Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 309 The Greek who is good at cosplay
Greece in Guo Kang’s era was a very awkward regime, and it had little reference to his current situation—or, the reference meaning was that it was impossible for Greece to separate from Rome, just like the “Jiangnan Kingdom” could not be maintained stably.

When Greece tried to become independent from the Ottomans, it received a large number of foreign support.At that time, many European literati still believed that Greece was the starting point of European civilization, and it was difficult for everyone to accept that such a region was under the rule of pagans.Therefore, many people are willing to give support, forming a "pro-Hellenism" atmosphere.

Everyone admires ancient Greek culture and admires the achievements of classical Greece, so they are also willing to provide help to today's Greece.For the weak Greeks at the time, these supports were crucial.

In the end, with the military intervention of Britain, France and Russia, Greece's independence succeeded.But this help is not free.

Although everyone is "close" to Greece, feelings belong to feelings and money belongs to money.The matter of repaying debts cannot be saved.

In order to fight against the Ottomans, the Greeks carried forward traditional arts, lobbied various forces, borrowed money and made various promises in exchange for aid to support the war.In the course of the war, they also lacked a unified command, and each was attached to a different power.Therefore, as soon as the country was founded, Greece owed a lot of debts to all countries.

Originally, they also elected a Tsarist Russian minister as the unified leader, but after he was assassinated, the country fell into chaos again, and there was no one who could preside over the repayment of debts.The powers dissatisfied with this arranged for Greece a king from Bavaria, while the actual control of the country was a committee composed of foreigners.Their main task is to make money as soon as possible and recover the investment of the great powers.The intensity of taxation even surpassed the era of Ottoman rule.

After the Kingdom regime was established, Greece borrowed 6000 million Swiss gold francs at a time just to maintain the Kingdom government.After that, every time they couldn't pay back, the British did not hesitate to send warships to blockade the coast of Greece, forcing them to continue to pay back.Since the United Kingdom needs to transfer money to Ottoman at this time, part of the Greek tax is handed over to them, and it is directly transferred to Ottoman next door.I paid money to Osman before independence, and I paid money to Osman after independence. I don’t know what happened...

Later, in order to prevent Russia from going south and seize the outlet of the Black Sea, Britain began to support Ottoman against Russia.At the same time, the pro-Russian faction formed in Greece because of the support of the Orthodox Church and Tsarist Russia also disgusted the British.After the outbreak of the Crimean War, the British army once again occupied the port of Piraeus. This blockade lasted for three years, causing Greece to go bankrupt.There is really no way, Greece chooses to insist.This bad debt has been hanging on for decades, and it was forced to cancel it after World War I.

After that, indebtedness, debt repayment, default and re-debt have repeatedly appeared in Greek history and have never stopped.Even if you get an exemption because you were on the right side in the war, you will soon fall into debt crisis again.Moreover, these debts are obviously not easy to repay—or in other words, the money lenders probably won't let them repay them so easily.Even if the Greeks are not lazy at work, they have not been able to escape this cycle.

And beyond the monetary debt, there are more serious problems.

Many Europeans gave Greece support for "civilization" and "morality".As individuals, they may indeed be altruistic, but where in the world is patronage free of cost?The things that are free can be the most expensive.

These "civilized" debts have consequences that may be more serious than monetary debts.

When Greece became independent, the upper-class literati who presided over the construction of national concepts were basically influenced by European popular culture.They generally support Enlightenment thinking, pursue ancient Greece, and oppose Rome and the church.

These people believe that the era of city-state system and democracy is the best era for Greece.After that, the great unification of Rome was actually a kind of tyranny, and Christianity was synonymous with conservatism and backwardness.Therefore, most of the early theorists hoped to abandon the name of Rome and use the legal system of ancient Greece to establish a country.The literary and linguistic scholar Klaus even said, "Whoever calls me a Roman in the future will be my enemy."

These strange "nationalist" views have caused great division and confusion.

In the eyes of most ordinary Greeks, this theory is incredible.Even after the fall of Eastern Rome, they have always regarded themselves as Romans, and the church is an important force to maintain their identity.Hands-on with the concept of Rome and the church, so that they don't understand what this Greece is.

A classic story happened at that time: the Greek army landed on an island and established a camp.The residents of the island came to watch one after another, wanting to see what the Greeks looked like.A little boy asked the Greek soldiers, where are the Greeks?You yourself are Greeks, the soldier told him.The little boy immediately retorted, saying that we are not, we are Romans.

This division has not affected the upper class of Greece for the time being, and they are still pushing the whole country to become more "Greek", or more like ancient Greece in the eyes of Europeans.

The Greek government chose Athens as its capital and carried out extensive renovations.The monuments that did not meet their expectations were cleaned up, leaving only the relics of the classical era.The new buildings are also basically imitating the classical style, making the city look more like the expected appearance.

At the same time, the Greeks invented a new word: "archaeology".Not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, they established corresponding government agencies, promulgated laws, organized societies, and founded the Archaeological Journal.

But archeology in this period is not so much for the study of ancient history as it is for the study and publicity of a specific ancient history.They only focus on the classical era, while the relics of Eastern Rome, the Latin Empire, and the Ottoman era are often deliberately removed in order to maintain the "purity" of Greek culture in everyone's imagination.

Until modern times, people can still see many ancient relics that were forcibly "completed" by clumsy methods, and nondescript cultural relics that were deliberately "restored" according to the imagination of the people at that time. These are basically the "masterpieces" left by that era .This kind of behavior not only destroys the classical cultural relics themselves, but also often destroys other strata and cultural relics from other eras at the cost.The credibility of Greek archaeology has also been greatly damaged by this.

Almost all of these "national inventors" and "architects of cultural relics" came from France, Germany and other countries.According to their own wishes, they dress up Greece as the Greece they imagined, so as to satisfy their desire to "restore Greek civilization".As for Greece itself, it has become a large cosplay venue.No one cares about the civilization and ideas of the Greeks themselves.

——The reason is very simple. Western volunteers and supporters are all "Jing Xi", not "Jing Luo", even the enthusiastic and selfless Lord Byron.That's what the Greeks had to do in order to get patronage.They have no choice at all.

(End of this chapter)