The Greek War of Independence by David Brewer

Author:David Brewer [BREWER, DAVID]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS002010; HIS002020; HIS027080;
ISBN: 9781468312515
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2011-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Also supporting the Senate were Mavrokordhátos, the islanders (especially those from Hydra), and a number of the captains. Other splits cut across this broad division between Executive and Senate. The Executive itself was divided, and so was the Senate, eleven of its members ultimately aligning themselves with the opposition to it. There was antipathy between regions, especially between the Peloponnese and the islands, and divisions within regions, notably between the Peloponnesian leaders. There were also the shifting allegiances and disputes between individuals and families. In short, it was as if the mirror of the Greek body politic was now not merely cracked but splintered and about to disintegrate.

This disintegration is demonstrated by the moves from place to place by the two branches of the government during 1823. After the assembly at Ástros in April both branches moved to Tripolis, and in August to Salamís. However in October they split, the Senate remaining at Salamís while the Executive moved to Navplion, where it was under the wing of Kolokotrónis since Navplion was still garrisoned by his forces. In November the Senate moved away from Salamís and closer to its supporters in the naval islands, going first to Árgos and then to Kranídhi, which is within twenty miles of both Hydra and Spétses. But Kranídhi is also only twenty-five miles from Navplion. Thus by the end of the year the Senate and the Executive, having for some time circled each other like fighters in a ring, had taken up positions for confrontation.

A string of incidents had brought this confrontation closer. Kolokotrónis had joined the Executive in June only under threats from the Senate, and from the start had acted as member and vice-president simply for the advantages it might bring him. He made no secret of this. ‘Cease singing,’ he told his Executive colleagues, ‘and my dance ceases.’7 ‘Dancing’ here is co-operating and ‘singing’ is offering inducements. As time went on the inducements for Kolokotrónis to co-operate with the Executive became less. His position on the Executive had not strengthened his hand as a military leader and if anything had weakened it. The soldiers and the common people were coming to regard him less as a great general, the hero of Dhervenákia, and more as just another politician. At the end of October 1823 Kolokotrónis resigned from the Executive. He was thus no longer the puppet of the Senate, and was free to follow his original line of opposing it.

Further disputes between the Senate and the Executive arose over the legality of each other’s actions. Iánnis Peroúkas the finance minister, who was answerable to the Executive, imposed a government monopoly on salt. Every family in the land needed salt and would be hurt by a price rise imposed by a monopolistic government. The measure was one of those tax-raising schemes which governments have so often blithely introduced without reckoning on the resultant outcry. The minister had acted without Senate approval, which the law required, and on this ground the Senate dismissed him.

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