СВРТУВАЊЕ КОН СРЕДНОВЕКОВНОТО МИНАТО – СЛУЧАЈОТ НА ГРЦИЈА. ПОЛИТИКА, ИДЕНТИТЕТ, ИСТОРИЈА,ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ, ТЕРИТОРИJА (original) (raw)

2017, The Byzantine Missionary activity and its legacy in Europe

The creation of the Modern Greek state in 1830 meant the beginning of the building of a new identity in the Balkan region. Greek population, as well, the rest of the Balkans did not have developed ethnic consciousness. Some of the Greeks considered themselves as Romeion, some as the Greeks, and the rest one as Hellenes. Politicians and the intellectuals of the newborn Greek kingdom had been under strong influence of the western progressive ideas. So, taking into the account the behavior of the western intellectuals to the Byzantine past, it was quite understandable that there was no room for Byzantium to be a part of the Greek national identity, at the very early times of its creation. However, the speech of Ioannis Kolettis in 1844 and his introducing of Megali idea, has changed the approach of the Greek intellectuals towards the Byzantine past. Although the most prominent Greek intellectuals, Konstantionos Paparrigopoulos or Spyridon Zambelios, for example, at the early phase of their works had not considered Byzantium as a part of the Modern Greek identity, they changed their views under the influence of Kolettis’s speech. Byzantium became an unavoidable part of the Modern Greek identity.