Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, where they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece, on January 5, 1802; the first shipment departs Piraeus on board Elgin's ship, the Mentor, "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon.

Acting on the advice of Sir William Hamilton, Elgin had procured the services of the Neapolitan painter, Lusieri, and of several skillful draftsmen and modellers.

These artists had been dispatched to Athens in the summer of 1800, and were principally employed in making drawings of the ancient monuments, though very limited facilities had been given them by the authorities.

About the middle of the summer of 1801, Elgin had received (as is said) a firman from the Porte that allowed his lordship's agents not only to 'fix scaffolding round the ancient Temple of the Idols [the Parthenon], and to mould the ornamental sculpture and visible figures thereon in plaster and gypsum,' but also 'to take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures thereon.'

Due to the loss of the original firman, it isn't sure that the translation is correct.

The actual removal of ancient marbles from Athens had formed no part of Elgin's first plan.

Local Ottoman authorities have permitted the removal of about half of the Parthenon frieze, fifteen metopes, and seventeen pedimental fragments, in addition to a caryatid and a column from the Erechtheion.

Their removal is supposedly a decision taken on the spot by Philip Hunt, Elgin's chaplain (and temporary private secretary, i.e. representative, in Athens), who had persuaded the voivode (governor of Athens) to interpret the terms of the firman very broadly.

The collection thus formed by operations at Athens, and by explorations in other parts of Greece, and now known by the name of the 'Elgin Marbles,' consists of portions of the frieze, metopes, and pedimental sculptures of the Parthenon, as well as of sculptured slabs from the Athenian temple of Nike Apteros, and of various antiquities from Attica and other districts of Hellas.

Elgin will use these antiquities to decorate his mansion in Scotland and will later sell them to the British Museum in an attempt to repay his escalating debt.

Greece meets three major requirements for a successful revolution in 1821: material conditions among the populace are adverse enough to stimulate mass support for action; an ideological framework gives direction to the movement; and an organizational structure is present to coordinate the movement.

Greek intellectuals have provided the language and ideas necessary for a nationalist struggle, and episodes such as the Orlov Rebellion have provided a collective memory of violent resistance that make action feasible.

The other two conditions had developed during the 1810s; all three converge in the early 1820s.

...the fall of Athens later in the year restores all of central Greece to Ottoman control.

The Balkan conflagration is close to extinction, at which point the powers of Western Europe intervene.

The Greek rebel forces are being besieged inside the Acropolis of Athens by Ottoman forces under the command of Mehmed Reshid Pasha.

Greek forces outside the city are desperately trying to break the siege.

The Scottish Admiral Lord Cochrane and Irish General Richard Church are nominally commanding the Greeks.

Three thousand men are ordered on April 24o advance across the plain.

Their plan is to send seven thousand more men, who are at Piraeus, to attack the Turks from the flanks.

As the Greeks advance from Phaleron, Reshid sends some cavalry to attack the Greeks.

He expects the main assault to come from Piraeus.

The troops from Piraeus do not arrive and the rest of the Greeks are attacked by the Turkish cavalry.

The Greeks lose either fifteen hundred or two thousand men, which is a devastating setback.

The men in the Acropolis surrender on June 5 and are escorted by the French army to the coast.

This defeat destroys Greek morale and the only places on mainland Greece that persevere after the battle are Mani and Nauplio.

The Greeks had also lost their commander Karaiskakis from wounds suffered a few days before the battle.

Greece gains recognition as a sovereign nation on May 11, 1832.

The Greek National Assembly, in confirming the choice of Otto of Wittelsbach as the first king of the new Greek state, also rewards Nicholas I with the shipping rights he had sought in exchange for Russian help in the Greek independence movement.

The Treaty of Constantinople, signed in July 1832, vouchsafes the existence of an independent Greek state by placing it under British, French, and Russian protection, defines its boundaries, and establishes its system of government.

The tiny, foreign-ruled, and utterly dependent Greece that comes into existence is a pale realization of the lofty "New Byzantium" visualized by the eighteenth-century Greek intellectuals.

Nonetheless, for the first time in history the Greek nation exists as a unitary state.

His Royal Highness Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig of Bavaria, accompanied by a Bavarian council of regency, arrives in 1833 to ascend the Greek throne as His Majesty Othon the First, by the Grace of God, King of Greece, Prince of Bavaria.

Formidable problems face Greece’s seventeen-year-old king and the three regents appointed to assist him.

The agricultural infrastructure on which the economy is based lies in ruins.

At least two-thirds of the olive trees, vineyards, and flour mills have been destroyed, and only about ten percent of Greece's sheep and goat flocks remain.

Many villages are devastated, as are several of the most important commercial centers.

The rural populace, destitute and displaced, looks to their new king for relief.

Several groups that had supported the war for independence now demand compensation.

The military leaders who had led and financed the war want land, power, and pay for their men.

Ship owners demand indemnity for their substantial losses in naval battles.

The soldiers who had fought the war want regular pay, land, or both.

The peasants want land.

It is impossible to satisfy all these claims.

In 1833 also, the patriarch of Constantinople establishes an autocephalous Orthodox Church of the Kingdom of Greece with Otto at its head.

However, the Roman Catholic monarch shows no inclination toward conversion, adding further fuel to the political fire.

Moreover, Greece's persistent fiscal crises are exacerbated by the fact that remaining outside the kingdom are the fertile agricultural areas of Macedonia ...

Manufacturing and trade remain underdeveloped in the new Greek state despite the expertise and connections that the Greeks of the diaspora bring with them as they migrate to the new kingdom.

The only feasible internal source of revenue is a tax on agriculture, the growth of which is most fundamental to the country's prosperity.

Thus, the government soon reclaims, in the form of taxes, land, and loans given to peasants to expand cultivation.

Borrowing repeatedly from Greeks abroad, from foreign banks, and from other European states, the government incurs formidable debts and establishes a pattern that will endure throughout this age.

Such obstacles do not prevent Greece’s revival from the devastation of eleven years of war.

To the new capital, Athens, is added a royal palace and mansions to house the political elite who flock there.

Resettlement in the countryside allows agricultural production to rebound.

The merchant marine recovers from its wartime losses, Greek merchants once again handle much of the seagoing freight of the Mediterranean.

Greek political stability proves elusive in the first phase of Otto's rule.

In imposing Western models, Otto and his advisers show little sensitivity to indigenous traditions of politics, law, and education.

The political system established in 1834 preserves the social schisms that had existed during the war and promotes new ones.

The kingdom is divided administratively into ten prefectures, fifty-nine subprefectures, and four hundred and sixty-eight counties.

The king appoints the leaders at all three levels.

Only a small oligarchy, the tzakia, has a role in this process at the county level.

Such absolute power alienates the Greeks who had fought the war in the name of republicanism.

Armed bands are reorganized to further the political aims of their wartime leaders, and violent uprisings will occur annually for the next seven years.

The unpopular Bavarian regency ends in 1835; its head, Josef, graf von Armansperg, remains as arch-chancellor.