Cretan Revolt (1841)

The Cretan Revolt of 1841 was one of many revolutions of the local Greeks to free themselves from the Ottoman Empire.

It was part of what is known as the

The Greek government would later go on to sign a trade treaty with the Ottoman Empire, hampering the hopes of the Cretans to get assistance from Greece itself. Furthermore, with the Convention of London, signed 15 July 1840, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Prussia decided to recognise the transfer of the island from Muhammad Ali back to the Ottoman Empire.^[3] Knowing that if this convention were to be ratified, hopes of unification with Greece or independence would be crushed, a handful of exiled Cretans, Vasileios Chalis, Ioannis Koumis, Emmanouil Patelaros, Anagnostis Tsouderios, Emmanouil Deiktatis, Aristeidis and Charidimos Chaireti and Aleksandros Koumoundouros, communicated with local guerillas and had all gone to Crete by late 1840. After a short period of preparation, they declared the revolution, on 22 February 1841.^[4]

The Turkish governor originally wanted to make peace with the rebels, however he later sent troops to the main areas of rebel concentration and managed to suppress the rebellion. The rebels stood alone, with the foreign powers and Greece having refused to aid them in their effort, and so they lost, having sustained heavy casualties, at the battles of Provarma, Vafe, Ksida and Vryses, with the remaining rebel leaders fleeing for Greece, taking with them other women and children.^[5]

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