Ypsilantis Proclaims Revolution: Greece Rises

Alexander Ypsilantis, a Greek officer in the Russian Imperial Army, crossed the Prut River into Ottoman-controlled Moldavia on February 22, 1821, proclaiming a revolt against Turkish rule. He claimed Russian backing from Tsar Alexander I, but the Tsar publicly disavowed him, leaving the revolt isolated. Ypsilantis' small force was defeated at the Battle of Dragasani in June 1821. The failed incursion, however, triggered a broader uprising in the Peloponnese that became the Greek War of Independence. The revolt attracted international volunteers, including Lord Byron, who died of fever at Missolonghi in 1824. European Romantic intellectuals championed the Greek cause, and public pressure eventually forced Britain, France, and Russia to intervene. The combined allied fleet destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian navy at Navarino in 1827, the last major naval battle fought entirely under sail. Greece achieved formal independence in 1830, the first Christian nation to break free from Ottoman rule.