Why didn't Greece get Constantinople after World War One? (Short Animated Documentary)

constantinople used to be the center of the greek speaking world it sat as the capital of the roman empire and later the ottoman empire which as you know came to a spectacular end after it joined the central powers in world war one after its defeat the anton plan to carve it up like this notably removing constantinople and not giving it to the greeks who very much wanted it which raises the question why why wasn't greece giving constantinople after world war one so first some background when the ottomans joined the first world war russian leadership got very excited because to them when they won they would finally be getting their hands on constantinople something which they had coveted forever and would help cement their position as the third rome and it would also open up access to the mediterranean for them the other great powers in the antarete accepted this concession because they really needed russia however russia would never control the city because in 1917 it was time for a communist revolution so who would get it afterwards well the anton largely ignored the issue until the ottomans were well and truly broken at this point they negotiated the treaty of saarv which divided the empire up like this and constantinople was to become an international zone just like the sarland greece wasn't given a look in for several reasons the first was the international zone meant british in albert name who as of the occupation had a veto on all laws passed by the ottoman government and also by gaining constantinople britain would have control over every entrance to the mediterranean which sounded very useful to them and thus it was not something that they were willing to give up the second reason was that greece wasn't seen as important enough to own the city constantinople was one of the great cities of the world and greece was a reluctant ally which wasn't exactly on the best terms with the ontant the greeks had pushed to gain this territory collectively known as the magali plan the anton would content to give them some of this but constantinople was a step too far whose inclusion would have made greece into a middling european power overnight furthermore the victors didn't quite buy greece's claim to the city under the guise of them being the successes of byzantium british leaders saw greece not as the continuation of an ancient legacy but as a modern nation state like romania and one whose german king had no right to claim the inheritance of rome and the third reason is the really important one the turkish had other plans whilst the ottoman government begrudgingly accepted partition the turkish people did not resistance movements sprang up quickly and soon came together under the leadership of mustafa kamal he defeated the greeks in the west who had landed to take control of their new territories well as the french in the south kamal marched on constantinople where he was presented with an ultimatum withdraw or face total war which the british government was happy to do alongside their steadfast allies who had just abandoned them since this wasn't seen as important enough and also everyone had had enough of war at this point as such plan b resign and let your successor deal with it this led to the allies signing the treaty of luzon which finalized the new nation of turkey's borders and as you'll note greece wasn't able to get constantinople because now it was firmly turkeys i hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my patrons james bisonette kelly moneymaker corso wolff jerry lamden jordan longley adam stalter y and hockey captain cydog rod d martin marvin cassell spencer lightfoot gustav swan common yoon boogerly wiggly matthew shipley marcus asner the mc whopper aaron the white max and flaurio maggie paxkowski corey turner alex schwinn anthony beckett spinning three plates copper tone words about books podcast winston cayward charles the first ben evinson and scottish trekkie

Channel: History Matters

Views: 3,774,642

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Id: C_uaLrbcpXE

Length: 3min 13sec (193 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 24 2022