The Theriso revolt (Greek: Επανάσταση του Θερίσου, romanized: Epanástasi tou Therísou) was an insurrection that broke out in March 1905 against the government of Crete, then an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty. The revolt was led by the Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos, and is named after his mother's native village, Theriso, the focal point of the revolt.
The revolt stemmed from the dispute between Venizelos and the island's ruler, Prince George of Greece, over the island's future, particularly over the question of Cretan union with Greece. The conflict's origin can be traced to 1901, when Prince George dismissed Venizelos from the government. The hostility between Venizelos and the prince was precipitated by the latter's attitude toward foreign relations and by his refusal to engage in dialogue with his advisers over the island's internal affairs. After a prolonged political struggle, Venizelos and his followers decided upon an armed uprising, with the goals of uniting Crete with Greece and ushering in a more democratic government for the island.
The Theriso revolt not only established Venizelos as the leading politician in Crete, but also brought him to the attention of the wider Greek world. His reputation would lead in 1909 to his call to Greece, where he became Prime Minister.
Context
Autonomous Crete
In 1897, a renewed revolt broke out in Crete, which had been under Ottoman domination since the mid-17th century. The island's Christian majority wished to join Greece, but the Great Powers (France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary) were opposed to it. A compromise led to the creation of an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty, guaranteed by the presence of military contingents of the Powers. Prince George of Greece, the second son of King George I, was named High Commissioner. In turn, Prince George named Eleftherios Venizelos prime minister.
Disagreements soon emerged between the two men. Their first argument concerned the construction of a palace for Prince George. Shortly after his arrival on the island, the latter indicated his wish for a palace. Venizelos protested that a palace would be a symbol of permanence for a regime he intended to be temporary, while union with Greece was awaited. The offended prince eventually dropped his demand for a palace.
The principal source of contention between the Prince and Venizelos concerned their vision for the island's government. Although the chief author of the island's constitution (notably of articles guaranteeing individual liberties and equality between Christians and Muslims), Venizelos believed it was far too conservative and granted the Prince too much power. The Cretan assembly had few powers and only met once every two years. Moreover, ministers were in fact counselors to the prince, who alone could approve laws.
In foreign relations, Prince George alone was authorised to deal with the Great Powers, as illustrated by the absence of a foreign affairs minister. The Prince took responsibility for the matter of Greek annexation of the island and discussing the subject with the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Italy and Britain, without taking care to speak to his counselors. In the summer of 1900, when he was preparing to tour the European courts, the prince declared: "When I am travelling in Europe, I shall ask the Powers for annexation, and I hope to succeed on account of my family connections".
Venizelos thought union would be premature, especially as Cretan institutions were still unstable. He recommended instead the creation of a Cretan army, followed by the withdrawal of European troops. Once foreign control had diminished, then union with Greece could take place. However, this approach was dimly viewed by public opinion and the Athenian newspapers impatient for union to succeed.
Dismissal of Venizelos
In February 1901, the Powers refused to make any change to the island's status. Although this demonstrated the correctness of Venizelos' approach, something Prince George publicly admitted, it was the minister who endured attacks from the press.
Venizelos handed in his resignation on two occasions: first on 5 March 1901, citing health reasons, and then on 18 March, explaining that he could not work while in permanent disagreement with his colleagues and the High Commissioner. George refused to accept his resignation, instead preferring to dismiss him for insubordination. On 20 March, posters on the walls of Chania announced the Prince's dismissal of Venizelos.
After his departure, the newspapers launched an anti-Venizelos campaign. A series of articles possibly written by the Prince's secretary referred to him as the "insolent counselor", criticising his policies as anti-union, anti-dynastic and pro-Powers. After his dismissal, Venizelos withdrew from politics. However, in December 1901, he responded to the accusations by means of five articles in the newspaper Kyrix, prompting the Prince to throw his former minister in prison.
Revolt
Venizelos next appeared on the public stage in the spring of 1905, when an insurrection against the Cretan government broke out. He was its leader, denouncing the corruption of Prince George's entourage and the ruler's inability to persuade the Great Powers to accept the idea of Crete's union with Greece. The Powers, especially Russia and Austria-Hungary, adamantly opposed union for fear it would disrupt the fragile political equilibrium in Europe, particularly in the Balkans. Additionally, they were unwilling to appease Greece, with its famously weak army and navy, at the expense of alienating Turkey.
During the Cretan Revolt (1897–1898) which led to the establishment of autonomy in Crete, Venizelos was a fervent proponent of union with Greece. However, during his premiership of the island, he envisioned autonomy, believing union would be premature. During his absence from power, Venizelos again changed his belief about the "Cretan Question". As in 1897, he thenceforth advocated union at all costs. Although absent from political life, he showed his support for the advocates of union (Enosis) during their demonstrations.
Theriso assembly
In February 1905, Venizelos organised an assembly at Theriso with a group of seventeen other Cretan leaders who became the core of his movement. At first they were joined by 300 armed Cretans who, although not posing a significant military threat, would prove very difficult to remove, hidden in the Theriso gorge. The impact of this act was important: within twenty days, some 7,000 sympathisers had flocked to Theriso. Venizelos chose the village of Theriso for its strategic position 14 km from Chania, its natural defenses at the foothills of the White Mountains, and its easy access to other villages and valleys around Chania, as well as toward Sfakia. The passage toward Theriso was defended by narrow gorges, easy for the insurgents to control. Moreover, these gorges concealed numerous grottoes and caverns that served as natural shelters for the insurgents who converged around Theriso. The village was already a symbol of resistance before 1905: in 1821, during the Greek War of Independence, several hundred Greeks there had routed an army of 21,000 Ottomans.
The rebellion broke out officially in broad daylight on 23 March [O.S. 10 March] 1905, when some 1,500 Cretans met at Theriso, which thenceforth became the centre of the revolt. Venizelos and other prominent critics of the Prince formed the core of the revolt, along with around a thousand men, of whom only half were armed. From the first moments, skirmishes took place between the gendarmerie and the rebels.
Aside from a general dissatisfaction with the Prince's authoritarian government, the assembled rebels fervently supported union with Greece. On the first day of the uprising, Venizelos declared that Enosis was impossible as long as Prince George remained the island's High Commissioner. The following declaration was approved by the insurgents and read in St. George's Church at Theriso on 10 March: "The Cretan people, meeting in a general assembly at Theriso in Kydonia, today, 11/24 March 1905, proclaims its political union with the Kingdom of Greece, in a single free and constitutional state".
The following day, Papagiannakis, a former deputy in the Cretan Assembly, and Konstantinos Manos, communicated to the consuls of the Great Powers, on behalf of the rebels, the reasons that had led to the revolt. They mentioned the transitional character of the present government and the eventual desire to join Greece, and cited the political instability which prevented foreign investment and hindered the island's development. Finally, they mentioned the growing general discontent because of the government's "nearly absolutist" nature.
From Theriso, Venizelos organised a provisional government that printed its own postage stamps and newspaper. Papagianannakis was elected president of the insurrection's assembly and was assisted by four vice-presidents. A revolutionary triumvirate emerged: Konstantinos Foumis, a childhood friend of Venizelos' and former High Court prosecutor, as well as a member of parliament and former minister, was assigned charge of finances; Konstantinos Manos, the former mayor of Chania, handled the military aspect and held the post of general secretary; Venizelos covered the political and organisational side.
The opposition decided not to take part in the elections scheduled for 24 March [O.S. 11 March] 1905 that would choose 64 Cretan deputies (in addition to the ten directly named by Prince George). The Theriso insurgents called for a boycott of the elections and for an armed struggle against the regime.
The new assembly, which met on 20 April at Chania, was opened by a speech from Prince George on the economy and planned reforms. However, as soon as he left the chamber, the assembly voted in favour of Enosis. In the assembly hall, entirely decorated with Greek flags, the deputies proclaimed the union of Crete with the Greek mother country and placed it under the control of King George I. They then informed the consuls of the Great Powers at Chania of this resolution.
On 31 May, at the end of the parliamentary session, most of the deputies joined the Theriso Assembly. A month later, two of the prince's chief counselors, Kriaris and Koundouros (the finance minister), resigned their posts and joined their former colleague in the mountains.
Quasi civil war
Martial law was declared by Prince George, who only had 1,100 gendarmes at his disposal, as well as recognition from the European powers. The presence of two parallel governments led to a near-civil war among the population, with clashes leaving several victims in the vicinity of Chania. At the end of April, armed encounters between gendarmes and rebels took place at Voukolies. Three rebels and two gendarmes were killed, while fifteen peasants were wounded. During the skirmishes, residents set ablaze the gendarmes' stations.
At the beginning of August, the insurgents took the customs house at Kasteli Panormos. On the morning of 7 August, the Russian gunboat Khrabry, with 200 Imperial Guards aboard, as well as several Cretan gendarmes, laid anchor off Kastelli. Two Russian officers and an Italian lieutenant of the gendarmerie went to meet the rebels in order to engage in negotiations. The Italian gendarme ordered the insurgents to wave the white flag of surrender in the next half-hour or else face shelling. An hour and a half later, the Khrabry opened fire. This incident caused greater unrest.
While Konstantinos Manos marched on Rethymno seeking to free political prisoners, insurgents attacked Koubes (west of Rethymno). The following day, Colonel Urbanovich send fifty infantrymen there to defend the position, but the Russian soldiers suffered a setback. Urbanovich himself then went to the scene leading a column of 400 soldiers. In the face of these reinforcements, the rebels had to abandon their positions and beat a retreat south to Atsipopoulo, on the heights of Rethymno. After violent combat pitting them against the Russians and the gendarmes, the Cretans ended up ceding the village to the Russians. Among the victims of the fighting were certain insurgent leaders. The reports of the French consul at Chania observe that, despite these events, the insurgents were not leading a systematic attack against European troops.
At the beginning of summer in 1905, Prince George realised the importance of renewing dialogue with Venizelos. He wished to do so through a mutual acquaintance, James Bourchier, then correspondent in the region for The Times. At first agreeing to talks at the Theriso camp, Venizelos then declined the invitation, claiming that any cooperation with the High Commissioner was impossible.
During a new parliamentary session in September, the Cretan Assembly, encouraged by the Theriso revolt, voted for several reforms taken directly from the Venizelist programme:
- Abolition of the prince's prerogative to name mayors and municipal councillors;
- Introduction of universal male suffrage for all municipal functions;
- Abolition of the prince's prerogative to name ten Assembly deputies of his choice;
- Abrogation of restrictions on freedom of the press;
- Modification of the electoral laws.