• Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century. • The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821. • Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile and also from many West Europeans who had sympathies for ancient Greek culture. • Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilised public opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim empire. • The English poet **** Byron organised funds and later went to fight in the war, where he died of fever in 1824. • Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.