The Economic forces of victory versus those of defeat: An analysis of the Greek Economic and Military Mobilization of the 1909-1923 period

The intellectual aspiration of the paper is to highlight the economic forces, which played an immense role in the wars in which Greece participated during the 1909-1923 period.These were four major conflicts: The two Balkan wars of 1912-1913 against the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria; the First World War (1914-1918) and the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922.The tragic period started with Greek victories and ended with the greatest defeat of the modern Greek state.Although these conflicts were different, there is a clear nexus between them.In the Greek as well as the international bibliography, the majority of studies highlight the strategic, tactical, operational, diplomatic, psychological dimensions of the conflicts of the period, as well as, the personal motives of political and military leaders.Under this intellectual framework, the economic forces of the conflict are marginalized by most academics.The final conflict of the period is primarily known as the 'Campaign of Asia-Minor' in the Greek bibliography, whereas in the Turkish bibliography it is considered as 'the Great Patriotic War.' Thus in this article we aim to demonstrate that the conflicts of the period are connected and also that the Greek defeat 1 This article is dedicated to the memory of my beloved grandmother Stavroula Poulea Koutsikou (1921-2019) who passed away.She had lived the Second World War and had told me many stories from that era.She passed away pointing out that she had "no complaint neither from God nor from humans".Under these domestic and external constraints, the actual implementation of the 'Megali Idea' policy was a difficult and time lengthy process.The actual difficulties of implementing the policy were demonstrated in the 1897 Greek-Turkish war.In that conflict, the complete military superiority of the Ottoman Empire forced Greece to a humiliating defeat.It was obvious that any future attempt to implement the policy had to be made with allies, since Greece alone did not possess the military and economic strength to implement the policy.During the period between 1909 and 1912 Greece managed to create a regional Balkan Alliance with Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro and in October 1912 the First Balkan War erupted.In that war, the Turkish forces were split fighting across many fronts and the outcome was a complete triumph for Greece.Very soon, the Balkan Alliance was split and a second Balkan war erupted in June 1913 this time between Bulgaria on the one side, and Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Ottoman Turkey on the other.Again, the result was victorious for Greece.By August 1913, the second Balkan war was over.The Greek state increased its territory from 63,211 square km to 120,308 square km. and its population from 2,631,952 inhabitants to 4,718,221 inhabitants. 2 The Greek economy has benefited from the victorious wars.To illustrate, total arable land increased from 8,646,000 square km in 1911 to 13,356,000 square km in 1914.Barley production increased from 80,000 tonnes to 133,000 tones; wheat production increased from 343,000 tonnes to 357,000 tones; corn production increased from 151,000 tonnes to 239,000 tonnes respectively.Bank deposits increased from 259.2 million drachmae (or £6,060,620) in 1909 to 466.5 million drachmae (£11,770,906) in 1914.The number of commercial ships increased from 287 in 1909 to 407 in 1914; the shipping capacity increased from 484,000 gross tones to 821,000 gross tones over the same period. 3The economic cost of the Balkan wars was as follows: in 1912, the Army Ministry expenditure was 45,737,032 drachmae and the Navy Ministry was 45,508,724 drachmae.In 1913, the figures were 118,343,940 drachmae and 34,041,789 drachmae respectively. 4 the end of 1913, Greece had partially fulfilled the goals of the 'Megali Idea.'However, European developments soon changed the course of Greek history.In August 1914, the First World War erupted and Austro-Hungarian forces invaded Serbia, Greece's primary Balkan ally.By the end of 1914, the Ottoman Empire would enter the war as an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary.At that time, the Greek Prime Minister Venizelos was convinced that Greece

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