Mahmud II: Reformist Sultan of the Ottoman Empire · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- University of Michigan Library. "That Greece Might Still Be Free": Commemorating the Bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence · Reputable sourceapps.lib.umich.edu · The domain "apps.lib.umich.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Ottoman Empire → · See the Ottoman Empire timeline for how the war looked from the imperial side, including Mahmud II's near-success in suppressing the revolt before European intervention.