Revolution on the Mediterranean. A South European History of the Greek War of Independence 1821.

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Ioannis Zelepos
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 437908065

The aim of this project is to investigate the Greek War of Independence of 1821 in the context of the contemporaneous revolutionary movements in the western Mediterranean, which questioned for the first time the European Restoration Order created by the Congress of Vienna of 1815. The focus of interest is first on transregional mobility cycles and networks of groups and individuals who in the period of the Napoleonic Wars acted as recipients as well as multipliers of revolutionary potentials and played a decisive role in their acute manifestation in the 1820s. In this context, mechanisms of political mobilization as well as dynamics of evolving media publics and their impacts on state-run action are examined. The focus of interest is also on phenomena of exchange and transfer of ideas with regard to the articulation of political goals, to legitimation strategies and, in particular, to the formation of institutions of statehood in the context of revolutionary constitutional discourses. Subsequently, the further regional impacts of these processes in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean are examined. By this way, a contribution to research is to be made, that overcomes well established national-historiographical and Euro-centric perspectives and integrates the Greek war of Independence two hundred years after its beginning into an (trans-)Mediterranean intertwined history of the “Age of Revolutions”.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants