Greece in Guo Kang's time was a very divided regime, which has little reference significance for his current situation - or, in other words, the reference significance is that Greece cannot break away from Rome, just like the "Jiangnan Kingdom" cannot be maintained stably.
When Greece attempted to gain independence from the Ottomans, it received a large amount of external support. At that time, many European literati still believed that Greece was the starting point of European civilization. It was difficult for everyone to accept that such a region was under the rule of pagans. Therefore, many people were willing to provide support, forming a "pro-Hellenic" atmosphere.
Everyone respects ancient Greek culture and admires the achievements of classical Greece, so they are also willing to help today's Greece. For the weak Greeks at the time, these supports were crucial.
Finally, with the military intervention of Britain, France and Russia, Greece's independence was successful. But this help is not free.
Although everyone is "close" to Greece, feelings are feelings and money is money. Debt repayment cannot be avoided.
In order to fight against the Ottomans, the Greeks carried forward their traditional skills, lobbied various forces, borrowed money lavishly, and made various promises in exchange for assistance to support the war. During the war, they also lacked unified command and each relied on different powers. Therefore, as soon as it was founded, Greece owed a lot of debt to other countries.
Originally, they elected a Tsarist Russian minister as the leader of the reunification, but after he was assassinated, the country fell into chaos again, and there was no one left who could preside over the repayment of debts. The dissatisfied powers gave Greece a king from Bavaria, but a committee of foreigners actually ran the country. Their main task is to make money as quickly as possible and recover the investment of the great powers. The intensity of taxation even exceeded that of the Ottoman rule.
After the establishment of the Kingdom's government, Greece provided a one-time loan of 60 million Swiss gold francs just to maintain the Kingdom's government. Every time they could not repay the debt, the British did not hesitate to blockade the Greek coast with warships, forcing them to continue to repay. Since Britain needed to transfer money to the Ottomans at this time, part of the Greek taxes were handed over to them and then directly transferred to the Ottomans next door. I paid money to Ottoman before independence, and I paid money to Ottoman after independence. I don’t know what happened...
Later, in order to prevent Russia from going south and seizing the Black Sea outlet, Britain began to support the Ottomans against Russia. At the same time, the pro-Russian faction within Greece, formed due to the support of the Orthodox Church and Tsarist Russia, also disgusted the British. After the Crimean War broke out, the British army once again occupied the port of Piraeus. This blockade lasted for three years, leading to the complete bankruptcy of Greece. There was really no other way, so Greece chose to remain stubborn. This bad debt actually lasted for decades, and it was only after World War I that it was forced to cancel.
Since then, debts, debt repayments, defaults and debt re-debts have appeared repeatedly in Greek history and have never stopped. Even if they are exempted because they stood on the right side in the war, they will soon fall into debt crisis again. Moreover, these debts are obviously not easy to repay - or in other words, the moneylenders probably won't let them repay them so easily. Even if the Greeks are not lazy at work, they have never been able to break out of this cycle.
And beyond financial debt, there are more serious problems.
Many Europeans gave support to Greece for the sake of "civilization" and "morality." As individuals, they may indeed be selfless, but where in the world is there funding that comes at no cost? Free things may be the most expensive.
These "civilized" debts have consequences that may be more serious than monetary debts.
When Greece became independent, the upper-class literati who presided over the construction of national concepts were basically influenced by European popular culture. They generally support Enlightenment ideas, pursue ancient Greece, and oppose Rome and the church.
These people believe that the era of city-states and democratic politics was the best era for Greece. After that, the unification of Rome was actually a kind of tyranny, and Christianity was synonymous with conservatism and backwardness. Therefore, most of the early theorists hoped to abandon the name of Rome and use the legal system of ancient Greece to establish the country. The literary and linguistic scholar Colaeus even said, "Whoever calls me a Roman in the future will be my enemy."
These strange "nationalist" views have caused great division and confusion.
To most ordinary Greeks, this theory was unbelievable. Even after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, they still considered themselves Romans, and the church was an important force in maintaining their identity. Taking action on the concepts of Rome and the Church, making them confused about what this Greece is.
A classic story happened at that time: the Greek army landed on an island and established a camp. The residents of the island came to watch, wanting to see what the Greeks looked like. A little boy asked a Greek soldier, where are the Greeks? The soldiers told him that you yourselves are Greeks. The little boy immediately retorted, saying that we are not, we are Romans.
This division has not yet affected the upper echelons of Greece, who are still pushing the entire country to become more "Greek", or more like ancient Greece in the eyes of Europeans.
The Greek government chose Athens as its capital and carried out extensive renovations. The monuments that did not meet their expectations were cleared away, leaving only those relics of the classical era. New buildings are also basically following the classical style, making the city look more like what was expected.
At the same time, the Greeks invented a new word: "archaeology." Not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, they established corresponding government agencies, promulgated laws, organized societies, and founded archaeological journals.
But the archeology of this period was not so much about studying ancient history as it was about studying and publicizing specific ancient history. They only focus on the classical era, and the remains of the Eastern Roman, Latin Empire, and Ottoman eras are often deliberately removed in order to maintain the "purity" of Greek culture in everyone's imagination.
Until modern times, people can still see many ancient ruins that were forcibly "completed" using clumsy techniques, and nondescript cultural relics that were deliberately "restored" according to people's imagination at the time. These are basically "masterpieces" left behind by that era. . This kind of behavior not only destroys the classical cultural relics themselves, but also often comes at the expense of destroying other strata and destroying cultural relics from other eras. The credibility of Greek archeology has also been greatly damaged.
Almost all of these "national inventors" and "cultural relic architects" came from France, Germany and other countries. According to their own wishes, they dressed up Greece into the Greece of their imagination in order to satisfy their desire to "restore Greek civilization." As for Greece itself, it has become a large-scale cosplay venue. No one cared about the Greeks' own civilization and ideas.
——The reason is very simple. Western volunteers and supporters are all "Jingxi", not "Jingluo", even the enthusiastic and selfless Lord Byron. That's what the Greeks had to do in order to get sponsorship. They had no choice.
(End of chapter)
