History, Ottoman Domination

Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, fell to Ottoman sultan Muhammad II (the Conqueror) on a Tuesday in 1453. Ever since then, that day of the week has been considered of ill omen in the Greek world. Those few Greek areas that had not already fallen to the Ottomans, principally the Peloponnisos and the Aegean Islands, were incorporated into the Ottoman Empire over the next two centuries. The last major conquest was the island of Crete, which the Ottomans captured in 1669 from the Venetians. The Ionian Islands remained under the rule of Venice and were only briefly part of the Ottoman Empire.

Although Ottoman rule was arbitrary and inefficient, the Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire generally enjoyed freedom of religion and considerable autonomy. The head of the Orthodox Church, the patriarch, was based in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul (as Constantinople was renamed). He was both the political and spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, whatever their ethnic origins. Phanariot Greeks, members of a small group of families originating in the Phanar quarter of Istanbul, came to hold important administrative and diplomatic positions in the service of the Ottoman sultan.