National Schism

The deep political and social division in Greece during World War I over whether to support the Allies, centered on the conflict between King Constantine I and Eleftherios Venizelos.

Greek entry into World War I: Greece’s eventual participation in World War I on the Allied side, beginning in 1917. The dispute over whether and when Greece should enter the war drove the schism.
Provisional Government of National Defence: A rival Greek government established by Venizelos in Thessaloniki in 1916 to support the Allies. It turned political opposition to Constantine into a competing claim to govern Greece.
Georgios I of Greece: King of Greece from 1863 until his assassination in 1913 and father of Constantine I. His death shortly before the war placed Constantine on the throne amid an unsettled political landscape.
Greek legislative election, 1920: The Greek election of November 1920, in which Venizelos’s Liberal Party lost power to royalist opponents. Its result reversed the wartime political settlement and restored Constantine.
Balkan Wars: Two wars fought in southeastern Europe in 1912–1913 that reshaped the region’s borders and power relations. Their territorial gains shaped Greek ambitions that Venizelos and Constantine assessed differently.
Noemvriana: Violent clashes in Athens in December 1916 between royalist forces and supporters of Venizelos, amid Allied intervention. The clashes exposed how the constitutional dispute had become armed conflict.
Eleftherios Venizelos: Greek statesman who served as prime minister and led Greece into World War I on the Allied side. His leadership embodied the interventionist camp, opposing the king’s policy.
Greek-Turkish War (1919–1922): A war between Greece and the Turkish national movement that ended with Greek defeat and the loss of its Anatolian foothold. Schism-era divisions weakened political continuity during the campaign and its aftermath.
Asia Minor Expedition: The Greek military campaign in Anatolia from 1919 to 1922, ending in defeat and withdrawal. The wartime division over national expansion foreshadowed the campaign’s political stakes.
Greek National Schism: The wider period of political conflict in Greece between royalists and Venizelists, extending beyond the First World War. It names the longer political divide of which the wartime crisis was the defining phase.

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