Constantine I of Greece - Restoration and Disaster

Restoration and Disaster

Constantine's younger son, King Alexander, died on 25 October 1920, after a freak accident: he was strolling with his dogs in the royal menagerie, when they attacked a monkey. Rushing to save the poor animal, the king was bitten by the monkey and what seemed like a minor injury turned to septicemia. He died a few days later. The following month Venizelos suffered a surprising defeat in a general election. Greece had at this point been at war for eight continuous years: World War I had come and gone, yet no sign of an enduring peace was near. All young men had been fighting and dying for years, lands lay fallow for lack of hands to cultivate them, and the country, morally exhausted, was at the brink of physical exhaustion. The pro-royalist parties promised peace and prosperity under the victorious Field Marshal of the Balkan Wars, him who knew of the soldier's plight because he had fought next to him and shared his ration. Following a plebiscite in which nearly 99% of votes were cast in favor of his return, Constantine returned as king on 19 December 1920. This caused great dissatisfaction not only to the newly liberated populations in Asia Minor, but also to the Great Powers who opposed the return of Constantine.

Within two years the king's new-found popularity was lost again. The inherited ongoing Asia Minor Campaign against Turkey proved disastrous for the Greeks. An ill-conceived plan to go for the jugular again, Kemal's new capital of Ankara, deep in barren Anatolia where no Greek lived, succeeded enough only to raise some faint and ill-fated hopes. The Turks eventually broke the overstretched Greek front and routed the Greek army through Anatolia to the shore, burning Smyrna. Following an army revolt, Constantine abdicated the throne again on 27 September 1922 and was succeeded by his eldest son, George II.