Twenty thousand Greeks on the island of…
March 1822 CE
Chios merchants and shipowners have been prominent in trade and diplomacy throughout the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean for over two thousand years.
The Ottoman Empire allows Chios almost complete control over its own affairs as Chian trade and the very highly-valued mastic plant harvested only on Chios are of great value to it.
The cosmopolitan Chians are also very prominent in Constantinople.
Following the massacre, however, the island will never regain its commercial prominence.
The island's ruling classes have been reluctant to join the Greek revolt, fearing the loss of their security and prosperity.
Furthermore, they are aware that they are situated far too close to the Turkish heartland in Anatolia to be safe.
At some points, Chios is only six point seven kilometers (four point two miles) from the Anatolian mainland.
In March 1822, as the Greek revolt was gathering strength on the mainland, several hundred armed Greeks from the neighboring island of Samos had landed in Chios.
They had attacked the Turks, who retreated to the citadel.
Many islanders had also decided to join the revolution.
However, the vast majority of the population has by all accounts done nothing to provoke the reprisals, and has not joined other Greeks in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
Reinforcements in the form of a Turkish fleet under the Kapudan Pasha Nasuhzade Ali Pasha had arrived on the island on March 22
They had quickly pillaged and looted the town.
On March 31, orders Are given to burn down the town, and over the next four months, an estimated forty thousand Turkish troops will arrive.
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