Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century.• The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821.• Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile and also from many West Europeans who had sympathies for ancient Greek culture.• Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilised public opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim empire.• The English poet Lord Byron organised funds and later went to fight in the war, where he died of fever in 1824.• Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.
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