The dismissal of Venizelos by the King resulted in a deep personal rift between the two men, and in subsequent events their followers divided into two radically opposed political camps; this affected the wider Greek society.

Eight months later, in May and June 1916, the palace counterweighted the grip of the Entente in Salonika with the unconditional surrender of a strong military fort along with half of the eastern part of Macedonia to the German-Bulgarian forces.

In August 1916, followers of Venizelos set up the Provisional Government of "National Defence" which included northern Greece, the Aegean Islands and Crete, and sided with Entente.

After intense diplomatic negotiations, an armed confrontation in Athens between Allied and royalist forces with dozens of casualties, some due to lynching by a royalist paramilitary organization, and a subsequent five-month naval blockade upon the (southern part of the) Greek kingdom, King Constantine abdicated on 11 June 1917 (his eldest son George bypassed, for also being anti-Entente), and was succeeded by his second son Alexander as king.

The officers found such a man in the person of Eleftherios Venizelos, a prominent Cretan politician, whose clashes with Prince George, the island's regent, seemed to confirm his anti-monarchist and republican credentials.

This episode was not publicised at the time, and in the aftermath of the Wars, the two men, King and Prime Minister, both wildly popular, were seen as making up a formidable partnership at the helm of the Greek state.

Greece had an ongoing mutual defense pact with Serbia, a member of the Allied forces, who were asking for support after they were invaded by Austria-Hungary (see Serbian Campaign (World War I)).

[7] Additionally, the King was bribed by the Auswaertiges Amt into remaining neutral, secretly taking in 1915 a "loan" of 40 million gold Reichsmark that went into his Swiss bank account.

[16] He also warned that Bulgaria under the leadership of the Austrian-born King Ferdinand would inevitably at some point along the line attack Serbia together with the Austrian Empire to annex Serbian Macedonia.

[16] Metaxas's opposition to a campaign in Anatolia poisoned his relationship with Venizelos, starting one of the most famous feuds in Greek history as the two men came to completely detest one another, to the point that if one was for something, the other was almost automatically against it.

[22] Metaxas, the actual leader then of the General Staff, and advisor of Venizelos, didn't agree with the Greek Prime Minister in the participation in the operation, believing it would fail because the Germans had already fortified the straits and Greece would be vulnerable to a Bulgarian attack, and decided to resign.

[24] Lloyd George sent a Venizelos a message via Zaharoff proposing that British and French troops land in Thessaloniki to march north to aid Serbia, which would hopefully also deter Bulgaria from joining the Central Powers.

These elections were won by Venizelos' Liberal Party and he resumed his post as Prime Minister, however Constantine delayed to ratify the appointment of the new government until August for health reasons (he barely escaped death).

[24] At the time, Schneck was described by one British journalist as "a great and mysterious power for evil who was leading the Greek nation astray and seducing it from the right path-from Venizelos and from the Entente".

Bulgaria declared war on Serbia, which posed an immediate threat to the newly gained province of Macedonia, including the strategically important port of Thessaloniki.

[30] After his inability to sway Constantine to act against Bulgaria, Venizelos took a new route by allowing British and French troops to land in Thessaloniki, Macedonia in aid of Serbia, following their failed operation at Gallipoli,[25] and after asking them if they could offer the 150,000 soldiers at the front.

[31] Kafandaris stated: "Such theories lead us to think that ideas once believed to have disappeared in the deep darkness of past human history are resurfacing again to influence contemporary life...Our system of government was modeled after that of Great Britain and is known as constitutional monarchy.

When French and British forces landed in Thessaloniki (as invited by Venizelos earlier), against Constantine's wishes, the Greek people supported the King's view that the Allies had violated the country's sovereignty.

[30] In 1915, pro-royalist supporters such as Metaxas had assailed Venizelos for his willingness to cede Kavala and the eastern half of Greek Macedonia to Bulgaria, and now the situation was reversed with the Venizelists attacking the king for surrendering the same lands to the Bulgarians.

[33] According to the royal chronicler Zavitzianos, Constantine since 1915 (and especially after the failed operation in Gallipoli), had concluded that the victory of the Central powers was militarily certain, and he in no way wanted to bring Greece against Germany.

After these events, General Sarrail imposed martial law in Thessaloniki and on 21 June 1916, an Anglo-French ultimatum (considering themselves "protector powers" of the Greek state, since its establishment in 1832) was submitted to Constantine, demanding the dismissal of Zaimis, new elections and the demobilisation of the military.

[37] August 30, 1916, saw a coup against the Royalist government by the "National Defence" (Εθνική Άμυνα), a secret pro-Venizelist military organization based in Thessaloniki by Venizelist officers, aiming to defend the Macedonian territory.

[39] The first declaration of the revolutionary government reads: "A policy, that we won't examine its motives, during the last one and a half year brought so many disasters, that everybody wonders if Greece today is the same state as before.

This army consisted mostly of volunteers, but in many cases the Venizelist officers of the Defence used violence in their territory against deserters or royalists, or even clergy who supported Constantine, leading to bloody events (Naxos, Chalkidiki etc.).

In retaliation against the "National Defence" coup, a royalist paramilitary unit called the "Reservists" (Epistratoi-Επίστρατοι) was formed, in a number of Greek cities, led by Colonel Ioannis Metaxas (one of Constantine's closest aides and a future dictator of Greece).

"[37] The group targeted Venizelist people in Athens and nearby areas, culminating in the Noemvriana, the "November events", which were ignited by an armed confrontation between Greek reservists and French marines.

Lambros Koromilas, the Greek ambassador in Rome sent a public letter to the King stating: "The obscure and ambiguous policy which Your Governments have pursued for over a year has led us to hostilities with our natural friends, the Powers of the Entente, whom we have so frequently assures of our good friendship, whilst—the most amazing thing—this same policy has driven us to non-resistance against the Bulgarians, our hereditary enemies, when they came and captured our forts, our Macedonian towns, half our war supplies and our soldiers".

It lasted 106 days in total, during which time no goods were allowed to enter or leave royalist-controlled ports that were under the control of the Athens government (Peloponnese, Cyclades and Central Greece), leading the population to suffer much hunger.

This enmity inevitably spread throughout the Greek society, inside the Army and creating so a deep rift that contributed decisively to the Asia Minor Disaster, the 1922 Revolution and the Trial of the Six, and resulted in continued political and military unrest in the interwar years during the troubled Second Hellenic Republic.

[56] The increasing breakdown of social norms alongside the acceptance of violence as legitimate also led to calls for a fascist style dictatorship, and Kostis noted that Benito Mussolini was a much admired figure in the 1920s–30s Greece.