The massacre of Christians provoked international outrage across the Western world and led to increasing support for the Greek cause worldwide.

For over 2,000 years, merchants and shipowners from Chios had been prominent in trade and diplomacy throughout the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean.

[citation needed] The island's ruling classes were reluctant to join the Greek revolt, fearing the loss of their security and prosperity.

[5] However, the vast majority of the population had by all accounts done nothing to provoke the reprisals, and had not joined other Greeks in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

[8] The British warship HMS Seringapatam was on duty in the Mediterranean under the command of Captain Samuel Warren.

Some rose to levels of prominence in the Ottoman Empire, such as Georgios Stravelakis (later renamed Mustapha Khaznadar) and Ibrahim Edhem Pasha.

[14] A draft of this painting, created under the supervision of Delacroix in his lab by one of his students, is in display in the Athens War Museum.

[17] After the Chios massacre, the Greek revolutionary government managed to gather a significant amount of money in order to outfit its ships and attack the Ottoman fleet.

[19] About two thousand Ottoman sailors were killed or drowned, including admiral Nasuhzade Ali Pasha, who had led the Chios massacre two months earlier.