The Holy Alliance, sitting at Leibach, thought the time was ripe to pronounce its anathema against all peoples seeking their liberties Revolt in Brazil elsewhere than in the grace of their legitimate sovereigns. Yet the spirit of revolt was abroad, and its flames continued to flicker up at widely separated points. On February 26, the Portuguese troops in Brazil rose in revolt. The king, still residing at Rio Janeiro, was compelled to appoint a new Ministry pledged to give to both Portugal and Brazil a new representative system. In Mexico, General Iturbide, at the same time, Mexican independence issued a pronunciamiento, containing his so-called "Plan of Iguala," which proposed independence for Mexico under a Spanish Bourbon prince. Several rebel leaders acquiesced in this, and forced the Spanish viceroy to resign. Juan O'Donoju became acting-viceroy. He signed a treaty with Iturbide virtually accepting the plan. The people of Buenos Ayres profited by the military troubles in Brazil to throw in their lot with that of the San Martin's Campaign Argentine Republic. Their popular idol, San Martin, meanwhile was leading his victorious troops from Chile into Peru. Lima, one of the greatest Spanish strongholds in South America, was threatened by the revolutionists.
At the other end of the earth, the new force of national feeling showed itself in popular uprisings. War in Annam In distant Annam the death of Emperor Gia-Long, followed by a bloody struggle for the succession between his sons, incited the people to a national demonstration against the encroachments of the French in Tonquin. In China the new Emperor Taouk-Wang Taouk-Wang was enthroned. He was the first to throw his whole personal influence against the evils of the opium trade inflicted upon China by English merchants since 1800.
Philike Hetairia
In Greece and in the Balkans the people rose against the yoke of Turkey. The plan of the Philike Hetairia—i.e. Patriotic Association—was to begin their revolution on the Danube, so as to induce Russia to take a hand in their favor. They believed that Capodistrias, the Prime Minister of Russia, himself a Greek, would win the Czar to their cause. Unfortunately for them, Metternich's influence proved stronger than that of the Greek Minister. Capodistrias deemed it advisable to publish a pamphlet warning Ypsilanti his countrymen against any rash step. Failing to win the open support of Capodistrias, the Hetairists turned to Prince Alexander Ypsilanti, a Greek exile serving in the Russian army. Ypsilanti agreed to raise the standard of revolt in Moldavia. It was arranged that Theodore Vladimiresco, a Vladimiresco Roumanian who had served in the Russian army, was to call his countrymen to arms against the Turk. Then the Greeks were to step in, and the help of Russia was to be invoked.
Rising of Roumania
In February, Vladimiresco proclaimed the abolition of feudal servitude in Roumania, and marched with a horde of peasants upon Bucharest. Early in March, the Greek troops at Galatz, let loose by their commander, Karavias, massacred the Turkish population of that town.
Ypsilanti, waiting on the Russian frontier, crossed the Pruth and appeared at Jassee with a few hundred followers. A proclamation was issued, calling upon all Christians to rise against the Crescent. Ypsilanti went so far as to declare that "a great European power," meaning Russia, was "pledged to support him." The Greek Hospodar of Jassee immediately surrendered the government, and supplied a large sum of money. Troops to the number of 2,000 gathered around Ypsilanti. The road to the Danube lay open.
Ypsilanti wasted valuable time loitering at Jassee. A month was lost before Ypsilanti repudiated he reached Bucharest. He delayed partly on account of his expectations of Russian help in response to a letter he had written to the Czar. The delay proved fatal to him. The Czar, now wholly under the influence of Metternich, sent a stern answer from Leibach. Ypsilanti was dismissed from the Russian service. The Russian consul at Jassee issued a manifesto that Russia repudiated and condemned Ypsilanti's enterprise. The Patriarch of Constantinople was made to issue a ban of excommunication against the rebels. In an official note of the Powers, the Congress of Leibach branded the Greek revolt as a token of the same spirit which had produced the revolution of Italy and Spain. Turkish troops crossed the Danube. The Roumanian peasants, seeing no help from Russia, held aloof. Vladimiresco plotted against the Death of Vladimiresco Greeks. It was in vain that brave Georgakis captured the traitor at his own headquarters and carried him to his death in the Greek camp. Ypsilanti was defeated in his first encounter with the Turks. He retired before them toward the Austrian frontier. In the end he fled across the border and was promptly made a prisoner in Austria. His followers dearly sold their lives. At Skuleni, 400 of them under Georgakis Georgakis made a last stand on the Pruth. They were surrounded by ten times their number. Georgakis refused to surrender. Bidding his followers flee, at the moment when the Turks broke in the doors, he blew himself up in the monastery of Skuleni.
At the news of Ypsilanti's uprising in Moldavia the entire Greek population of the Morea rose against the Turk. From the outset, the Moreotes waged a Revolt of Morea war of extermination. They massacred all Turks, men, women and children. Within a few weeks the open country was swept clear of its Mohammedan population. The fugitive Turks were invested within the walls of Tripolitza, Patras, and other strong towns. Sultan Mahmud took prompt vengeance. A number of innocent Greeks at Constantinople were strangled by his executioners. The fury of the Moslem was let loose on the Infidel. All Greek settlements along the Bosphorus were burned. But the crowning stroke came on Easter Sunday, the most sacred day of the Greek Church. The Patriarch of Constantinople, while he was celebrating service, was summoned away by the dragoman of the Porte. At the order of the Sultan he was haledGregorios hanged before a hastily assembled synod and there degraded from his office as a traitor. The synod was commanded to elect his successor. While the trembling prelates did their bidding, Patriarch Gregorios was led out in his sacred robes and hanged at the gate of his palace. His body remained hanging throughout the Easter celebration, and was then given to the Jews to be dragged through the streets and cast into the Bosphorus. A similar fate befell the Greek archbishops of Salonica, Tirnovo, and Adrianople. The body of Gregorios floating in the sea was picked up by a Greek ship and carried to Odessa. This return to Christian soil of the remains of the Patriarch was hailed as a miracle in Russia. Gregorios was solemnly buried by the Russian Government as a martyr.
If the will of the Russian people had been carried out, the Russian army and nation would have avenged the murder of their high-priest by an Russia aroused immediate war upon the Turks. Strogonov, the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople, at once proposed to his diplomatic colleagues to join him in calling for warships to protect the Christians there. Lord Stranford, the British Ambassador, refused to accede to this proposition. Single-handed, Strogonov presented an ultimatum to the Sultan demanding the restoration of Christian churches and the Porte's protection for Christian worship. A written answer was exacted within eight days. Encouraged by England's attitude, the Sultan ignored Strogonov's requests. On July 27, the Russian Ambassador left Constantinople. To the amazement of his moujiks, the Czar did not declare war. The councils of Prince Metternich The Czar found wanting prevailed. With the help of the representatives of England, Metternich persuaded the Czar to view the rebellion of Greece as a mere unfortunate disturbance. Any countenance of it, he argued, would imperil the peace of Europe.