Alexander Billinis
26 March 2020
«No
narrative of the Greek War of Independence is complete without a central place
given to Hydra. This tiny island, basically a granite megalith rising sheerly
out of the Saronic Gulf, has very little water despite its name and no arable
land. In a land as ancient as Greece, Hydra is basically absent from history
during the Classical and Byzantine eras except as a barren rock without
anchorage or habitation. Hydra is hardly a place that seemed destined for
greatness.
Yet
this tiny island, basically uninhabited two centuries before the War of
Independence in 1821, rose, within less than a century, to become the premier
shipping center of the Eastern Mediterranean, with the largest fleet,
incredible riches, stately mansions, and a cosmopolitan trade network
stretching to the Americas. The original Hydriots were refugees from the nearby
Peloponnesus, the island of Evia, and even Asia Minor, and the majority spoke a
dialect of Tosk Albanian known as Arvantika. Their first ships were hardly
seaworthy but they were quick studies, leveraging the great skills of their
fellow islanders and the Venetians, and by the time of the Greek Revolution
they were trading everywhere, often under various flags—Russian, Ottoman,
Ionian—as “convenience” dictated. They ran blockades during the Napoleonic
Wars, and made fortunes, they honed their martial skills fighting the Barbary
Pirates and by impressed of sailors into the Turkish Navy. In exchange for
their skilled services, the Turks basically left the island autonomous….» Read
more here: neoskosmos.com
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