Military League
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Military League (Greek: Στρατιωτικός Σύνδεσμος) was a political organization that was founded in May 1909 by a number of officers in the Greek army displeased with the social and military status quo. The group consisted mostly of junior officers, who named Colonel Nikolaos Zorbas as its head. Staying secret until the 15 August of the same year, the group carried out action against the government, followed through into a type of lockout in the Athenian suburb of Goudi, unprecedented in Greek history, but this did not overturn the government with a coup d'etat. The actions of that night came to be known as the Actions of Goudi. In the following days, a declaration, the Goudi Pronunciamento, was put forth by the League in which the officers called for a large number of changes in the organization of the army, the justice and educational systems, governmental organization and monetary handling. The League also named a new leader, Eleftherios Venizelos. On September 14, 1909 a large demonstration took place in Athens towards the Royal Palace in favor of the League, also asking for a number of economic measures. These events forced the fall of the government of Dimitrios Rallis and brought forth the swearing in of Kiriakoulis Mavromichalis as Prime Minister of Greece. He, in turn, with the pressure of the League on his government, passed a large amount of groundbreaking legislation that the League demanded. In February of the following year the parliament voted to name the next parliament capable of changing the constitution. Having accomplished its goals, the League was dissolved on March 15, 1910.