After independence, the country's population of Greece is about 800 thousand people. It was about one-fifth of all the people who spoke the Greek language. Approximately 200,000 Greeks lived in the Ionian Islands, which since 1815 belonged to England. And more than 3 million Greeks lived in the territory of the Russian Empire. The next one hundred years the main purpose of the Greek government was to return as many people who say in Greek on Greek territory. The efforts of the Greeks in this direction has supported Russia, which wants to further weaken the Ottoman Empire. Britain feared because of the further strengthening of the Russian Empire in the Balkans, This alignment of forces supported Turkey. Naturally in this scenario, the forces Greece itself is also more inclined to the Russia.
In 1853 started the Crimean War in which Turkey, Britain, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia against Russia. Since Greece was on the side of Russia, the British navy occupied the harbor of Piraeus, to prevent the Greeks to use the favorable situation and attack the Ottoman Empire. After the Crimean War, Britain still has returned the Ionian Islands of Greece, which started the movement for reunification with Greece. The next chance for the liberation of the Greek lands from the Ottomans fell to Greece in the late 19 th century. At this time, broke out revolt in the Balkans against the Ottoman rule. In 1877, Russia again declared war on Turkey, and the Russian army successfully crossed the Danube. As a result of the war in Greece were handed over to new territories in Epirus and Thessaly.