Read Online Greece, the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule From the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence by David Brewer - Free Book Online
Authors: David Brewer
Tags: History; Ancient
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Constantinople with the Adriatic, and Tríkala which became a military centre because it lay on the route of any Turkish army moving south. Smaller towns sometimes flourished because of a particular product or trade, such as Kastoriá for furs, fish and wine, Monastíri for textiles and Édhessa for dyeing.
Of all the Greek townships Thessalonika was the most important, as it had been under the Byzantines. Its location was unrivalled for tradeoverland because it lay on the crucial Via Egnatia, and for seaborne trade because of its fine harbour. In the sixteenth century Thessalonika’s harbour was described as being able to hold at least 300 vessels, and in the seventeenth ships were putting in at Thessalonika from as far away as England, Algeria and the Persian Gulf.
When in 1430 the Turks made their last and conclusive attack on Thessalonika the city refused to surrender, though it seems that many of the besieged were ready to do so. ‘They actually declared they were bent on handing over the city to the infidel,’ wrote Archbishop Simeón. ‘Now that for me was something more difficult to stomach than ten thousand deaths.’ 7 But the refusal to surrender led to thousands of deaths anyway, amid scenes of destruction paralleled 23 years later at the fall of Constantinople. By contrast, Iánnina in the same year 1430 surrendered to the Turks and was spared. From the attackers’ point of view to threaten destruction as the price of resistance made surrender attractive, which would save all the human and material costs of siege and assault. But to be credible the threat had to be carried out, and this brought its own costs. The ruined city was no longer economically productive, and had to be revived and repopulated.
The repopulation of Thessalonika was partly by Greeks: it is estimated that about 1,000 Greeks who had been captured when the city fell were ransomed on the Sultan’s initiative and returned to Thessalonika, as did others who had fled earlier. Muslims were also brought in and, by the time of the first surviving city census of 1478, made up nearly half the total population of 10,000. Even after the population exchange of 1923 there remained a Turkish quarter on the heights above the city. Until the Turks left in 1974 as a result of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, one could still from that vantage point look out over a Greek city and a Greek sea and feel that one was nevertheless in Turkey. But the most significant new arrivals were the Jews who had been expelled from Christian countries.
Expulsion of Jews was nothing new. In 1290 Edward I had expelled the Jews from England, reacting to popular resentment of the Jews because of their power as moneylenders. The expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Ferdinand II in 1492 was in part for the same reason, but was also driven by religious and political motives. A century earlier a wave of anti-Jewish riots in Spain had driven many Jews to be baptised as Christians and become conversos . These nominal converts, who still wielded great influence as financiers, were widely suspected of covertly continuing their old beliefs and practices; indeed, some did so openly. In 1449, in response to more anti-Jewish riots, a decree of ‘purity of blood’ was introduced in Toledo, banning all those of Jewish ancestry frommunicipal office in the city, a measure soon followed elsewhere. Finally in March 1492 Ferdinand ordered the expulsion within four months of all professing Jews in Spain and in the Spanish dominions of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, and many conversos left with them, an exodus of between 120,000 and 150,000 people.
Significantly, the expulsion of the Jews came less than three months after the Spanish conquest of Granada and the final expulsion of the Moors. Thus the year 1492 presented an opportunity for Ferdinand to remedy the total lack of political unity between Castilians, Aragonese and Catalans by imposing an unsullied religious unity. Spain would be
Of all the Greek townships Thessalonika was the most important, as it had been under the Byzantines. Its location was unrivalled for tradeoverland because it lay on the crucial Via Egnatia, and for seaborne trade because of its fine harbour. In the sixteenth century Thessalonika’s harbour was described as being able to hold at least 300 vessels, and in the seventeenth ships were putting in at Thessalonika from as far away as England, Algeria and the Persian Gulf.
When in 1430 the Turks made their last and conclusive attack on Thessalonika the city refused to surrender, though it seems that many of the besieged were ready to do so. ‘They actually declared they were bent on handing over the city to the infidel,’ wrote Archbishop Simeón. ‘Now that for me was something more difficult to stomach than ten thousand deaths.’ 7 But the refusal to surrender led to thousands of deaths anyway, amid scenes of destruction paralleled 23 years later at the fall of Constantinople. By contrast, Iánnina in the same year 1430 surrendered to the Turks and was spared. From the attackers’ point of view to threaten destruction as the price of resistance made surrender attractive, which would save all the human and material costs of siege and assault. But to be credible the threat had to be carried out, and this brought its own costs. The ruined city was no longer economically productive, and had to be revived and repopulated.
The repopulation of Thessalonika was partly by Greeks: it is estimated that about 1,000 Greeks who had been captured when the city fell were ransomed on the Sultan’s initiative and returned to Thessalonika, as did others who had fled earlier. Muslims were also brought in and, by the time of the first surviving city census of 1478, made up nearly half the total population of 10,000. Even after the population exchange of 1923 there remained a Turkish quarter on the heights above the city. Until the Turks left in 1974 as a result of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, one could still from that vantage point look out over a Greek city and a Greek sea and feel that one was nevertheless in Turkey. But the most significant new arrivals were the Jews who had been expelled from Christian countries.
Expulsion of Jews was nothing new. In 1290 Edward I had expelled the Jews from England, reacting to popular resentment of the Jews because of their power as moneylenders. The expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Ferdinand II in 1492 was in part for the same reason, but was also driven by religious and political motives. A century earlier a wave of anti-Jewish riots in Spain had driven many Jews to be baptised as Christians and become conversos . These nominal converts, who still wielded great influence as financiers, were widely suspected of covertly continuing their old beliefs and practices; indeed, some did so openly. In 1449, in response to more anti-Jewish riots, a decree of ‘purity of blood’ was introduced in Toledo, banning all those of Jewish ancestry frommunicipal office in the city, a measure soon followed elsewhere. Finally in March 1492 Ferdinand ordered the expulsion within four months of all professing Jews in Spain and in the Spanish dominions of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, and many conversos left with them, an exodus of between 120,000 and 150,000 people.
Significantly, the expulsion of the Jews came less than three months after the Spanish conquest of Granada and the final expulsion of the Moors. Thus the year 1492 presented an opportunity for Ferdinand to remedy the total lack of political unity between Castilians, Aragonese and Catalans by imposing an unsullied religious unity. Spain would be
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