Charilaos Trikoupis Master Builder of Hellas

Charilaos Trikoupis Master Builder of Hellas.
Prime Minister of Greece on seven occasions. He was born in Nauplion in 1832.
To say Trikoupis improved the Hellenic infrastructure is an understatement. He created the Hellenic infrastructure out of virtually nothing.
Hellas was a country stuck in the 18th Century. The Hellenic railroad system was 7 Km long.
Most importantly, Hellenic thinking was stuck in the 18th Century also. The Greeks had no concept of being a citizen of a "modern" state.
The Hellenes, resisted taxation because of this very state of mind.
Trikoupis, sketched on paper, the various "unknowables" (A Rumsfeldism) the plus and minus of improving the infrastructure with the cost involved and all, it seemed the benefits, that come from improving it: including increased employment, trade (both imports and exports), increased revenue from economic activity, better nutrition and life for the peasants, from the fertile land of Thessaly, that Koumoundouros clever policy, landed to Greece in 1881, without firing a shot, outweighed the negatives.
However and as Don Rumsfeld said on 2.12.2002: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."
The last category is the one that got Trikoupis.
As it turned out his scenario was overly optimistic. The Greeks resisted taxation and bankruptcy was the only way out.
The Deligiannis administration was also responsible for the bankruptcy because they also spent more than they took in from taxes when they were in power.
Deligiannis, a clever demagogue, was assassinated by a professional gambler when he tried to take measures against gambling houses in 1905. Old habits die hard in the land of mythology.
The economic crisis of the mid 1880s did not help. Nor the 18th century thinking of his compatriots. It is true, Hellas is not blessed with many natural resources.
Furthermore, endemic corruption in the economic sphere, and in the political system, goes that far back. Trikoupis reduced the number of Representatives to 150, the very minimum the Hellenic Constitution permitted.
He addressed what he considered, and rightly so, a better way for Crown Democracy to function. Greece had very unstable governments going back to King Otto.
King George I, the constitutional King, declared the principle of "dedilomeni" in his speech to parliament in 1875. Namely "the Prime Minister would be appointed the leader of the party with the majority of represetatives in the Assembly."
King George I and Trikoupis were in agreement. Trikoupis and King George I, laid the foundation of more harmonious symbiosis between the Crown and the Government. Crown Democracy was born and functioned.
Trikoupis, built the Navy by ordering three new ships. Ydra, Spetses and Psara. Reorganized the Army Officer Corps on professional criteria.
Public employees were made permanent and criteria for hiring, retention and promotion on merit were established.
In the end he died in exile, ironically in Cannes, in a fantasy land being rejected like Venizelos in 1920 and Karamanlis in 1963, by his compatriots. Some of his ideas may have been fantasy, for 19th Century Greece, but as Bobby Kennedy once remarked : "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."
It takes courage to dream, it takes more courage to make dreams, a reality.
Eleftherios Venizelos and Constanine Karamanlis made reality, Trikoupis' dream of Hellas as a modern European state.
The Hellenic governments, of the 21st Century, have some mighty big shoes to fill.

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• Charilaos
• Trikoupis
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[EllinikiKardia]

Thank you.

[antiope11]

love it keep going!! na mathoume ke kati!

[EllinikiKardia]

Thank you.

[Jame243]

Charilaos Trikoupis another brilliant Video by EllinikiKardia.You educate us and you entertain us at the same time with the Beethoven Symphonies.Thanks.