AHC: Make the Greek Revolution of 1821 more successful

[VadisDeProfundis]

In 1821, the Greeks took up arms and rose up to fight the Ottoman Empire and gain their independence. This revolt had been partly planned,aided or funded by the so called "Filiki Etaireia", a secret society bent on Greek Independence. It lasted for quite some time, but generally, militarily and strategically, while the rebels were able to inflict losses on the Ottomans and their Egyptian vassals, it is considered largely to have been a failure, until, that is, the intervention by the great powers, culminating in the Battle of Navarino, and eventually in the first modern state of Greece.

Your goal here is to make it more successful, to have the rebels gather more support from the great powers, fare better militarily and politically, maybe more funding frommte beginning could be a start. Greece, before 1830, so when it was hardly even an independent state, managed to have civil wars as well as bankruptcies, I guess it would've a good idea to go about addressing that. What would a more successful revolution translate into? Would Greece have managed to get more islands in the Aegean?(Greece only got the Cyclades from the beginning, the rest were got much later) Maybe even Crete, though that seems like a pipedream. Howaboug the mainland border? How would a more successful revolt change the political, social and economic situation of this probably larger Greece?

Your POD can be as far back as you like, as long as it is still a Greek Revolt and not something else, like Catherine's Greek Plan or a total ottoman collapse in the 1800s. That said, a more weak Ottoman Empire, perhaps from a more protracted strife over the same issues that plagued them would be necessary, but try to have the Ottoman State still exist, and have some territory in the Balkans too.

 

[Koprulu Mustafa Pasha]

In 1821, the Greeks took up arms and rose up to fight the Ottoman Empire and gain their independence. This revolt had been partly planned,aided or funded by the so called "Filiki Etaireia", a secret society bent on Greek Independence. It lasted for quite some time, but generally, militarily and strategically, while the rebels were able to inflict losses on the Ottomans and their Egyptian vassals, it is considered largely to have been a failure, until, that is, the intervention by the great powers, culminating in the Battle of Navarino, and eventually in the first modern state of Greece.

Your goal here is to make it more successful, to have the rebels gather more support from the great powers, fare better militarily and politically, maybe more funding frommte beginning could be a start. Greece, before 1830, so when it was hardly even an independent state, managed to have civil wars as well as bankruptcies, I guess it would've a good idea to go about addressing that. What would a more successful revolution translate into? Would Greece have managed to get more islands in the Aegean?(Greece only got the Cyclades from the beginning, the rest were got much later) Maybe even Crete, though that seems like a pipedream. Howaboug the mainland border? How would a more successful revolt change the political, social and economic situation of this probably larger Greece?

Your POD can be as far back as you like, as long as it is still a Greek Revolt and not something else, like Catherine's Greek Plan or a total ottoman collapse in the 1800s. That said, a more weak Ottoman Empire, perhaps from a more protracted strife over the same issues that plagued them would be necessary, but try to have the Ottoman State still exist, and have some territory in the Balkans too.

Alexander I of Russia dies in 1821. France and UK are eyeing on Spain by 1823 so Nicholas I can get his own terms. It won't be too large but OTL 1832 Greece + some islands and small pieces of land in Thessaly extra as extra.

 

[Spatharios]

Even working within the framework of the 1821 revolution, you can still tweak quite a lot of things within Greece that would have a major impact: getting the Greeks to appoint some more trustworthy people to negotiate the loans in England would get them more cash and not saddle the country with that much debt; avoiding the civil wars of 1824-25 would allow them to spend that money on the war against the Turks, not on factional fighting, and leave them on the whole far better prepared to handle the arrival of Ibrahim with his Egyptian troops; appoint more competent people to negotiate the frigate purchase from the US and the steamships from Britain would give the Greeks by 1826 a fleet that could outfight the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet even without the use of fireships.

Quite a lot of the Greek disasters in the war came from the inability to mobilize the fleet quickly due to lack of funds, in this way you could avoid the disasters of Psara, and Kasos, have the Greeks able to challenge Ibrahim's supply lines and cut him off in the Morea, be able to blockade the Ottoman forts in the Morea and starve them to submission, etc. Even IOTL, the armies of both Ibrahim and Mehmed Reshid were on the verge of destruction during the Third Siege of Missolonghi; if the Greek provisional government had mobilized its resources to supply the city so that it could hold out longer and gather a sizeable force to strike from the rear (this was done IOTL but with too few forces), Missolonghi could have been the grave of both.

For the post-war developments, get Kapodistrias to be a bit more diplomatic with the domestic opposition, and King Leopold to accept the throne, and you are on a much better footing. Check Earl Marshal's excllent timeline Pride Goes Before a Fall for such a scenario.