The Capture of the Ship Ayios Ioannis Theologos in the Summer of 1825: An Investigation of Limits


Published: Jan 7, 2022
Keywords:
Greek Revolution piracy community corso consuls
Dimitris Dimitropoulos
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4044-9588
Abstract

The Greek Revolution detached a part of the territory of the Ottoman Empire and structured a newly founded state, which rearranged the balance among and the roles of the people and reshaped the boundaries between legal and illegal in international transactions, social relations and financial endeavours. This article describes an incident that took place in 1825 in the Aegean concerning the capture and the plundering of a commercial ship sailing under a Russian flag by raiders from Psara. It explores the boundaries in the actions, function and role of the protagonists of this episode. The following groups are examined as examples of people, groups and statuses: the raiders who operated on the borderline of piracy and privateering (corso); the shipowner, who was at the same time a captain and entrepreneur; the crew of the ship, who were seamen and traders; the Greek local authorities, who maintained a balance between national interest, local interest and self-interest; and the consuls, who were experiencing their twilight before the essential end of the role they enjoyed in the context of the Ottoman Empire.

Article Details
  • Section
  • I. THE CONSOLIDATION OF REVOLUTIONARY GREECE
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Author Biography
Dimitris Dimitropoulos, National Hellenic Research Foundation

Dimitris Dimitropoulos is Research Director in the Section of Neohellenic Research of the Institute of Historical Research of National Hellenic Research Foundation (INR/NHRF). He was born in Athens in 1962. He graduated from the History and Archaeological Department of the University of Athens in 1987, where in 1996 he also defended his doctoral thesis. He has been working at the Institute of Historical Research of National Hellenic Research Foundation (INR/NHRF) since 1992, initially as a scholarship recipient and now as Research Director in the Section of Neohellenic Research, where he is supervisor of the Programme “Historical study of settlements in Greece, 15th–20th centuries”. His research has mainly dealt with the study of settlements and populations of the Greek lands under the Ottoman rule, the institutions, the social constitution and the economy of island societies of the Aegean from 16th to the early 19th centuries and the struggle for Greek Independence. The conditions of daily living and the domestic equipment during the Ottoman period are a special field of his research. He has participated in several research programmes in collaboration with other academic institutions. He has conducted a number of INR-based projects including the making of databases, the transcription of documents dated from the 18th and 19th centuries, and the classification of archives. He has published numerous books and articles in academic journals and edited volumes, and presented papers in various Greek and international academic congresses.

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