After its defeat in the First Greco-Turkish War of 1897, Greece endured great poverty, accompanied by unprecedented usury and a flowering of brigandage

After its defeat in the First Greco-Turkish War of 1897, Greece endured great poverty, accompanied by unprecedented usury and a flowering of brigandage. According to figures for 1899, there were 12,500 registered bandits in the country. The Greek historian Tasos Vournas writes that the government of Georgios Theotokis, in order to rid itself of marginal elements, quietly stepped up targeted emigration to the United States. Poor peasants, for the most part in debt to moneylenders, sold their property for a ticket on an ocean liner. Crime in Greece was indeed brought down