Anyone who writes about Eleftherios Venizelos has to confront the controversial nature of his character and reputation. Judgements of him by his contemporaries and by subsequent generations, by both Greeks and foreigners, have varied from hero-worship to anathema. But time has had its effect. It is not so difficult now to appreciate the greatness and force of Venizelos while acknowledging his limitations and his mistakes.

I shall describe Venizelos' diplomacy and foreign policy, and assess his achievement in the crucial phase of his career which stretched from his assumption of office in Greece in 1910 to the turning point in Greek foreign policy marked by the Treaty of Lausanne.

I shall argue that, though briefly attracted after the Young Turk revolution by the idea of co-existence of the Greek and other Christian minorities with Muslims, in a modernised, multinational Ottoman Empire, he soon developed a foreign policy based on the nationalist premises of the Great Idea. He pursued this by means of internal reform and alliances with the liberal Western powers, until circumstances destroyed it in fire and bloodshed in 1922. This foreign policy was consistent with Venizelos' vision of a modernised, European Greece. The dominant influence of the Great Powers in the Eastern Mediterranean and Balkans, though it sometimes entailed humiliation for Greece, justified Venizelos' willing dependence on them.