ABSTRACT
The First World War in Greece was but the middle of a wartime decade. The years 1912–22 saw not only death and destruction but also fateful transformations in Greece’s borders, politics, and population. Greece roughly doubled its territory, acquiring western Thrace, scores of Aegean islands, and substantial parts of the regions of Epirus and Macedonia. The Balkan Wars of 1912–13, the First World War, and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22 were not simply wars between soldiers; they entailed the killing and expulsion of non-Greek populations from prewar and annexed Greek territories and an even larger influx into Greece of refugees from similar ethnic persecutions by opposing forces. These years also gave rise to a deep political divide, known as the National Schism, which would entrench a lasting pattern of popular polarization and violence in Greek political culture.
