1918-1924 1935-1940






Greece 1924-35



King George II. had left Greece in December 1923, heading for exile. The monarchy was formally abolished in 1924; Greece was proclaimed a republic. Still there was a period of transition until the republican constitution was implemented in 1927; during a part of that transition Greece was ruled by dictator Theodoros Pangalos who ordered the invasion of Bulgaria (1926); he was ousted the same year.
In 1928 veteran politician Eleftherios Venizelos returned to premiership. His foreign policy was successful, resulting in improved relations with it's neighbours, and in the Balkan Pact of 1934 in which the signatories (Greece, Yugoslavia, Romania and Turkey) guaranteed the present borders.
Economically, Greece was hard hit by the Great Depression; it's exported declined sharply and the country was unable to serve it's foreign debts.

Apart from foreign policy adventures and economic crises, Greece suffered from internal friction. The 1923 elections were boycotted by Venizelos' opponents. As prime minister, Venizelos used his power to alter the election law in order to favour his Liberal Party. In 1933 Venizelos' Liberal Party lost the election, the next government was formed by the People's Party under Panavis Tsaldaris.
Army officers loyal to Venizelos were unwilling to accept the election result. Colonel Nikolaos Plastiras attempted a coup d'etat in 1933; a second coup in 1935 also failed. Venizelos himself went into exile; the country had been placed under martial law.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Greece 1923-1945, from chronos
Hikmet Öksüz, The Reflections of the Balkan Pact in Turkish and European Public Opinion, in : Turkish Review of Balkan Studies 2007 pp.147-171
DOCUMENTS List of Greek Prime Ministers etc., from World Statesmen by Ben Cahoon
Historical Population Statistics : Greece, from Population Statistics, Univ. Utrecht
REFERENCE Richard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece, Cambridge : UP 1992, KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.5 C643a
Article : Greece, in : Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, 15th edition, vol.20 pp.178-205, KMLA Lib.Sign. R 032 B862n v.20
Article : Greece, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1925 pp.991-1002, 1926 pp.961-971, 1928 pp.981-992, 1929 pp.967-977, 1932 pp.974-986 [G]
Article : Greece, in : Americana Annual 1927 pp.393-396, 1928 pp.347-349, 1930 pp.362-363, 1931 pp.360-362, 1932 pp.327-330, 1933 pp.360-361, 1934 pp.283-284, 1935 pp.329-331 [G]
Article : Greece, in : New International Year Book 1925 pp.296-298, 1928 pp.311-314, 1930 pp.330-332, 1932 pp.343-345, 1933 pp.330-331, 1934 pp.285-287, 1935 pp.293-295 [G]
Article : Greece, in : Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Encyclopedia 1932 pp.291-293, 1933 pp.247-249, 1934 pp.271-272, 1935 pp.261-265 [G]
Time/Life : Time Capsule 1925. A History of the Year Condensed from the Passage of Time, NY : 1967, pp.111-112; 1932 (1967) pp.190-192 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on June 6th 2008

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