Trikeri : the pirate regime of Thessaly and Magnesia : collective impasses and personal dilemmas in the context of autonomy and dependence
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Abstract
Communalism was a form of collective life which, reproduced and adjusted to the historical circumstances prevailing at any one place or time, rallied and supported the Greek people during their period of subjugation to
the Turks. It also enabled them to establish a pluralistic and representative
parastate, which paved the way for the War of Independence of 1821 and
played a crucial part in the setting up of the modern Greek state.
In his study “Κοινοτικός βίος εις την Θετταλομαγνησίαν επί Τουρκο
κρατίας” (1967), the writer described the federal system in which Pelion’s
mountain communities were organised during the last three hundred years
of slavery. In another work, “Παραδοσιακοί θεσμοί σε δοκιμασία: Η περί
πτωση της Θεσσαλίας” (1988), he analysed the situation which developed in
the lowlands of Thessaly after its annexation to Greece. The gap arising from
the lack of any special reference to the sea, the liquid element surrounding
Thessaly and Magnesia, is now filled by the present article, “Trikeri: The
Pirate Regime of Thessaly and Magnesia: Collective Impasses and Personal
Dilemmas in the Context of Autonomy and Dependence”. It examines, on
the basis of unpublished archival material, this important maritime centre’s
struggle to maintain its autonomy in the face of the external dangers and internal frictions provoked by its administrative, ecclesiastical, and economic
isolation from the surrounding area. The writer’s intention is that historical research should make a creative contribution to our approach to the impasses facing the institution of local self-administration and decentralisation in our own time.
the Turks. It also enabled them to establish a pluralistic and representative
parastate, which paved the way for the War of Independence of 1821 and
played a crucial part in the setting up of the modern Greek state.
In his study “Κοινοτικός βίος εις την Θετταλομαγνησίαν επί Τουρκο
κρατίας” (1967), the writer described the federal system in which Pelion’s
mountain communities were organised during the last three hundred years
of slavery. In another work, “Παραδοσιακοί θεσμοί σε δοκιμασία: Η περί
πτωση της Θεσσαλίας” (1988), he analysed the situation which developed in
the lowlands of Thessaly after its annexation to Greece. The gap arising from
the lack of any special reference to the sea, the liquid element surrounding
Thessaly and Magnesia, is now filled by the present article, “Trikeri: The
Pirate Regime of Thessaly and Magnesia: Collective Impasses and Personal
Dilemmas in the Context of Autonomy and Dependence”. It examines, on
the basis of unpublished archival material, this important maritime centre’s
struggle to maintain its autonomy in the face of the external dangers and internal frictions provoked by its administrative, ecclesiastical, and economic
isolation from the surrounding area. The writer’s intention is that historical research should make a creative contribution to our approach to the impasses facing the institution of local self-administration and decentralisation in our own time.
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