Ottoman Greece

The vast majority of the territory of present-day Greece was at some point incorporated within the Ottoman Empire. The period of Ottoman rule in Greece, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821 and the First Hellenic Republic was proclaimed in 1822, is known in Greece as Turkocracy (Greek: Τουρκοκρατία, romanized: Tourkokratia, lit. 'Turkish rule'). Northern Greece, as well as the northern and eastern Aegean islands and the island of Crete remained in Ottoman control until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The region of Thessaly joined Greece in 1878–1881 (they were briefly reoccupied by the Ottomans in 1897), while Macedonia (Western, Central and Eastern Macedonia) and Epirus joined Greece in 1912–1913, with the Balkan Wars. Crete became autonomous in 1898 and joined Greece in 1913, with the Balkan Wars. The northern and eastern Aegean islands (with the exception of the Dodecanese Islands) also joined Greece with the Balkan Wars. The present-day Greek portion of Thrace was gained by Bulgaria during the Balkan Wars, but was ceded to Greece in 1919, after World War I. The Dodecanese Islands were ceded by Italy (which occupied the islands during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–1912) to Greece in 1947, after World War II. The largest city in Ottoman Greece (as well as in late Byzantine Greece) was Thessaloniki (Ottoman Turkish: سلانیك, Selânik), which was a part of the Ottoman Empire in two periods between 1387–1403 and 1430–1912. When Athens replaced Nafplio as the new capital of the independent Kingdom of Greece in 1834, it was a small town with a population of circa 7,000 inhabitants, compared to the populations of Patras (15,000) and Ottoman Thessaloniki (60,000) in the same year. Some regions, like the Ionian islands and various temporary Venetian possessions of the Stato...