The cause of the Greeks: historical essay on the philhellene movement (1821-1829).

Summary The investigation focuses on the support given by European societies to the Greek war of independence. This movement is studied first as a collective phenomenon: organizations, forms of mobilization, dimensions of deployment, overall significance. The mobilization of individuals is the subject of a second part: how they enrolled in the movement, how this participation took place in their lives. The multiform and scattered investments of the philhellenes in the rear are distinguished from the more crucial experience of the philhellenes at the front, captured through its characteristic moments (departure and return, travel and war). Often disappointing on a personal level, this mobilization was globally a success, despite the limits of Greek independence to which it contributed. In the longer term, philhellenism can be seen as the matrix of an internationalism that has since taken on many faces.