ABSTRACT
The process of incorporating Thessaloniki and the ‘New Lands’ after 1912 was complicated and time-consuming because of their size relative to the rest of the country, but also because of the internal conflicts provoked by the national schism that lasted the whole interwar period. The national completion of Greece was gradual, and the Greek state acquired the relevant experience early on, with the annexation of the Ionian Islands in 1864. Cosmopolitan Thessaloniki, however, had its own distinctive issues, expressed in its ‘municipal question’ and the intermittent dominance of anti-Venizelist candidates for city hall thanks to the Jewish vote.
