The sortie of Mesolongi as a story of human resilience

This lecture explores the political symbolism of Missolonghi as the birthplace of modern Greek statehood. Often remembered as a site of heroic resistance and martyrdom, Missolonghi also served—less famously but no less significantly—as the initial locus of revolutionary statecraft. In 1821, Alexander Mavrokordatos and a circle of enlightened associates gathered there and laid the institutional foundations of a new political identity for Greece. This emerging vision was built upon two pillars: a geopolitical alignment with Enlightenment Europe and a temporary but bold adoption of republican constitutionalism. Far from being a radical at the outset, Mavrokordatos was gradually influenced by the spirit of liberty he had helped unleash. Drawing from contemporary sources and recent historiography, the lecture reframes Missolonghi not only as a battlefield of independence but as the crucible in which the Greek political project (Western, liberal, and constitutional) was first forged.