Introduction to Early Modern and Contemporary Hellenism

During the first part of the course, lasting three weeks, the students are introduced, first, to the scholars and their work who have dealt with the history of modern Hellenism from the beginning of the historiography of the Greek nation to the present, second, to the most important scholarly institutions in which the subject is studied and promoted, third, to the academic journals, conferences and symposia that have dealt with the study of the history of modern Hellenism and, fourth, to the types of direct and indirect sources employed by scholars who deal with the subject.
The second part of the course, lasting four weeks, deals with the gradual penetration by the Latins of the Byzantine Empire and with the capture of Byzantium by the Crusaders in 1204. It examines the Latin rule in the Aegean and Venetian rule on Crete, the Ionian islands and the Peloponnese. The focus of the course is upon administrative and social organization, on relations between Orthodox and Latin and on the general cultural milieu.
During the third part of the course, which lasts four weeks, the history of modern Hellenism is described. In particular, the course traces the path of Hellenism from 12th-13th centuries up to 1821. Stress is laid upon the most important points in this course of events and in particular on the most important changes to the economic, social and political life that resulted in the shaped of the Greek ethnosand its acquisition of freedom over the 19th century.