Editing History of modern Greece (section)

==World War I and subsequent crises, 1914-1922==
{{Main|Greece during World War I|National Schism|Greek genocide|Asia Minor Campaign}}
When [[World War I]] broke out in 1914, the King and his prime minister Venizelos both preferred to maintain a neutral stance, in spite of Greece's treaty of alliance with Serbia, which had been attacked by Austria-Hungary as the first belligerent action of the conflict.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|pp=79–80}} But when the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] asked for Greek help in the [[Dardanelles campaign]] of 1915, offering [[Cyprus]] in exchange, their diverging views became apparent: Constantine had been educated in [[German Empire|Germany]], was married to [[Sophia of Prussia]], sister of [[Wilhelm II of Germany|Kaiser Wilhelm]], and was convinced of the [[Central Powers]]' victory. Venizelos, on the other hand, was an ardent [[anglophile]], and believed in an Allied victory.

Since Greece, a maritime country, could not oppose the mighty British navy, and citing the need for a respite after two wars, King Constantine favored continued neutrality, while Venizelos actively sought Greek entry in the war on the Allied side.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=77}} Venizelos resigned, but won the [[Greek legislative election, May 1915|Greek elections of 1915]] and again formed the government. When Bulgaria entered the war as a German ally in October 1915, Venizelos invited [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] forces into Greece (the [[Macedonian front (World War I)|Salonika front]]), for which he was again dismissed by Constantine.

[[File:Venizelos WWI 1918.jpg|thumb|Venizelos reviews a section of the Greek army on the [[Macedonian front (World War I)|Macedonian front]] during the [[First World War]], 1917. He is accompanied by Admiral [[Pavlos Koundouriotis]] (left) and General [[Maurice Sarrail]] (right).]]

In August 1916, after several incidents in which both sides in the war had encroached upon the still theoretically neutral Greek territory, Venizelist officers rose up in Allied-controlled Thessaloniki and Venizelos established a separate government there known as the result of a so-called [[Movement of National Defence]]. Constantine was now ruling only in what was Greece before the Balkan Wars ("Old Greece"), and his government was subject to repeated humiliations from the Allies. In November 1916 the French occupied [[Piraeus]], bombarded Athens and forced the Greek fleet to surrender. The royalist troops fired at them, leading to a battle between French and Greek royalist troops. There were also riots against supporters of Venizelos in Athens (the ''[[Noemvriana]]'').{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|pp=81–82}}

Following the [[February Revolution]] in [[Russia]] in 1917, the Tsar's support for his cousin Constantine was eliminated, and he was forced to leave the country, without actually abdicating, in June 1917. His second son [[Alexander of Greece (king)|Alexander]] became King, while the remaining royal family and the most prominent royalists followed him into exile. Venizelos now led a superficially united Greece into the war on the Allied side, but underneath the surface, the division of Greek society into [[Venizelism|Venizelists]] and anti-Venizelists, the so-called [[National Schism]], became more entrenched.

===Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)===
{{Main|Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)}}
[[File:Hellenism in the Near East 1918.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The Greek Kingdom and the [[Greek diaspora]] in the Balkans and western Asia Minor, according to a 1919 map submitted to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]].]]

With the end of the war in November 1918, the moribund Ottoman Empire was ready to be carved up among the victors, and Greece now expected the Allies to deliver on their promises. In no small measure through the diplomatic efforts of Venizelos, Greece secured [[Western Thrace]] in the [[Treaty of Neuilly]] in November 1919{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=75}} and [[Eastern Thrace]] and a zone around [[Smyrna]] in western [[Anatolia]] (already under Greek administration as the [[Occupation of Smyrna]] since May 1919) in the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] of August 1920. The future of Constantinople was left to be determined. But at the same time, a [[Turkish National Movement]] rose in [[Turkey]] led by [[Kemal Atatürk|Mustafa Kemal]] (later Kemal Atatürk), who set up a rival government in [[Ankara]] and was engaged in fighting the Greek army.{{Sfn|Gallant|2015|p=325}}

[[File:Greco Turkish War 1919-1922.svg|thumb|Map of the military developments during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)]].]]

At this point, the fulfillment of the ''Megali Idea'' seemed near. Yet so deep was the rift in Greek society that on his return to Greece, an assassination attempt was made on Venizelos by two royalist former officers. Even more surprisingly, Venizelos' [[Liberal Party (Greece)|Liberal Party]] lost the [[Greek legislative election, 1920|Greek elections of November 1920]], and in the [[Greek plebiscite, 1920|Greek plebescite of 1920]], the Greek people voted for the return of King Constantine from exile after the sudden death of King Alexander.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=88}}

The United Opposition, which had campaigned on the slogan of an end to the [[Asia Minor Campaign]] in Anatolia, instead intensified it. But the royalist restoration had dire consequences: many veteran Venizelist officers were dismissed or left the army, while Italy and France found the return of the hated Constantine a useful pretext for switching their support to Kemal. Finally, in August 1922, the Turkish army shattered the Greek front, and took Smyrna in an operation that led to the disastrous [[Great Fire of Smyrna]].

The Greek army evacuated not only Anatolia, but also Eastern Thrace and the islands of [[Imbros]] and [[Tenedos]] in accordance with the terms of the [[Treaty of Lausanne (1923)]]. A [[population exchange between Greece and Turkey]] was agreed between the two countries, with over 1.5 million Christians and almost half a million Muslims being uprooted. This catastrophe marked the end of the ''Megali Idea'', and left Greece financially exhausted, demoralized, and having to house and feed a proportionately huge number of [[Greek refugees]].{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|pp=93–94}}