After the Great Power's intervention on the matter, there was a possibility that Crete would join the newly formed Kingdom of Greece, at first through diplomatic means.

[3] The Greek government would later go on to sign a trade treaty with the Ottoman Empire, hampering the hopes of the Cretans to get assistance from Greece itself.

Furthermore, with the Convention of London, signed 15 July 1840, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Prussia decided to recognise the transfer of the island from Muhammad Ali back to the Ottoman Empire.

[4] Knowing that if this convention were to be ratified, hopes of unification with Greece or independence would be crushed, a handful of exiled Cretans, Vasileios Chalis, Ioannis Koumis, Emmanouil Patelaros, Anagnostis Tsouderios, Emmanouil Deiktatis, Aristeidis and Charidimos Chaireti and Aleksandros Koumoundouros, communicated with local guerillas and had all gone to Crete by late 1840.

The rebels stood alone, with the foreign powers and Greece having refused to aid them in their effort, and so they lost, having sustained heavy casualties, at the battles of Provarma, Vafe, Ksida and Vryses, with the remaining rebel leaders fleeing for Greece, taking with them other women and children.