Between 1910-1920, for the first time in the course of our three-thousand-year history – not to mention the thirty centuries of Greek prehistory – a national body was formed that was completely independent, homogeneous, within boundaries of such vastness and with unbroken territorial continuity, like the Greek state of our days.

The present study – a simple contribution to the research of modern Greek history – aims exactly at this: To contribute to the creation of historical memory and historical consciousness among the Greek generations, those who succeed us and those who will come with the cycle of years.

Their path forward will be safer if they can turn their gaze clearly backwards. Let them not forget, during moments of reflection, that their fathers sinned greatly but struggled even more; that they were violently torn apart among themselves but suffered harshly because of it; that ultimately the generation slowly passing away spared nothing in its entirety—not struggles, nor sacrifices, nor mourning, nor hardships—in order to hand down to its sons a free land under the sun of the “Greek Midday.”

Georgios Ventiris, March 1929.