The modern Greek State was founded in 1829 and recognized by Europe's major powers as an independent, autonomous kingdom three years later. The new state, however, encompassed but a small fraction of the Greek-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire, i.e. only 36 per cent of what is today the Republic of Greece. Indeed, until the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, more than half of present-day Greece remained under Turkish rule[l], including nine of the country's twenty largest urban centres today. In 1860, only six towns had a population of 10,000 or more, and of these only three exceeded 11,000 - Athens (53,000), Patras (23,000), and Ermoupolis, on the island of Syros (18,500). By the turn of the century, Athens had a population of 200,000 and had reached the quarter of a million mark by the time of the 1907 census.