Page 45 - Bulletin 12 2008

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The Greek War of independence ended in 1832 and the small area shown in Figure 2.22
formed the core of the new country of Greece. Tripolis, the birthplace of Arthur Goles, was

part of the new state. Most ethnic Greeks still lived outside Greece and in the Ottoman
Empire. This included the Bassios and Stavrou families. While Arthur Goles was still a

small child the borders of Greece would expand.

Although Greece was a sovereign state, it was very poor. In fact, Greeks in Asia Minor

(part of the Ottoman Empire), were doing much better economically than the politically
empowered Greeks in Greece. In 1893, when Arthur Goles was 15, the Greek prime

minister declared that the country was bankrupt. In 1897 Greece fought a disastrous war
against the Ottoman Empire and lost.

Between 1890 and 1914 about 1/6 of the population of Greece emigrated. Almost all of
them were male. Most went to the USA, but many came to other countries like South

Africa.

One of these young men was Arthur Goles. Another was a man called Ioannis Papacostas

(Anglicized and simplified to John Costas), who was to play a role in the life of our
forebears. He was born in Ottoman Epirus about the same time as Goles. He jumped on a

ship and landed up in Johannesburg in the late 1890s in time for the Anglo-Boer War and
fought on the Boer side.

At the time the Boer War was ending my grandparents were being born around 1902-1904
in a mountain village in Ottoman Epirus. This was a 100% ethnic Greek village in the

Ottoman Empire province of Epirus and there was an active school and Greek church in the
village. (Figs. 2.23 – 2.25).