Politician – Governor

F:. Modesto

A rare European personality who was born a Greek and helped create the Modern Greek state. Descended from his old noble family from born in 17 in Corfu where he studied and learned foreign languages. From a young age he gave samples of his intelligence. During the 2nd French occupation after the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, the French general C. Berthier proposed to recommend him to Napoleon as a candidate for the Ionian Territory, but he rejected the proposal because he never believed that Napoleon would be interested in the liberation of Greece. But two years later he accepted the proposal of the Russian Chancellor Romanjov who recommended him to Emperor Alexander I for the diplomatic service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Tsar appointed him State Counsellor for Foreign Affairs and named him a knight and decorated him with the St. Anne’s Medal of the Second Order. Thus began his great career and he quickly rose through the ranks of the hierarchy. In 1811 he was appointed attaché to the Russian embassy in Vienna. From there he begins to propose in various reports and diplomatic reports the advantages and benefits of Russia, from the Greeks of the diaspora (90,000 in Austria, 7,000 in Italy, 5,000 in the Black Sea and Crimea, but also the 50,000 merchant seamen of the merchant shipping of the Greeks). He becomes an assistant to the Russian ambassador. Appointed director of the Diplomatic Office of the Danube army chief, General Tcitchagof in May 1812. Kapodistrias’ brilliant diplomatic actions would earn him two more distinctions expressing the Emperor’s pleasure with the decorations of St. Vladimir and St. Anne of the First Order. After the Battle of Leipzig in 1913, the Emperor visits the headquarters outside Frankfurt and asks to speak with Kapodistrias. There he confides many of his plans to him and assigns him the great problem of establishing a unitary state in Switzerland. Thus Kapodistrias in November 1813 will be in the cantons of the troubled region and after hard work and excellent diplomatic solutions , he achieves the adoption of a common Constitution and federalization of 23 states. This was a great achievement for the time, favouring Russia’s interests. Kapodistrias’ name is now famous and respected at all the courts of Europe. The Tsar invited him to accompany him to the famous Congress of Vienna (1814). From then on, Kapodistrias took over as Minister of Foreign Affairs together with the other minister Nesselrod, until 1822, when he resigned. During these years Kapodistrias showed his great merit. To summarize : In 1815 he signed the treaty of independence of the Ionian Islands, under British protection; he succeeded in abolishing the purchase of people; he organized the state of Bessarabia; he helped in the autonomy of Poland and especially the Kingdom of Warsaw. He supported the separatisms of the South American states from Spain. He clashed repeatedly with Metternich, advocating enlightenment , autonomy and liberal ideas of peoples. He advocated peaceful and equal living of peoples, he was the first to spread the slogan of a United Europe. He differentiated the Greek liberation struggle from the struggles against the autocracy of the movements of Italy and Spain. Protect Alex. Ypsilantis and his friends with diplomatic Imperial proclamations. When the scope for conciliation with the Tsar and the allies of the Holy Alliance had dried up, he resigned and left for Switzerland (Geneva) where he worked for the Greek cause of independence. Kapodistrias had founded the famous Philomusso Society in 1814 with wealthy members for the manifold help of Greece. He influenced and influenced famous Europeans who in the end he made active Philhellenes. He helped in every way the struggling Greeks. Until in 1827, with the 3rd National Assembly, he was elected Governor of the Greek State.