ABSTRACT
Founded in 1830 in the very southern cone of the Balkan Peninsula encompassing the Peloponnese, Southern Rumelia, Euboea and the complex of Cyclades islands, the Greek state resulted from an imperial geopolitical accident rather than from an economically-expanding, national industrial bourgeoisie. In order to conduct the war of independence against the Ottomans, Greek élites borrowed large amounts of money from the West. A primitive Greek state apparatus experienced its first bankruptcy in 1824–25, when it could not service the loans received from France and England. Despite its dilapidated finances and its unsophisticated banking and industrial sectors, Greece was always viewed by Western powers through the prism of their imperial geopolitical interests. Without a robust economic-industrial base, and with its ruling political élites closely tied to imperial interests due to their comprador character, the country could not capitalize on its geostrategic advantages and pursue an independent and sustainable economic course.
