Greek history with big data

What were the deepest causes of the 1821 Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire? What did the bankruptcies of 1893 and 1932 permission behind, and however bash they comparison with Greece’s caller bankruptcy successful 2010? What were the effects of the Civil War? What were the results of the dictatorship of the colonels and however does it illuminate the narration betwixt ideology and development? What was the imprint of the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe?

These are not acold world questions. They are disputes, charged, rightly, with corporate memory, household stories, often intensified done song, theater and literature. Author Dido Sotiriou’s “Farewell Anatolia,” George Seferis’ “Mythical narrative,” and Elias Venezis’ “Land of Aeolia” person established the representation of mislaid homelands and refugeeism, which Giorgos Theotokas’ “Argo” places astatine the halfway of Greece’s modernization.

Greek historiography has offered fantabulous probe papers, often done in-depth lawsuit studies: searching for the causes of the Civil War done thorough probe successful a specific state oregon the effects of the Asia Minor Catastrophe done the lives of refugees successful the slums of Piraeus. This attack respects specificity and avoids casual generalizations. But there are limitations. First, adjacent without intention, there is the hazard of choosing “convenient” cases – those with much sources oregon those that acceptable a narrative. Second, it is not astatine each self-evident that what applies to a specific spot and clip expresses the lawsuit arsenic a whole. For example, the Civil War played retired successful three chiseled periods and had important geographical heterogeneity. Third, the obsession with lawsuit studies weakens the examination that is indispensable for understanding the deeper causes and effects, arsenic well arsenic the Greek specificity: How akin is 1821 to different revolutionary movements of the time? How special was the integration of refugees from Asia Minor compared to the millions displaced aft the two world wars?

In the property of artificial intelligence, Greek past tin clasp a much holistic and comparative approach, utilizing large data. Not to regenerate humanities and archival research, but to complement the communicative with systematic measurement. Censuses, predetermination results, colony maps, administrative records and the property tin beryllium transformed into structured, ready-to-analyze information (text-to-data). Their investigation with modern empirical approaches allows us to observe patterns and place causes, mechanisms and effects. The caller Nobel Prizes successful Economics, turning successful this direction, recognized comparative probe that connected past – arsenic captured by information – with improvement done institutions and culture.
 
But let’s instrumentality to Greece. In caller years, together with Stelios Michalopoulos, subordinate prof of economics astatine Brown University, and a team of young researchers, we person been trying to bring a modern attack to 1 of the astir important events of modern Greece utilizing large data: the violent uprooting of astir 1.5 cardinal Orthodox Greeks from Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace, Pontus, and Istanbul, and their forced relocation to Greece 100 years ago. We managed to digitize successful their entirety the wide census of 1928 – the lone 1 that records refugees and natives successful astir 11,000 settlements – and special censuses that seizure the root and spot of colony for astir 220,000 families who received allotments and lodging which belonged chiefly to Muslims who made the travel successful the other direction.

In the property of artificial intelligence, Greek past tin clasp a much holistic and comparative approach, utilizing large data. 

Simply signaling the information allows for caller findings. Initially, we tin representation each settlements, astir 2,000, with a Greek Orthodox beingness earlier the Asia Minor Catastrophe successful Turkey, but besides successful Bulgaria, Armenia and Ukraine. The information refute the somewhat widespread cognition that refugees were of a higher acquisition level than the natives. Literacy was similar, while among exile farmers it was little than among autochthonal farmers. Furthermore, the information let us to quantify the antagonistic effects connected the acquisition level of Pontic and Ionian Greeks from the violence, labour camps and taste cleansing they suffered successful the past years of the Ottoman Empire (1900-1920).

Combining digitized humanities records with postwar censuses and dynamically comparing purely exile agrarian settlements with neighboring villages successful the aforesaid province, 4 cardinal findings emerge. First, though refugees started with little literacy rates, they σύντομα surpassed natives by fractional to 1 year of acquisition – confirming the “uprooted hypothesis.” Displaced families put successful quality capital, which, unlike land, cannot beryllium confiscated. Second, refugees and their children are overmuch much mobile, moving to cities and migrating to Germany arsenic impermanent workers – likewise to probe findings showing that immigrants successful the United States are much mobile. Third, second-generation refugees, since they surpass natives successful acquisition attainment, wantonness farming and are employed comparatively much successful manufacture and services, contributing decisively to the structural transformation of the Greek economy. Fourth, university-educated refugees similar studies with transferable skills overseas (such arsenic engineering alternatively than law), precisely arsenic the uprooted proposal predicts.

These results are based connected the total of 600,000 refugees who received onshore successful Greece, not connected selected and usually small samples, allowing for much reliable conclusions.

It is not capable for past to beryllium narrated; it indispensable besides measurement and ideally comparison things. A caller Greek past with large information tin lend to understanding our identity, correcting distortions and misconceptions and complementing our corporate memory. As renowned writer Dionysios Solomos said, “The federation indispensable larn to see arsenic nationalist everything true.”

Elias Papaioannou is prof of economics astatine London Business School, and Fellow of the British Academy. The nonfiction summarizes his commencement speech arsenic honorary doc of the University of Patras. The ιστότοπος anatolia-imprints.gr includes mappings, information and probe connected the interaction of refugees successful Greece.