page_title: French military mission to Greece (1911–1914)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: French military mission to Greece (1911–1914) / Background
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Constantin 1 de Grèce et Eleftherios Venizelos. Español: El primer ministro griego Elefterios Venizelos junto al rey de Grecia Constantino I a finales de 1913.
context_page_description: The 1911–1914 French military mission to Greece was called to Greece by the government of Eleftherios Venizelos to reorganize the Hellenic Army, parallel to a British naval mission for the Royal Hellenic Navy. The French mission arrived in January 1911, under the command of General Joseph-Paul Eydoux, replaced in April 1914 by General Étienne de Villaret. Its reforms contributed to the Greek army's success during the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. It remained in the country until it was repatriated shortly after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.
context_section_description: Greece's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 had highlighted the many deficiencies of the Greek military. Successive efforts to modernize and reorganize the Greek army were undertaken by the Georgios Theotokis cabinets in the 1900s, including provisions for the invitations of a foreign military mission to the country. Already in 1907, the Theotokis government approached the French with a proposal for a French naval mission, in exchange for French support for Greek efforts to secure an international loan. Despite the arrival of Admiral Ernest François Fournier with a team of officers, the mission's proposals to limit the Royal Hellenic Navy to light vessels, capable of acting only as an auxiliary to a Great Power, quickly aroused considerable opposition. Coupled with the hostile stance of Britain against a French encroachment of its traditionally dominant role in Greece, it heralded the mission's failure. In the next year, efforts were undertaken to secure German support instead. Germany proved willing to consider a Greek participation in the Triple Alliance, but the heightening of tensions in the Balkans after the Bosnian Crisis—particularly the Cretan issue for Greece—and the fall of the Theotokis cabinet in 1909 brought these discussions to an end. Instead, Germany focused even more on deepening its support in the Ottoman Empire.
  Following the 1909 Goudi pronunciamiento and the rise of Eleftherios Venizelos to political dominance in Greece, the successive Greek governments paid much attention to re-arming and re-training the military, including extensive fortification and infrastructure works, purchase of new weapons, and recall of reserve classes for training. The climax of this effort was the invitation in 1911 of a British naval mission and a French military mission. 
  This decision caused the first dissension between Prime Minister Venizelos and King George I, who still favoured the invitation of German instructors, as did Crown Prince Constantine and a group of German-trained staff officers around him, such as Ioannis Metaxas. Venizelos justified his insistence on calling in the French saying that in view of the international situation he had "need of a 100,000-strong organized army the soonest possible", that the Germans were reluctant, and that furthermore political and financial considerations—chiefly the prospect of a new loan—forced Greece to look rather to the Entente Powers. Furthermore, the Greek Army had traditionally used French regulations, as well as French equipment, which would cause complications in the event that a German mission should be chosen. On the other hand, the same applied to the Royal Hellenic Navy, which was largely organized on the French model—in the 1880s, both the army and the navy had been reorganized by French missions. Political considerations, however, pushed Venizelos to prefer a British naval mission instead.
  The decision to invite the French proved unpopular with the German-trained circle of staff officers around Crown Prince Constantine, whom Venizelos in a sign of reconciliation had restored to the position of inspector-general of the army (and thus most likely candidate for wartime commander-in-chief). This laid the first seeds for the emergence of a rival power centre around Constantine opposed to the pro-Entente policies of Venizelos, which would eventually lead to the disastrous National Schism.
caption: Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos (left) and King Constantine I (right) in 1913. The invitation of the French mission became one of the first incidents that led to the rift between the two and the National Schism.
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