Ioannis Metaxas (Greek: Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12 April 1871 – 29 January 1941) was a Greek general and statesman who was the dictator of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for the first four months of his tenure, and thereafter as the strongman leader of the 4th of August Regime, following his appointment by King George II.
Born to an aristocratic family in Ithaca, Metaxas took part in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and the Balkan Wars (1912–13), and quickly rose through the ranks of the Hellenic Army. As a monarchist during the National Schism, Metaxas unsuccessfully opposed Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and Greece's entry in World War I, most famously leading monarchist forces during the Noemvriana. He was exiled to Corsica in response in 1917. On his return, Metaxas moved into politics and founded the Freethinkers' Party, but had only limited success under the Second Hellenic Republic.
Metaxas was appointed prime minister in April 1936, a year after the Greek monarchy was restored. With the support of King George II, Metaxas initiated a self-coup and established an authoritarian, nationalist, and anti-communist regime, which Metaxas himself and some historians called totalitarian. The ideology and system associated with his rule, Metaxism, has been described as a form of fascism, a conventional authoritarian-conservative dictatorship, or a regime with a strong fascist component.
On 28 October 1940, Metaxas rejected an ultimatum imposed by the Italians to surrender, committing Greece to the Allies and bringing the country into World War II. He died in January 1941 during the Greco–Italian War from a bloodstream infection, before the German invasion and subsequent fall of Greece.
Ioannis Metaxas was born in Vathy on the island of Ithaca in 1871. The Metaxas family descended from Byzantine nobility and in the 17th century were inscribed in the Libro d'Oro of the Ionian islands, which were then a Venetian possession. In 1879, the family moved to Kefalonia. Metaxas completed high school in Argostoli and then enrolled at the Hellenic Military Academy in 1885.
After graduating from the Academy, he became a career military officer, being sworn in as an Engineers 2nd Lieutenant on 10 August 1890. He first saw action in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 attached to the staff of the Greek commander-in-chief, Crown Prince Constantine. Metaxas became a protégé of Constantine and much of his rise through the ranks of the Hellenic Army was a consequence of Crown Prince's patronage. Greece was characterized by a clientist system at the time, and a powerful patron in the form of Constantine boosted Metaxas's career.
After the war, he continued his military studies at the Berlin War Academy from 1899 to 1903. Metaxas was very close to Constantine and was personally selected by the Crown Prince to go to Berlin. During his time at the War Academy, Metaxas received consistently high marks from his German instructors with one writing that he was "ein kleiner Moltke" ("a little Moltke" – a reference to Metaxas's short stature). Metaxas's time in Germany made him into an admirer of Prussian militarism.
In his diary in March 1900, he wrote: "I have no other ambition than to fulfill my duty to my king and crown prince ... I consider the king the representative of the past, present and future of the nation. All opposition to him from whatever quarter I reject and find repulsive." Metaxas also expressed his opposition to the "intemperate parliamentarism" of Greece, preferring the authoritarian German system where the Chancellor was responsible to the Emperor, not the Reichstag. On his return in 1904, he joined the newly formed General Staff Corps. He was part of the modernizing process of the Greek Army before the Balkan Wars (1912–13). However, he opposed the Goudi coup. For Metaxas, the coup represented an attack on everything he valued because the Military League behind the coup were opposed to Constantine and the other princes holding positions of command.
In 1910, Metaxas was appointed by Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who had also assumed the post of Minister of Military Affairs, as his adjutant. Venizelos appointed Metaxas as part of an effort at rapprochement with the monarchy. Despite Venizelos's efforts to reach out, Metaxas was strongly opposed to his decision to have a French military mission arrive to train the Greek Army, and almost resigned in protest. In 1912, just before the Balkan Wars, Venizelos appointed Metaxas to negotiate the military treaty between Greece and Bulgaria, sending him to Sofia. He participated in the First Balkan War as a captain in the operations staff of the Army of Thessaly, before joining Venizelos as a military expert in the London Conference of 1912–13 in December 1912. In May 1913, as military plenipotentiary, he negotiated the military terms of the Greek–Serbian Alliance.
He took part in the Second Balkan War when he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
After the end of the Balkan Wars, he was appointed director of the 1st (Operations) Directorate of the Army Staff Service, and became deputy head of the Staff Service in January 1915. In October 1913, he was awarded by the King with the Golden Cross of the Redeemer.
In the spring and summer of 1914, Greece found itself in a confrontation with the Ottoman Empire over the status of the eastern Aegean Islands, which had been occupied by Greece in the First Balkan War, and were finally awarded to Greece on 31 January 1914 by the Great Powers. The Ottomans refused to accept this, leading to a naval arms race between the two countries and persecutions of Greeks in Asia Minor. On 29 May, the Greek government issued an official protest to the Sublime Porte, threatening a breach of relations and even war, if the persecutions were not stopped.
On 6 June 1914, Metaxas, as the de facto head of the Staff Service, presented a study on the military options against the Ottoman Empire: the most decisive maneuver, a landing of the entire Greek army in Asia Minor, was virtually impossible due to the hostility with Bulgaria; instead, Metaxas proposed the sudden occupation of the Gallipoli Peninsula, without a prior declaration of war, the clearing of the Dardanelles, and the occupation of Constantinople so as to force the Ottomans to negotiate. However, on the previous day, the Ottoman government had suggested mutual talks, and the tension eased enough for Prime Minister Venizelos and the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Said Halim Pasha, to meet in Brussels in July.
World War I and the National Schism
Following the outbreak of World War I, the prospect of Greece's possible entry into the war emerged, especially given the obligation to provide military assistance to Serbia based on the Greek–Serbian Alliance. By 12 July 1914, the Serbian government had requested Greece's aid following the terms of the alliance, in the case of an Austrian and Bulgarian attack. Greece rejected the request on the grounds that Serbia had undertaken to provide 150,000 troops in the area of Gevgelija to guard against a Bulgarian attack; in addition, if Greece sent her army to fight the Austrians along the Danube, this would only incite a Bulgarian attack against both countries, with insufficient forces left to oppose it.
Clash with Venizelos over Greece's entry in the war
A German request on 14 July 1914 to join the Central Powers was rejected by both Venizelos and King Constantine, but on 1 August, Venizelos sounded out the Entente Powers, Britain, France, and Russia. The Entente governments were lukewarm to Venizelos' proposals, since they hoped to entice Bulgaria on their side, even offering territorial concessions at the expense of Serbia, Greece, and Romania. Russia in particular considered her interests best served if Greece remained neutral.
On 19 November, Serbia repeated its request for Greek assistance, supported by the Entente. Venizelos asked Metaxas for an evaluation of the situation; the opinion of the latter was that without a simultaneous entry of Romania into the war on the side of the Allies, Greece's position was too risky. Following the firm refusal of Romania to be drawn into the conflict at this time, the proposal was scuttled. On 11 January 1915, the British offered Greece "significant territorial concessions in Asia Minor" if it would enter the war to support Serbia, and in exchange for satisfying some of the Bulgarian territorial demands in Macedonia (Kavala, Drama, and Chrysoupolis) in exchange for Bulgarian entry into the war on the side of the Entente.