The Greeks and the Ottoman Empire

The fight for independence has long been a part of numerous societies’ individuality and identity. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire fought against the Turks for their freedom and autonomy. The Greek’s movement against Ottoman rule attracted various groups of people who developed distinct views of them and their well being. While many supported the Greeks and their liberating fight for emancipation, there were those who opposed them and their betrayal against the higher authority. Through poems, letters, and other forms of written documents, several individuals and members of the French and English societies deemed the revolting Greeks as determined, courageous, yet dishonest victims of tyranny because of the havoc and victory that they established. An additional type of document that could be of importance in this case is a newspaper from the time that would reveal what the world was being notified about which would have changed their point of view of the Greeks and their situation.
Many of the poems written during the 1700s and into the beginning of the war reflected the views of different forces during the time towards the Greeks. In the poem “To His Friend and Neighbor Dr. Thomas Taylor”, the English writer Sneyd Davis states “In the grove where Plato taught a stupid Turk is preaching ignorance.” Davis believed that the intellectual place that Greece had once been was falling to the ignorant invaders who destroyed the Greek’s land of intelligence. Through his poem, Davis shows his support for Greeks and their need to dispose of the unknowledgeable Turks in their homeland. Poets at the time had great power in influencing others through what they wrote in their poems, and therefore their opinion on the matter could be taken into great consideration. Half a century later, as problems began to increase, a Greek Christian named Alexandros Kalphoglou described the Greeks in his poem as “loving every