Editing Arthur de Gobineau (section)

===Minister to Greece===
[[File:Arthur de Gobineau c.(1865).jpg|alt=|thumb| Arthur de Gobineau c.(1865)]]
In 1864, Gobineau became the French minister to Greece.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=147}} During his time in [[Athens]], which with Tehran were the only cities he was stationed in that he liked, he spent his time writing poetry and learning about sculpture when not traveling with [[Ernest Renan]] in the Greek countryside in search of ruins.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=147}} Gobineau seduced two sisters in Athens, Zoé and Marika Dragoumis, who became his mistresses; Zoé remained a lifelong correspondent.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=195}} 

In 1832, although nominally independent, Greece had become a joint Anglo-French-Russian protectorate. As such the British, French and Russian ministers in Athens had the theoretical power to countermand any decision of the Greek cabinet. Gobineau repeatedly advised against France exercising this power, writing Greece was "the sad and living evidence of European ineptness and presumptuousness". He attacked the British attempt to bring [[Westminster system|Westminster-style democracy]] to Greece as bringing about "the complete decay of a barbarous land" while accusing the French of being guilty of introducing the Greeks to "the most inept [[Voltairianism]]".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=193}} However, during his later years, the Greek economy began to grow rapidly; due to this, Gobineau "became so impressed by the Greek economic and social development that he unwittingly acknowledged the benefits of the modern era".{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=153}} After that point, he showed sympathy for the contemporary Greek society building a modern state.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=154}}

About the "[[Eastern Question]]", Gobineau was initially in favor of Greek expansionism; he was a supporter of [[Ioannis Kolettis]] and his ''[[Megali Idea]]''.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=149}} However, later on, he advised against French support for the irredentist Greek aspirations, writing the Greeks could not replace the Ottoman Empire, and if the Ottoman Empire should be replaced with a greater Greece, only Russia would benefit.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|pp=194–195}} He no longer believed that a revived "[[Byzantine Empire|Greek empire]]" could thwart [[Russian imperialism]]. He believed that the [[Ottoman Empire]] was more suitable to do so at the time.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=149}} Gobineau advised Paris: "The Greeks will not control the Orient, neither will the Armenians nor the Slav nor any Christian population, and, at the same time, if others were to come—even the Russians, the most oriental of them all—they could only submit to the harmful influences of this anarchic situation. [...] For me [...] there is no Eastern Question and if I had the honour of being a great government I should concern myself no longer with developments in these areas."{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=195}} In the spring of 1866, Christian Greeks rebelled against the Ottoman Empire on the island of [[Crete]]. Three emissaries arrived in Athens to ask Gobineau for French support for the uprising, saying it was well known that France was the champion of justice and the rights of "small nations".{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=149}} As France was heavily engaged in the war in [[Mexico]] Gobineau, speaking for [[Napoleon III]], informed the Cretans to expect no support from France—they were on their own in taking on the Ottoman Empire.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=149}} He called the uprising "the most perfect monument to lies, mischief and impudence that has been seen in thirty years".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=192}} He had no sympathy with the Greek desire to liberate their compatriots living under Ottoman rule; writing to his friend Anton von Prokesch-Osten he noted: "It is one rabble against another".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|pp=194–195}} In his elderly years, however, he returned to his original position, supporting Greek irredentist ideas.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=153}}
==== Recall to France as a result of Cretan uprising ====
During the [[Cretan Revolt (1866–1869)|Cretan uprising]], a young French academic [[Gustave Flourens]], noted for his fiery enthusiasm for liberal causes, had joined the Cretean uprising and had gone to Athens to try to persuade the Greek government to support it.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=150}} Gobineau had unwisely shown Flourens diplomatic dispatches from Paris showing both the French and Greek governments were unwilling to offend the Ottomans by supporting the Cretan uprising, which Flourens then leaked to the press.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=193}} Gobineau received orders from Napoleon III to silence Flourens.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=193}} On 28 May 1868, while Flourens was heading for a meeting with King [[George I of Greece|George I]], he was intercepted by Gobineau who had him arrested by the legation guards, put into chains and loaded onto the first French ship heading for [[Marseille]].{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=150}} ''L'affaire Flourens'' became a ''cause célèbre'' in France with novelist [[Victor Hugo]] condemning Gobineau in an opinion piece in ''Le Tribute'' on 19 July 1868 for the treacherous way he had treated a fellow Frenchman fighting for Greek freedom.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=150}} With French public opinion widely condemning the minister in Athens, Gobineau was recalled to Paris in disgrace.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=150}}

==== Views on Greeks ====
His views about modern Greeks were paradoxical and ambiguous;{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=153}}{{sfn|Vacalopoulos|1968|p=104-105}} he stated his ideas somewhat vaguely and confusedly, basing them only on general information.{{sfn|Vacalopoulos|1968|pp=104–105}} He wrote that the Greek people had generally lost a lot of the "Aryan blood" responsible for "the glory that was Greece" due to [[miscegenation]].{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=191}} However, he did not deny the existence of the ancient Greek nucleus in modern Greeks.{{sfn|Vacalopoulos|1968|p=104-105}}{{Sfn|Stewart|2003|p=133}} Instead, he believed that the Greek race had "absorbed" all of the foreign invaders.{{Sfn|Stewart|2003|p=132}} The result of this was a strong alloy, since the Greeks had integrated the best traits of the people they came into contact with. He concluded that the Greeks demonstrated all the requisite qualities to earn the accolade "[[nationality]]".{{Sfn|Stewart|2003|p=133}} Gobineau, indeed, admired the modern Greeks, considering them the "educators" of the Balkan people.{{Sfn|Dontas|1966|p=32}}

==== Assessments ====
In 1868, Gobineau wrote that, without Greece, he would not have been able to do many of the things that he did ("''Sans la Grèce, je n'aurais pas fait beaucoup de choses que j'ai faites. La Grèce y est pour beaucoup''").{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=154}} According to anthropologist Ivo T. Budil:
{{blockquote|Gobineau’s experience of Greece involved permanent controversy between ideology and reality, while reality prevailed. In Greece, Gobineau managed to come to terms with manifestations of modernity, nationalism and economic development... [He] was in a certain sense intellectually "liberated" by Greece and forced sometimes to abandon his racial schemes and stereotypes and accept the diversity and contradictions of real life.{{sfn|Budil|2008|pp=153–154}}}}

Gobineau's legacy in Greece after his death was ambivalent.{{Sfn|Dimaras|1936}} The Greek philologist and historian {{Ill|Konstantinos Dimaras|el|Κωνσταντίνος Δημαράς|fr|Konstantinos Dimaras|}} considered him a genuine [[Philhellenism|philhellene]] whose words and actions were misunderstood.{{Sfn|Dimaras|1936}}