Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftherios Venizelos
Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος
Venizelos in 1919
Prime Minister of Greece
In office 16 January 1933 – 6 March 1933
President	Alexandros Zaimis
Preceded by	Panagis Tsaldaris
Succeeded by	Alexandros Othonaios
In office 5 June 1932 – 4 November 1932
President	Alexandros Zaimis
Preceded by	Alexandros Papanastasiou
Succeeded by	Panagis Tsaldaris
In office 4 July 1928 – 26 May 1932
President	Pavlos Kountouriotis Alexandros Zaimis
Preceded by	Alexandros Zaimis
Succeeded by	Alexandros Papanastasiou
In office 11 January 1924 – 6 February 1924
Monarch	George II
Preceded by	Stylianos Gonatas
Succeeded by	Georgios Kafantaris
In office 14 June 1917 – 4 November 1920
Monarch	Alexander
Preceded by	Alexandros Zaimis
Succeeded by	Dimitrios Rallis
In office 10 August 1915 – 24 September 1915
Monarch	Constantine I
Preceded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Succeeded by	Alexandros Zaimis
In office 6 October 1910 – 25 February 1915
Monarchs	George I Constantine I
Preceded by	Stefanos Dragoumis
Succeeded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Prime Minister of the Cretan State
In office 2 May 1910 – 6 October 1910
Preceded by	Alexandros Zaimis (as High Commissioner)
Minister of Military Affairs
In office 27 June 1917 – 18 November 1920
Monarch	Alexander
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Anastasios Charalambis
Succeeded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 23 August – 7 October 1915
Monarch	Constantine I
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Succeeded by	Alexandros Zaimis
Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Cretan State
In office 1908–1910
Minister of Justice of the Cretan State
In office 17 April 1899 – 18 March 1901 -->
Personal details
Born	(1864-08-23)23 August 1864 Mournies, Ottoman Empire (now Greece)
Died	18 March 1936(1936-03-18) (aged 71) Paris, France
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Maria Katelouzou (1891–1894) Helena Schilizzi (1921–1936)
Relations	Konstantinos Mitsotakis (nephew) Kyriakos Mitsotakis (great-nephew)
Children	Kyriakos Venizelos Sophoklis Venizelos
Parent(s)	Kyriakos Venizelos Styliani Ploumidaki
Alma mater	University of Athens
Profession	Politician Revolutionary Legislator Lawyer Jurist Journalist Translator
Awards	Order of the Redeemer Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour Order of the White Eagle
Signature
Website	National Foundation Research "Eleftherios K. Venizelos"
Military service
Battles/wars	Greco-Turkish War (1897) Cretan Revolt Theriso revolt

Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos (Greek: Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος, romanized: Eleuthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, pronounced [elefˈθeri.os cirˈʝaku veniˈzelos]; 23 August [O.S. 11 August] 1864^[1] – 18 March 1936) was a Cretan Greek statesman and prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement. He is noted for his contribution to the expansion of Greece and promotion of liberal-democratic policies.^[2][3][4] As leader of the Liberal Party, he held office as prime minister of Greece for over 12 years, spanning eight terms between 1910 and 1933. During his governance, Venizelos entered in diplomatic cooperation with the Great Powers and had profound influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece. He has therefore been labelled as "The Maker of Modern Greece"^[5] and is still widely known as the "Ethnarch".^[6]

His first entry into the international scene was with his significant role in the autonomy of the Cretan State and later in the union of Crete with Greece. In 1909, he was invited to Athens to resolve the political deadlock and became the country's Prime Minister. He initiated constitutional and economic reforms that set the basis for the modernization of Greek society, and reorganized both the Greek Army and the Greek Navy in preparation of future conflicts.^[7] Before the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Venizelos' catalytic role helped gain Greece entrance to the Balkan League, an alliance of the Balkan states against the Ottoman Empire. Through his diplomatic acumen with the Great Powers and with the other Balkan countries, Greece doubled its area and population with the liberation of Macedonia, Epirus, and most of the Aegean islands.

In World War I (1914–1918), he brought Greece on the side of the Allies, further expanding the Greek borders. However, his pro-Allied foreign policy brought him into conflict with the nonaligned faction of Constantine I of Greece, causing the National Schism of the 1910s. The Schism became an unofficial civil war, with the struggle for power between the two groups polarizing the population between the royalists and Venizelists for decades.^[8][9] Following the Allied victory, Venizelos secured new territorial concessions in Western Anatolia and Thrace in an attempt to accomplish the Megali Idea, which would have united all Greek-speaking people along the Aegean Sea under the banner of Greece. He was however defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22). Venizelos, in self-imposed exile, represented Greece in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne and the agreement of a mutual population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

In his subsequent periods in office, Venizelos restored normal relations with Greece's neighbors and expanded his constitutional and economic reforms. In 1935, he resurfaced from retirement to support a military coup. The coup's failure severely weakened the Second Hellenic Republic.