Charilaos Trikoupis ΧΑΡΙΛΑΟΣ ΤΡΙΚΟΥΠΗΣ
Born in Nauplio, 1832 Died in Cannes, 1896
Section
5, Number 896
The
Family Plot: Charilaos and his sister Sophia in the background; their parents
Spyros and Katerina in the foreground.
Charilaos Trikoupis: cosmopolitan,
multi-lingual, and an accomplished dancer, served as Greece’s
Prime Minister seven
times between the years 1875 to 1895. He brought something new to the Greek political scene – a
coherent and liberal policy of internal reform accompanied by a more reasoned
foreign policy (1) Trikoupis had tremendous
self-confidence, a quality that neither the English or the French, used to
controlling Greece from behind the scenes, would entirely forgive. He was also eloquent. When he spoke
in parliament, foreign officials and diplomats listened; his speeches were widely
published abroad. In spite
of his failure to fully realize his vision, historians still rate him as a colossus
in the political history of Greece.
His
statue (by Thomas Thomopoulos) outside of the old Parliament building on
Stadiou Street. Emblazoned under the angel’s protective arm are the words
“Greece wants to live (prosper), and will live (prosper)”
His Life
Trikoupis came from an illustrious family. His mother was the sister of Greek prime minister
Alexandros Mavrokordatos. His
father, Spyridon, the son of a
primate in Missolonghi, had fought in the Greek revolution and served as the Greece’
first prime Minister in 1833. (2)
Charilaos studied law in Athens, and then continued his studies
in Paris and London. In England, he fit in so well with the ambiance that he gained the nickname
“the Englishman”. In 1862 , at the age of 30, he became attaché of the Second National Convention of the Greek
community in London. In 1863 he followed in his father’s footsteps becoming chargé d’affaires at the Greek Embassy
there, where he skillfully handled the negotiations for the 1864 treaty in which
Great Britain surrendered the Ionian Islands to the Greek nation.
But it was
politics at home, not diplomacy abroad, that interested Harilaos.
In 1865, at the
age of 33, he
was first elected to the Greek parliament, representing Missolonghi. He quickly became the Minister of Foreign Affairs. As a newly minted
minister, he requested that foreign ambassadors first
visit him in his offices rather than
him going to theirs as had been the custom. It was a symbolic gesture of independence from foreign influence, and one that has remained the protocol in Greece ever since.
This
photograph may have been used by Thomopoulos for his statue!
By 1872, Trikoupis
had already founded the Fifth Party (Πέμπτο Κόμμα), the first party
in Greek history to be based on a clear set of principles rather than on the charisma of its leader. He began to
attract progressive politicians to his point of view. In
1874 he wrote the now famous article Who is to Blame? (Τις Πταίει;) in which he harshly criticized the existing political system, in particular the
role of the king. The king, using his constitutional prerogative, (3) had chosen the
leader of a minority party to become
Prime Minister rather than the leader of the party which had gained the most
votes. This undemocratic constitutional right of Greek royalty encouraged political leaders to prefer
gaining the king’s favor over the wishes of the majority.
In another article, Past and Present, Trikoupis presented a majority rule proposal: that parliament must be led by the
leader of the party which gained the most votes. This principle, so logical to
us today, was reluctantly accepted by the king and, according to its principle Trikoupis, as head of his newly
formed ‘New Party’, became Greece’s prime minister for the
first time On April 27, 1875.
The new system encouraged small parties to band
together to achieve the needed majority and, as a result, a two party system developed: Trikoupis’ forward looking New Party versus the
Nationalist
Party, a group of entrenched Conservatives led first by Alexandros Koumoundouros and later by Theodoros Deligiannis. They represented the ‘old
guard’ families of Greece who saw no ‘possible benefit’ in changing the ‘patron-client’
system in which they had prospered. The last thing they wanted was real reform.
Political power changed hands in a dizzying
number of elections during these years: the conservative’s populist choices
would attempt to defeat any progressive moves made by Tricoupis during his tenure. Deligiannis would often say, without
apparent embarrassment that, as a policy, he was against “anything that Trikoupis
was for”!
Trikoupis famed dancing prowess was certainly tested
as he and Deligiannis embraced each other in a drawn out political fandango that
could not end well for Greece.
A cartoonist
at the time depicting Trikoupis and Deligiannis going at it like school boys.
Painting by N. Orlov
which depicts a sitting of the Parliament in the 1880s. Harilaos Trikoupis is
at the rostrum and Theodoros Diligiannis, his arch enemy, is sitting in the
benches. Athens National Historical
Museum.
The Era of Trikoupis
In
spite of this, the years between 1882 and 1897 are still called ‘the era of Trikoupis’
because of his effort to modernize
and expand the economy, re-organize the civil service, complete important
public works projects, and encourage urban development. He believed that only a
strong Greece with a growing economy and a reorganized army and navy could
succeed and properly represent Greek national interests. Thessaly and the part of Southern Epirus around Arta
had became part of an expanded Greek state in 1881, making changes even more
necessary and reforms vital.
Under Trikoupis the Corinth Canal was completed and four
new rail lines were created. Consider this: from 1882 until 1890, the road
network in Greece went from 1,359 kms to 5,221 kms, and the rail network from
19kms to 1,300 kms! For this last accomplishment, Trikoupis is today known as
‘the father of the railroad’. (4)
However…
The reorganization of the state, the resulting increase in civil
servants, the cost of strengthening of the armed forces, and the introduction
of huge public works resulted in heavy financial burdens. Loans were made, taxes
were increased, and customs duties were raised against imports, especially
luxury goods.
Trikoupis was asking the Greek people for more sacrifices
than their ability or willingness to accept. It wasn’t long before farmers and the poorly paid city dwellers began to see his costly expansion
programs as monsters eating their money, money that many would have preferred
to be spent on the more immediate improvement of their own lives. The
conservative opposition was not slow to fan these flames of malcontent.
Biographer Lyndia Tricha writes: It was as if Trikoupis was a pediatrician and
the Greek people the baby: every time the country became ill, they called on him
to cure them even if the therapy which he offered was painful, but when the
problem was momentarily alleviated and the fear was overcome, the ‘child’ would
distance himself from the doctor - and
vote against him. (5)
.
Trikoupis’ Athens
During the Trikoupis years, Athens changed from a
village into a city. It now had many impressive and beautiful buildings, most
of which were gifts of wealthy Athenian benefactors. Many were created under the
watchful eye of the brilliant architect Ernst Ziller. In spite of difficulties,
the Trikoupis years were a period of
growth and optimism in Greece. Trikoupis’ own impressive mansion on Academias
Street was practically next door to Ernst Ziller’s. The avenues of Athens were then lined with such stately homes.
It was torn down in 1936
Trikoupis lived with his unmarried sister Sophia
whom he loved dearly.
In spite of her
rather austere appearance, informed gossip reports that, as a young woman,
Sophia had an affair with none other than her brother’s great rival Theodoros
Deligiannis! Athens was a small town back then and strange liasons did occur...
Trikoupis remained a bachelor all of his life although
Georgios Souris (Γ. Σουρής), the editor and writer of the satiric magazine
Romios targeted him with a totally untranslatable ditty: «επιθυμώ αλήθεια να δω και τον Τρικούπη, που του ΄χει γίνει τώρα ο έρωτας κουνούπι», having him smitten by love’s arrow – a not so subtle
reference to Trikoupi’s long affair of the heart (and possibly more) with the Baroness Maria Von Trauttenberg, the wife of the Austrian ambassador to
Greece. (6)
The
Economic Crisis
In
order to achieve his goals, the Trikoupi’s government had made huge loans in
the international money market, loans that caused the Greek debt to spiral upward into
the stratosphere. Trikoupis could not stop the economic death
spiral and that led to his famous 1893 admission in parliament: “Unfortunately we are bankrupt”. Greece
defaulted on all foreign loans and all non-essential spending was immediately cut.
In the elections of April 16, 1895, his party suffered
a humiliating defeat and he was voted out of parliament by his Missolonghi
constituents.
He left for Europe. His absence from the political scene
was soon felt and in absentia his friends put up his name for election in Valtos in Aitoloakarnania where he was elected by a landslide in 1896 but, unknown to them, he was
already gravely ill.
His Death
Trikoupis died on March 30, 1896
in Cannes at the very time the time that
the first Olympic Games were being held
in Athens. (7) Apparently both
his sister and the baroness were at his side. It is impossible to know the facts about his relationship with the baroness because his sister edited his letters with an eye on ‘propriety’ before allowing them to be published.
His political enemy, Theodoros Deligiannis, refused
to release a Navy vessel to bring Trikoupis back home, so his
friends covered the cost. First among the donors was wealthy Andreas Syngros.
The Funeral of Harilaos
Trikoupis.
At his own request, he was buried without state
fanfare and was laid to rest in the First
cemetery of Athens. Each grave in the enclosure is adorned with a simple wooden cross –
quite a contrast to the grand tombs of many other politicians. (8)
On national holidays, his grave is festooned with flowers and Greeks flags
Some have called Trikoupis a failure, but most agree that
he a visionary who managed to guide the Greek state into the 20th
century. He had even envisioned a bridge spanning the Corinthian Gulf between
Rion and Antirion – something the technology of his day could not have
accomplished. But when the bridge did become
a reality in 2004, it was named in his honour.
The
Map
Section
5, Number 896
Footnotes
1. No Greek politician of that era ever abandoned the
‘Great idea’ of the expansion of Greece until Constantinople, but Trikoupis,
unlike his conservative rivals, saw the enhancing and strengthening of the
existing state as his first priority.
2. Almost all
Greek politicians during the nineteenth century and on into the 1900s came from
either Phanariot families who had been prominent during the Ottoman era or
primates, large landowners and fighters
in the Greek struggle for independence) from the Peloponnese or Mainland
Greece. It was as essential a prerequisite
for power as, say, serving in the American military used to be in the U.S.
3. The Constitution of 1864 had given the king the power
to choose the prime minister.
4.
1835
was the first year that a proposal for a rail network was proposed. A rail line
between Piraeus and the Thission was first approved when Mavrokordatos was
Prime Minister in 1855.
5. «Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης - Μια βιογραφική
περιήγηση», της Λύντια Τρίχα.
6.
Unfortunately
we cannot find a picture of Maria…
7. Trikoupis had not been in favour of the Olympics for many of the same
reasons many did not want them in 2004 – too much money spent during a time of
economic difficulty for too little gain. On the other hand, his populist rival
Deliyiannis wanted to go full speed ahead
for the “Glory of Greece”.
8. The Greek writer Alexandros Papadiamantis published a
moving eulogy in the Acropolis newspaper. See https://www.sansimera.gr/anthology/446.
Sources
http://www.kathimerini.gr/807580/interactive/epikairothta/hgetes/xarilaos-trikoyphs
http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/UserFiles/f3c70a23-7696-49db-9148-f24dce6a27c8/trikoupis_1.pdf
http://www.patris.gr/articles/291290?PHPSESSID=#.WKbHL_I2jcs
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