Assuming Greece never fell to the Ottomans

[TallOne]

Lets assume, that the Ottoman empire never conquerd Greece, how do you think Greece would be today. Obviously, it would be a bit bigger, as Constantinople would still be a Greek city, but how else would Greece be?

There would be postitives and negatives, our relationship with Turkey would proberbly be better, on the negatives however, would be our pride of being a small nation that broke free from such a strong nations hold, on the other hand, we spent 400 years of darkness under such a dictative empire. Greek culture would also be affected, as it has influnces from Turkish culture.

What do you think Greece would be like today?

[Andrew]

Hard to say ....

Before the Arrival of the Turks we have 3 types of competition:

1) Inner competition among the Despotats , "daughters" of the Byzantine empire.
2)Balkanian Competition between three empires : Byzantine (Despotats) , Serbian (Dusan) and Bulgarian.

So hard to say ...among the bads of the Ottomans , they have one good :
They "buffered" the Balkanians and somehow "limited" each in his "natural habitat".

3) Extra Balkanian Threats : We have a strong Hungary that destroyed the Serbian Empire and then merged to the so called AustroHungarian Empire. Turks mamaged to stop their expansion in the south.

4) The only thing is that surely out intellectuals would of stayed in East and there woudn't be any "Renaissance" in Italy and the rest of Europe.

[kostas68]

If Greece wasn't conquered by the Ottomans,we wouldn't have today:
1)The rousfet.
2)The bachtsis.
3)The <ladoma> or <fakelaki>.
4)The national anniversary of 25 March.
5)The dispute with the Albanians about the origin of the Souliotes.
6)The legend of kyra-Frosyni,Ali Pasha's mistress.
7)The national disaster of 1922.
8)The <Christians of Anatolia> who settled in Macedonia and took the property of the poor <Makedontsi>.
9)The known threat that were hearing in older times some civil servants from their political opponents <I'll send you to Evros prefecture>.
10)The most important:We would have no <Macedonian issue> today.The Scopians would be today either proude Greeks or Bulgarians,but no way <Makedontsi>.Dimitar would still reside in his grandfathers village in Florina and he would be today a proud Greek,not a desperate <Makedonski> who blaims the <Anatolian Christians> who took his house.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by kostas68

If Greece wasn't conquered by the Ottomans,we wouldn't have today:
1)The rousfet.
2)The bachtsis.
3)The <ladoma> or <fakelaki>.
4)The national anniversary of 25 March.
5)The dispute with the Albanians about the origin of the Souliotes.
6)The legend of kyra-Frosyni,Ali Pasha's mistress.
7)The national disaster of 1922.
8)The <Christians of Anatolia> who settled in Macedonia and took the property of the poor <Makedontsi>.
9)The known threat that were hearing in older times some civil servants from their political opponents <I'll send you to Evros prefecture>.
10)The most important:We would have no <Macedonian issue> today.The Scopians would be today either proude Greeks or Bulgarians,but no way <Makedontsi>.Dimitar would still reside in his grandfathers village in Florina and he would be today a proud Greek,not a desperate <Makedonski> who blaims the <Anatolian Christians> who took his house.

I haven't thought about that Kosta ...
Dimitar would be a proud Greek debating on Internet in favour of the Greekness of the Ancient Macedonians !!!

[Kuniska]

It is a very dangerous mind game you are playing with. If it weren't the Ottomans it would have been the Western Romans (because we were devided into Eastern and Western Roman Empire) or worse we would have been invaded by the Northern tribes. Of course there is also the Arabs... You pick and choose.
The Eastern Roman Empire was falling. Corruption and division was unfortunately very common in the Eastern Roman Empire royal court. I am surprised that you think that all evil came from the Ottomans... May I remind you the Pellopenisian War? If at the time of Sokratis (whom we executed because we could not handle the truth by the way) and of Periklis, of Leonidas and Kuniska people were not able to act in harmony in the name of Hellas, what makes you think that things would be any different today if we never were under the Ottoman rule?