After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Ottoman Turks conquered almost all of Greece within a few decades: Athens in 1456, the Despotate of the Morea in 1460, Negroponte (Euboea) in 1470, Rhodes in 1522, Chios in 1566, Cyprus in 1571. Crete held out until 1669. In southern Greece Ottoman rule lasted almost four centuries; in the north and many islands until 1912-1913.
How Greece was governed
The Ottoman Empire organised its subjects into millets, religious communities with their own laws on marriage, inheritance and education. All Orthodox Christians, whether Greek, Slav, Albanian or Romanian, formed the Rum millet, led by the Patriarch of Constantinople: hence the Church became the centre of Greek life. Christians paid higher taxes than Muslims, could not bear arms or ride horses in towns, and until the 17th century were subject to the devshirme, the levy of boys who were converted to Islam and trained as janissaries or officials.
Venice in Greece
Not all of Greece was Ottoman at the same time. The Republic of Venice held many possessions for centuries:
| Territory | Venetian period |
|---|---|
| Crete (Kingdom of Candia) | 1211-1669 |
| Ionian Islands (Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Ithaca) | From the 14th-15th century to 1797 |
| Naxos and the Cyclades (Duchy of the Archipelago) | 1207-1566, under Venetian lords |
| Nafplio and Monemvasia | Until 1540 |
| Morea (Peloponnese) | 1685-1715, reconquered by Morosini |
| Tinos | Until 1715 |
During the Morean War, in 1687, a Venetian cannonball struck the Parthenon, used by the Turks as a powder magazine, and blew it up. Venetian influence can still be seen in fortresses, lions of St Mark, the Catholicism of some islands and many Greek words of Italian origin.
Daily life
Most Greeks were peasants in villages, often in the mountains, further from Turkish control. Many islands enjoyed wide autonomy. In the mountains lived the klephts, rebel bandits celebrated in folk songs, and the armatoloi, Christian militias in Ottoman service, who often switched sides. In 1770 the Orlov revolt in the Peloponnese, backed by Russia, was harshly put down.
Merchants, Phanariots and Enlightenment
In the 18th century Greeks became leading players in Ottoman trade: shipowners of Hydra, Spetses and Psara built powerful fleets, and Greek merchant communities thrived in Venice, Trieste, Vienna, Odessa and Smyrna. In Constantinople the wealthy families of the Phanar district, the Phanariots, held high Ottoman offices and ruled Wallachia and Moldavia as princes. Merchant money funded schools and printing presses, and the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution spread: Adamantios Korais in Paris worked for Greek language and education, and the poet Rigas Feraios dreamed of a Balkan republic before being executed in 1798.
What remains
Mosques, Turkish baths (hammams), fountains and Ottoman houses can still be seen in Ioannina, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Chania, Nafplio and Athens. Greek cuisine shares many dishes with Turkish cooking, from moussaka to sweets with honey and nuts, and many everyday words. In 1814 in Odessa three merchants founded the Filiki Eteria, the "Society of Friends", which would prepare the revolution of 1821.
See also the Byzantine Empire and the history of Greece.