Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 29, 2025
The It was at this time that Venizelos came to the front. The Cretan government was really independent, like a little kingdom without a king, and he was its true ruler. Now all the Greeks had looked forward to the time when they might be united in one great kingdom. The shores of Asia Minor and the cities along the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles were largely inhabited by Greeks.
The Venizeloists were in a large majority. The next day the Gounaris government felt that it could no longer maintain itself, and consequently resigned. A few days later Venizelos was again Prime Minister of Greece, and the Allies, who were still ignorant of the fatal treaties between Bulgaria and Germany, believed that the difficulties in the Balkan situation had finally been smoothed out.
It was then that Venizelos arose and expressed the opinion that an apology was also due from the war minister because of his disrespectful behavior in leaving the House. The premier, M. Zaimis, thereupon declared that, in the opinion of the Government, the war minister's conduct had been perfectly correct and he demanded a vote of confidence from the assembled deputies.
The guns of the allied fleet were pointed at Athens. More than half of the Greek people favored Venizelos and the Entente as against the king and Germany. A second time within four months a European monarch who was out of sympathy with his subjects was forced to resign his crown. The first was the Czar of Russia, as is told in a later chapter.
In reality they were striving to teach them elementary geography, history, and politics. The Ulysses of the Conference, M. Venizelos, first pilgrimaged to London, saying: "If the Foreign Office is with Greece, what matters it who is against her."
In 1912 a league was formed, under the direction of the Greek statesman, Venizelos, having for its object an attack on Turkey. By secret treaties arrangements were made for the division of the land, which they hoped to obtain from Turkey. War was declared, and Turkey was decisively defeated, and then the trouble began.
However, this question hung fire for some time, and later dispatches would indicate that the Allies did not press their point, for eventually when the arrival of the Serbian troops in Saloniki was announced, it was stated incidentally that they had come by means of transports. But meanwhile Venizelos was continuing his campaign against the ministry.
In the November elections they repudiated Venizelos by a vote of 990,000 to 10,000, and recalled King Constantine, who had been deposed by the Allies three years before. This meant that Greece, like Italy, was out of the game. To be sure, King Constantine presently started hostilities with the Turks on his own account.
This led to a crisis in the Greek parliament, where the Venizelos party caused the downfall of the cabinet, which supported the king's attitude of strict neutrality a neutrality he had promised his consort, who is the sister of the Kaiser, as you know.
When thousands came and the newcomers could take inspiration from those of their brothers who had preceded them and achieved success, nationality asserted itself. Larger groups now talked about Venizelos and a greater Greece; their chests expanded at the thought of Marathon and Plato; and companies paraded amid applause as they went to fight in the Balkans.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking