The coup was a pivotal event in modern Greek history, as it led to the arrival of Eleftherios Venizelos in Greece and his eventual appointment as prime minister.

Henceforth and for several decades, Greek political life was dominated by two opposing forces: liberal, republican Venizelism and conservative, monarchist anti-Venizelism.

The coup itself was the result of simmering tensions in Greek society, which reeled under the effects of the disastrous Greco-Turkish War of 1897, financial troubles, a lack of necessary reforms and disillusionment with the established political system.

With Colonel Nikolaos Zorbas as their figurehead, on the night of 15 August, the Military League, having gathered together its troops in the Goudi barracks, issued a pronunciamiento to the government, demanding an immediate turnaround for the country and its armed forces.

King George I gave in and replaced Prime Minister Dimitrios Rallis with Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis, without, however, satisfying the insurgents, who resorted to a large public demonstration the following month.

When a stalemate was reached, the coup leaders appealed to a new and providential figure, the Cretan Eleftherios Venizelos, who respected democratic norms in calling for new elections.

After his allies' twin victories in the Hellenic Parliament in August and November 1910, Venizelos became prime minister and proceeded with the reforms demanded by the coup's instigators.

[3] The intervention of the European powers (France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany) forced Greece to back down.

Although Greece lost only small amounts territory on its northern border, it was forced to pay huge war reparations of 4 million Ottoman pounds to the victor.

Coming on the heels of the public insolvency declared in 1893, it meant that Greece had to accept an international financial control commission (Διεθνής Οικονομικός Έλεγχος), which in effect diverted the Greek state's main income sources (state monopolies and port customs tariffs) to the repayment of Greece's public loans.

The Ethniki Etairia (National Society) was set up, which sent armed bands of Greeks (makedonomakhoi), tacitly aided by the government in Athens, which provided financial support through its consular agents such as Ion Dragoumis and training from military advisers such as Pavlos Melas.

In turn, the meddling of the European powers in internal Ottoman affairs contributed to the outbreak of the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908,[11] which put an end to the Greek-Bulgarian clashes in Macedonia.

In 1905, Eleftherios Venizelos had led the Theriso revolt against High Commissioner George of Greece, who had been appointed by the European powers, and demanded enosis.

The Young Turk Revolution pushed the Cretans to unilaterally proclaim definitive enosis, taking advantage of the absence of the new high commissioner.

Wishing to avoid a new Greco-Turkish war, he criticised the "Cretan revolutionaries" and declared his willingness to abide by the Great Powers' decisions.

Indignation toward the government's weaknesses and timorous attitude mounted, among the populace as well as in the army, above all among the young officers who had fought in Macedonia.

At that point the government of Charilaos Trikoupis recognised that the country was bankrupt by deciding to lower the public debt to 30% of its value, which angered the creditors, particularly the European powers.

[14] The number of emigrants (especially to the United States) went from 1,108 in 1890 to 39,135 in 1910 (of 2.8 million inhabitants); significantly, remittances from America and Egypt fell amid economic slowdown in 1908.

[16] The Military League (Στρατιωτικός Σύνδεσμος) was formed in October 1908 out of two groups: one of army NCOs (with members including future generals Nikolaos Plastiras and Georgios Kondylis) and one of junior officers around Theodoros Pangalos.

They were motivated by a variety of reasons: a desire for reforms that was prevalent in wide parts of society was combined with frustration at the slow rate of promotions and the absence of meritocracy, especially among graduates of the military academy.

The demonstrators, who had come from Athens and the Piraeus, demanded the imposition of a revenue tax, protectionism, the granting of tenure to bureaucrats (so they would no longer depend on politicians for their jobs), better working conditions and the condemnation of usury.

[20] King George I, unwilling to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Otto, who had been forced from the throne under similar circumstances in 1862,[21] pushed Prime Minister Rallis to resign and replaced him with Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis.

[22] Thus, the general staff was reorganised and those close to Constantine (such as Ioannis Metaxas) were removed while budget cuts were made in order to finance army modernisation.

Although it saw the necessity of modernising the country, the middle classes feared the drift towards a military dictatorship, considered deleterious to the normal progress of affairs.

This gave the latter an anti-dynastic aura that attracted the Goudi insurgents; he was also seen as free from association with the mainland oligarchy's chaos, corruption and incompetence.

He thus returned to Athens amid rapturous public acclaim; the Dragoumis government resigned and Venizelos became prime minister in October 1910.

[27] He surrounded himself with collaborators bent on reform policies and began to apply the programme of the Goudi revolutionaries, strongly backed by public opinion.

Venizelos was careful to present himself as an adversary of the "old" parties (which boycotted the elections), but also as free from influence by the Military League that had sought him out after the Goudi coup.

Social legislation ameliorated the condition of the working class: child labour was abolished, as was nighttime labour by women, and a minimum wage introduced for both; Sunday was made an obligatory day of rest; primary education was made free and compulsory; and a social insurance system was created.