One hundred years after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the revolutionary character of the period 1909-1922, as a continuation of '21, is often overlooked. Yet, the Great Idea of Rigas, the Friendly Society, and Venizelos – the unification of Greeks into a single state – was the goal of the 19th and 20th centuries, the stakes of the "great decade".

During the period 1909-1922, the disintegration of Ottomanism "met" the strengthening of Hellenism, which had the historic opportunity to fulfill it in 1821, while Turkish nationalism would be confined to a small Asian power at the limits of the Seljuk state. Moreover, for the first time, the "Powers" had abandoned the "Sick Man".

The renewal dynamic came from the unliberated Hellenism, the expatriates, the Ionian Islands, Macedonia, and Crete. On the contrary, the oligarchy, centered around the Palace, viewed the inclusion of the unliberated Greeks in the state as a threat.

Only the Revolution of 1909 – the junior officers supported by the people, with the iconic figure of Eleftherios Venizelos as a connecting link – would express the meeting of unliberated Hellenism with the Greek state. This would lead to the victorious Balkan Wars, Eastern Thrace, and Smyrna.

Unfortunately, however, the indecisiveness of the revolutionary leadership in 1909-1910, 1915, and 1920 allowed the recovery of the "micro-Greek" oligarchy, resulting in Hellenism losing the Anatolian lung, the Bosporus, and its historic capital permanently.