Evolution of Greek agriculture with emphasis on Interwar period: A historical approach
Abstract
This article reviews the main events composing the developments of Greek agriculture during the Interwar period, paying tribute principally to agriculturists, the main actors to whom the State assigned the task and who bore the burden of materializing State’s policy. However, a brief account is given at first to Greek agricultural evolution in the 19th century after the War of Independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, in order to pose the questions and give the physiognomy of the environment wherein various events took place. Such events included the struggle of landless peasants for settlement – a promise given by the State to the veterans of the War of Independence – as well as the Parliamentary Law for the expropriation of big estates (tsifliks) and the efforts for the agricultural settlement of native peasants. As regards the Interwar period there were two colossal tasks to be accomplished. Firstly, the final agricultural settlement of landless peasants, together with that of 1.3 million of Greek refugees arriving at mainland after the Greek catastrophic defeat by the Turks in Minor Asia in 1922. Secondly, the successful tackling of the greatest problem of the Greek agricultural history, namely wheat self-sufficiency and the rise of wheat production as well as the protection of wheat producers, who otherwise would be a prey to usurers’ mercy. In addition, further milestones were laid in Greek agriculture during the Interwar period such as the establishment of the Ministry of Agriculture, the foundation of Agricultural Bank, the Agricultural University in Athens, the adoption of the Co-operatives Law, the great efforts for land reclamation and the introduction in the cultivation of modern agricultural machinery. Furthermore, brief account is also given to developments of Greek agriculture from 1940 onwards, including the confrontation of local people’s famine during German Occupation through food provisioning, the Resistance, as well as the Civil War, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshal Plan, Food and Agriculture Organization mission to Greece and the country’s Reconstruction, arriving at Greece’s entry as a full member to the European Economic Community on 1st January 1981.
Downloads
References
Alexander, G. M. (1982). The Prelude to the Truman Doctrine: British Policy in Greece 1944–1947. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Alivizatos, B. (1932). La reforme agraire en Grece du point de vue economique et social. (These de doctorat). Université de Paris Faculté de Droit, Paris [in French].
Anonymous. (1947). FAO Mission for Greece. Washington D.C.: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
Arapostathis, S. (2017). Fertilising farms and institutional authorities. HoST ‒ Journal of History of Science and Technology, 11(1), 10–33. https://doi.org/10.1515/host-2017-0002
Blaxter, K. L. (1976). The art and science of agriculture: The Messel lecture. Chemistry and Industry, 14, 577–580. Retrieved from https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/full/10.5555/19760747329
Christides, B. E., & Harrison, J. A. (1955). Cotton Growing Problems. New York: Mac Grow-Hill.
Cliadakis, H. (1979). The political and diplomatic background to the Metaxas Dictatorship: 1935‒1936. Journal of Contemporary History, 14(1), 117–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/002200947901400106
Clogg, R. (2002). A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dakin, D. (1952). The origins of the Greek revolution of 1821. History, 37(131), 228–235. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-229X.1952.tb00240.x
Dakin, D. (1972). Unification of Greece. 1770–1923. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Delivanis, D. (1967). Marshall Plan in Greece. Balkan Studies, 8, 333–338. Retrieved from https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/1071/1080
Eddy, Ch. (1931). Greece and Greek Refugees. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Evelpides, Ch. (1926). La reforme agraire en Grece. Athens [in French].
Evelpides, Ch. (1930). Les etats Balkaniques: Etude compare politique, sociale et economique. Paris: Rousseau [in French].
Evelpides, Ch. (1933a). L‘Agriculture Greque. Athens [in French].
Evelpides, Ch. (1933b). La Cooperation des Pays Balcanique dans la Domaine du Credit Agricole. Athens [in French].
Henry, Y., Vogt, H., & Zoiopoulos, P. (1988). Feed evaluation and nutritional requirements: 4. Pigs and poultry. Livestock Production Science, 19(1‒2), 299–354. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-6226(88)90095-4
Hobsbawm, E. J. (1973). Peasants and politics. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066157308437870
Howland, Ch. P. (1926). Greece and her refugees. Foreign Affairs, 4(4), 613–623. https://doi.org/10.2307/20028488
Iatrides, J., & Wringley, L. (Eds). (1995). Greece at the crossroads: The civil war and its legacy. Pensylvania: The Pensylvania State University.
Kane, A., & Mann, M. (1992). A theory of early twentieth-century agrarian politics. Social Science History, 16(3), 421‒454. https://doi.org/10.2307/1171390
Katogianni, I., Zoiopoulos, P. E., Adamidis, C., & Fegeros, C. (2008). Comparison of two broiler genotypes grown under the provisions of EU organic legislation. European Poultry Science, 72(3), 116–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-9098(25)00889-6
Kazamias, G. A. (1992). Turks, Swedes and famished Greeks: Some aspects of famine relief in occupied Greece, 1941–1944. Balkan Studies, 33(2), 253–307. Retrieved from https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/221/228
Korpetis, E., Ninou, E., Mylonas, I., Ouzounidou, G., Xynias, I. N., & Mavromatis, A.G. (2023). Bread wheat landraces adaptability to low input agriculture. Plants, 12(13), 2561. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12132561
Kritikos, G. (2000). State policy and the urban employment of refugees: The Greek case (1923–1930). European Review of History, 7, 189–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/713666751
Kritikos, G. (2001). Integration of refugees in religious context. Balkan Studies, 42(2), 245–266. Retrieved from https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/3324/3349
Ladas, S. P. (1931). The Exchange of Minorities: Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. New York: Macmillan.
Malefakis, E. (1970). Agrarian Reforms and Peasant Revolution in Spain: Origins of the Civil War. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Marder, B. (1979). Stewards of the Land: The American Farm School and Modern Greece. New York: Columbia University Press.
Mathews, K. (1972). Memoirs of a mountain war: Greece 1944–1949. London: Longman.
Mavrogordatos, G. (1983). Stillborn Republic: Social Coalitions and Party Strategies in Greece, 1922–1936. Berkeley and Los Angles: University of California Press.
Mazower, M. (1987). Towards Autarky: The recovery from Crisis in Greece (Doctoral dissertation). Oxford University, Oxford.
Mazower, M. (1991). Greece and the Interwar Economic Crisis. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Oxford Historical Monographs. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202059.001.0001
Mazower, M. (2000). After the war was over: Reconstructing the family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943–1960. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1dxg87r
McNeill, W. H. (1978). The metamorphosis of Greece since World War II. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Milios, K., Zoiopoulos, P. E., Pantouvakis, A., Mataragas, M., & Drosinos, E. (2013). Technomanagerial factors related to food safety management system in food business. British Food Journal, 115(9), 1381–1399. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2011-0284
Morgenthau, H. (1929). I Was Sent to Athens. New York: Duramand Co.
Natskoulis, P. I., & Zoiopoulos, P. E. (2014). Feed undesirable substances as food contaminants. Part 2: Dioxins. Agro Food Industry Hi-Tech, 25(5), 49–52. Retrieved from https://www.teknoscienze.com/tks_article/feed-undesirable-substances-as-food-contaminantspart-2-dioxins/
Papadakis, I. (1938). Ecologie Agricole. Gemblaux: Biblioteque Agronomique Belge.
Papadakis, I. (1941a). A rapid soil test: The 1-gram ball resistance. Soil science, 51(3), 219–222. https://doi.org/10.1097/00010694-194103000-00006
Papadakis, I. (1941b). Soil reaction and varietal adaptation of wheat. Soil Science, 52(1), 59–62. https://doi.org/10.1097/00010694-194107000-00005
Papadakis, I. (1964). Crop ecology and agricultural development. Field Crop Abstracts, 17, 85–88.
Papadakis, I. (1998). Soils. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia (15th edition) (pp. 441–451). London: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Papanastasiou, Al. (1932). La politique sociale de la Grece. Les Balkans, 2(17–18), 249–338 [in French].
Pentzopoulos, D. (1962). The Balkan Exchange of Minorities and its Impact upon Greece. Paris: Mouton& Co. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112415863
Petropoulos, J. A. (1976). The compulsory exchange of populations: Greek-Turkish peace-making 1923–1930. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2, 135–160. https://doi.org/10.1179/030701376790206199
Ploumidis, S. G. (2024). Extensively or intensively? Chrysos Evelpides’ views for the question on the wheat self-sufficiency. In I. Kriari (Ed.), Tribute to Chrysos Evelpides (pp. 13–37). Athens: Institution of the Hellenic Parliament Publication [in Greek].
Sarandis, C. (1979). The emergence of the right in Greece, 1922–1940. (Doctoral dissertation). Oxford University, Oxford.
Seferiadis, S. (1999). Small rural ownership subsistence agriculture and peasant protest in Interwar period. Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 17(2), 277–323. https://doi.org/10.1353/mgs.1999.0034
Shaw, L. H. (1969). Post War Growth in Greek Agricultural Production: A Study in Sectoral Outpur Change, Athens: Centre of Planning and Economy Research Publication. Special Studies. Series 2. Athens, Greece: Center of Planning and Economic Research.
Trelawny, Ed. (1858). Recollections of the last days of Shelley and Byron. London: Edward Moxon Publishers. Retrieved from https://lordbyron.org/contents.php?doc=EdTrela.1858.Contents
Tsompanoglou, G. O. (2024). Sustainable development: Looking at the culture and communication of the past to the future of sustainability in Greece. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Scientific Conference “Greece – Europe 2030: Education, Research, Innovation, New technologies, Institutions and Sustainable Development” (pp. 1–15). Heraklion, 7-10 September 2023. Athens: Hellenic Scientific Institute of Economics of Education. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377467444
Tsoucalas, C. (1969). The Greek Tragedy. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Veremis, T. (1976). The officer corps in Greece (1912–1936). Byzantine and Modern Greek studies, 2, 113–133. https://doi.org/10.1179/030701376790206162
Vlavianos, H. (1989). The Greek Communist Party: in search for a revolution. In J. Iatrides (Ed.), Resistance and Revolution in Mediterannean Europe: 1939–1948 (pp. 157‒212). London & New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003207016-5
Volanis, M., Stefanakis, A., Hadjigeorgiou, I., & Zoiopoulos, P. E. (2007). Supporting the extensive dairy sheep small holders of the semi-arid region of Crete through technical intervention. Tropical Animal Health and Production, 39, 325–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-007-9019-z
Warren, J. F. (1998). Origin of the Greek economic miracle: The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan – Developments and stabilization of aid to Greece: A fifty year retrospective. New York & Washington D.C.: American-Hellenic Institute Foundation & The Academy of Political Science.
Waterlow, S. (1947). The decline and fall of democracy: 1933–1936. The Political Quarterly, 18, 95–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.1947.tb01061.x
Wolf, E. R. (1999). Peasants wars of the 20th century. Oklahoma City: University of Oklahoma Press.
Woodhouse, C. M. (1947). Apple of Discord: A Survey of Recent Greek Politics in their International Setting. London and New York: Hatchinson.
Woodhouse, C. M., (1971). Early British contact with Greek Resistance. Balkan studies, 12(2), 347–363. Retrieved from https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/908/916
Woodhouse, C. M. (1973). Capodistrias: The founder of the Greek Independence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woodhouse, C. M. (1976). The struggle for Greece: 1941‒1949. London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon.
Woodhouse, C. M. (1981). The National Liberation Front and the British Connection. In: J. Iatrides (Ed.) “Greece in the 1940s: A nation in crisis” (pp. 81‒101). Hannover: University Press of New England,
Xydis, S. (1967). The Truman Doctrine in perpective. Balkan Studies, 8(2), 239–262. Retrieved from https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/1066/1075
Xynias, I. N., Mylonas, I., Korpetis, E., Ninou, E., Tsabala, A., Avdikos, I. D., & Mavromatis, A. G. (2020). Durum wheat breeding in the Mediterranean region: Current status and future prospects. Agronomy, 10(3), 432. https://doi.org/10.3390/Agronomy10030432
Zoiopoulos, P. E. (1986). Pig production in Greece. Pig News and Information, 7(3), 325–328. Retrieved from https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/19860100720
Zoiopoulos, P. E. (1998). Modified animal feeds must be put to the test. Nature, 394, 823. https://doi.org/10.1038/29627
Zoiopoulos, P. E. (2024). The national and ecumenical career of the eminent Greek agriculturist Ioannis Papadakis. History of Science and Technology. 14(1), 103–125. https://doi.org/10.32703/2415-7422-2024-14-1-103-125
Zoiopoulos, P. E. & Drosinos, E. H. (2010). The Animal Feed Question in the Shadow of Contemporary Food Crises. The European Challenge. New York: Nova Science Publications.
Zoiopoulos, P. E., & Hadjigeorgiou, I. (2013). Critical overview on organic legislation for animal production: Towards conventionalization of the system? Sustainability, 5, 3077–3094. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5073077
Zoiopoulos, P. E. & Natskoulis, P. I. (2013). Foreign dietary DNA in animals and safety evaluation of genetically modified feeds. Journal of the Hellenic Veterinary Medicine Society, 64(1), 69–83. https://doi.org/10.12681/jhvms.15481
Zoiopoulos, P. E. & Natskoulis, P. I. (2025). Comments on EU legislation governing organic animal production and the role of values in agriculture. Journal of the Hellenic Veterinary Medicine Society 76(2), 8999–9008. https://doi.org/10.12681/jhvms.39158
Abstract views: 63 PDF Downloads: 27
Copyright (c) 2026 History of science and technology
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License terms: authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License International CC-BY that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
The scanned copy of the "Agreement” on the authors" copyright transfer on the manuscript publication and the subsequent posting of the paper on the Internet (in * .pdf or * .jpg format) is to be attached to the manuscript of the paper.
By this agreement the author certifies that the submitted material:
- does not infringe the copyright of other persons or organizations;
- was not previously published in other publishing houses and has not been submitted for publication in other editions.
The author passes the editorial board of the journal "History of science and technology" rights to:
- publication of the article in Ukrainian (English and Russian) language and distribution of its printed copy;
- translation of the article into English language (for articles in Ukrainian and Russian language) and distribution of its translated printed copy;
- distribution of the article electronic copy, as well as electronic copy of the article English translation (for articles in Ukrainian and Russian), via any electronic means (placing on the official web-site of the journal, electronic databases, repositories, etc.) printed copy of the translation.
The author reserves the right without the consent of the editorial board and founders:
- Use the materials of the article in whole or in part for educational purposes.
- Use the materials of the article in whole or in part to write their own dissertations.
- Use the materials of the article for the preparation of abstracts, conference reports, as well as oral presentations.
- Place electronic copies of the article (including the final electronic copy downloaded from the official web-site of the journal) to:
- personal web-resources of all authors (web-sites, web-pages, blogs, etc.);
- web-resources of institutions where authors work (including electronic institutional repositories);
- non-commercial web-resources of open access (for example, arXiv.org).
In all cases, the availability of a bibliographic link to an article or hyperlink to its electronic copy on the official website of the journal is compulsory.
