ii Verdad como derecho de los Justiciables y de la Sociedad

It has been suggested that the Greek War of Indepen- dence of 1821 was a social rather than national movement against the Ottoman Empire. The emerg- ing middle class of merchants and traders, as well as the lower classes of labourers and farmers found ex- cellent ground for rebellion against a foreign govern- ment. On the other hand, the Catholic (Greeks or Hellenised Venetians) landowners, most of them des- cendants of the old aristocratic Venetian colonisers, as well as thekotzambasides(i.e.wealthier local gov- ernors) refused to take part in the rebellion, for they feared to lose their positions and privileges (Skliraki 1989). This period between 1821 and 1900 is charac- terised by a constant growth in activities in the coun- tryside (at the beginning and middle of the 19th cen- tury) and a more intense participation in wider trading patterns and communications. The continu- ous battle between the social classes of landowners (the old upper class), merchants and traders (the emergent middle class), and the agricultural labourers (the lower class) is also noteworthy.

Some of the Cycladic Islands, such as Melos and Kea (Wagstaff 1982a, 69; Sutton 1991, 386) were the first places to join the Greek revolt, by providing financial help as well as pilots for many of the ships from the allied islands. After the establishment of the Modern Greek State in the early 1830s, however, the scenery changed drastically, with the incorporation of the Cy- clades into the newly founded Kingdom of Greece. The islands became the administrative province of the Cyclades (nomos Kykladon), with the town of Er- moupolis on the island of Syros as its capital. The Cyclades lost the self-autonomy they enjoyed during the Ottoman period, to join the highly centralised Greek State. Although taxes assessed after the estab- lishment of the Modern Greek state were lower than

those in issue during the Ottoman period (since the head tax was not included), the Ottomans’tax-farm- ing system was maintained, while‘Athens simply re- placed Istanbul as a centre of control’ (Davis 1991, 154).

Population grew steadily throughout the 19th century in the Cyclades. It is noteworthy, however, that the average number of people in a family (in Europe, the Balkans and the Aegean) during the first half of the 19th century was four (Komis 1999, 315), slightly smaller than 4-4.75 of the Ottoman period (Kiel 2007, 44). The detailed censuses of the island of Syros provide a representative example of population development throughout the 19th century (Table 3.11). The short period of population decrease in 1854-1856 was probably the result of the Crimean War (Wagstaff and Cherry 1982, 151-2). Outward migration at the same period may have contributed to this pattern, which seems to have been the islands’ response to the forces of contemporary Greek life (Sutton 1991, 384-5). But did this population in- crease, reflect economic growth as well, and if so, how?

Year New town of Ermoupolis Old town and villages Total 1828 13,805 6392 20,197 1834 12,392 4551 16,943 1848 19,410 5092 24,502 1853 19,981 4671 24,652 1856 16,830 4144 20,974 1861 18,511 4567 23,078 1870 20,996 5484 26,480 1879 21,540 5406 26,946 1889 22,104 9469 31,573 1896 18,760 8996 27,756 1907 18,132 9193 27,325 1920 18,663 5933 24,596 1928 21,416 6247 27,663 Table 3.11 Population figures for the new town of Ermoupolis, the old town and the countryside villages on the island of Syros from 1828 to 1928 (data source: Kolodny 1969/70)

A large number of refugees from still Ottoman-domi- nated areas, such as Chios, Psara, Crete, the Pelopon- nese as well as Asia Minor, fled to Syros between 1821 and 1829 since this ‘Roman-Catholic’ island

was under French protection. The temporary refu- gees’huts set on the coastline of the future Ermoupo- lis port, became a town numbering 13,805 people in 1828. The population of Syros, living away from the turbulent events of the Revolution, formed a power- ful human resource that quickly established small- scale companies providing timber, iron and rope for shipbuilding. These newly built vessels were inten- sively used for the transport of goods in the Aegean and the Black Sea, and steadily provided the capital for the construction of a whole commercial fleet (Ko- lodny 1969-70, 254-9). As a result, shipping became the major‘industry’of the Cyclades after the War of Independence, from 1835 onwards. The emergence of Ermoupolis not only as the major port of the new- ly founded Greek Kingdom but also as a focus of trade in the Aegean region, meant that a large num- ber of the active male population was employed as sailors and pilots. The Greek State, very littoral in- deed, confined between (present-day) central Greece, the Peloponnese and the Cyclades, was in need for a littoral commercial port instead of land means of transport. The invention of steamships, however, took over much of the Aegean trade by the 1880s. The mainland expansion of the Greek State, on the other hand, the emergence of Piraeus as an important port and the reorganising of Aegean sea routes led to the steady decline of Ermoupolis and other island ports in the later 19th century (Wagstaff 1982b, 241). Agriculture still played an important role in island economy. It has been suggested (Wagstaff 1982b, 239) that about 22% of export earnings in Melos came from agricultural produce in 1848. The islands’ surviving upper class of the Ottoman times (which lived in theChoraor port-town of each island) con- trolled both agriculture and the reception of foreign ships. Nearly all of these ports were excellent shel- ters and remained convenient provisioning posts for ships moving between Istanbul and major European ports. Several European countries such as England and France maintained agents, usually drawn from the local class of archontes. Most of the islanders, such as the inhabitants of Kea (Sutton 1991, 386-7), participated in international economic systems through the exporting of at least small amounts of wine, silk, grain, acorns, as well as considerable quantities of marble, limestone, and millstone. Simi- larly, on the Greek Mainland, the last quarter of the

19th century saw a remarkable improvement of the countryside, as a result of national and international trade (cf. Aschenbrenner 1972). As has already been discussed above, Kea probably produced more than was needed for local consumption, especially in the late 18th and early-middle 19th centuries. As has been argued by Sutton (1991, 387) ‘whether or not the middle class of shopkeepers and artisans and the lower class of agricultural labourers shared thearch- ons’goals, their actions were strongly influenced by them’. The simple fact that their agricultural labour was directed toward both export and subsistence must have had some effect. It seems, however, that the islands could not attract the class ofarchontesfor much longer. After the ‘power struggle’ during the first half of the 19th century, the passing of the Dota- tion Law of 1835, which officially limited the size of agricultural estates and promised the distribution of land to peasants, gradually eroded the power base of many local leaders. Indeed, most of the educated is- land archontes are to be found after 1835 in large centres like Athens, Istanbul, and Paris. This practice was common amongst local Greek leaders, as the op- portunities for leadership and wealth offered by the rising centres of the new Greek state drew represen- tatives of many prominent families to them (Petro- poulos 1968; Sutton 1991, 388-9). It is notable that even members of the middle and lower classes of that period in the islands adjusted to the Westernising mentality prevailing in the Early Modern Greek State. Many Cycladic families sent their daughters and sons to be servants, cooks and potters in places like Istanbul, Izmir, Çanak Kale, and the fact that they returned wearing Franco-Levantine dress rather than the traditional island clothing shows the effects of change at all social groups (Sutton 1991, 387).