A. First year and statistics
During the decades of 1910 and 1920 the number of immigrants that resorted to Greece was huge, a disproportionate amount related to Greece's population. At the same time, lots of people from Greece that were part of different nations and religional groups left the country. The biggest immigration wave happened after the Anatolian destruction. About 1.200.000 immigrants arrived in Greece in a tragical condition. Most of them had left their houses in a hurry and could take with them only a few of teir movable goods. Lots of malnourished and subtly sheltered immigrants suffered from diseases and physicological problems. The death rate among refugees was very high, especially in the first months. According to LoN(League of Nations), the %20 of immigrants lost their lives in the first year of their arrival.
B. Population
The population of Greece increased about by 20% during 1920-1928.The urbanization of the country increased too.During the same period, the population of the capital doubled. The creation of the refugee settlements around the Athens and Piraeus has played an important role in the shaping of the only urban complex, as we know today. Apart from Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, there were other urban complexes that were inflated due to the fact that refugees settled on them.
The most important consequences of the arrival of immigrants were on the ethnological composition of the Greek population. In 1920, %20 of the population were non-Greek orthodoxes, while in 1928 that amount was only %6. The Greek population of the Western Thrace and of the Epirus had risen. In the mean time, in Krete, Lesvos and Limnos became Greek cities completely. However, the main change in the ethnological recommendation due to the establishment of the refugees occurred in Macedonia. The percentage of non-Greek Orthodoxes, which was 48% in 1920, fell to 12% in 1928. The strengthening of the Greek character of Macedonia was of great importance for the preservation of the territorial integrity of Greece. Besides, sparsely populated areas of Northern Greece, which some of them were on the borders, were colonized by refugees. In this way, the new regions joined with Greece after the Balkan wars and were incorporated into the national system.
C. Economics
For some time, the arrival of the immigrants seemed to be an unbearable load for the Greek economy. In the medium term, however, it benefited from the establishment of the refugees. In principle, crops have been restructured and agricultural production has multiplied. In a decade (1922-1931), the area under cultivation increased by approximately 50%, agricultural production doubled and grain was secured. The refugees applied crop rotation and variant of crops and supported the institution of small agricultural property. The lack of agricultural land for distribution to the refugees forced the state to undertake the construction of major land reclamation projects, mainly in Macedonia, increasing the arable land. New crops were introduced or the old (tobacco, cotton, raisins) were expanded. Livestock and poultry farming have been improved both quantitatively and qualitatively. Arboriculture, sericulture and fishing have been developed by immigrants who have been specialized in these occupations in their homeland.
The arrival of refugees also rejuvenates the industry with a new, skilled and low-skilled workforce, by expanding the consumer market and by bringing in people with business skills. In 1922-1932, the number of industrial units doubled. However, progress was not significant, mainly due to the maintenance of their traditional functions. The participation of refugees (as capitalists and laborers) was greater in the textile, metallurgy, metallurgy, flour industry and in the production of building materials. Many were refugees who emerged as entrepreneurs, industrialists or large shareholders. Greeks coming from the urban centers of Asia Minor and Constantinople outperformed domestic entrepreneurship, education, training, and progressive perceptions. The world of foreign languages, the contacts they had developed with Europe, and the experience they had at their disposal, helped, when they settled in Greece, to set up their own businesses or to employ others, plants or foreigners. The arrival of refugees influenced the integration of women into the working population. In 1930, women were the majority of workers in the textile, tobacco and clothing industries.
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Onassis is best known as the Greek shipping tycoon who married JFK's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, in 1968.
Synopsis
Aristotle Onassis was a Greek entrepreneur born on January 15, 1906, in Smyrna, a town in present-day Turkey. In the 1920s, Onassis launched his own cigarette brand. Shortly thereafter he realized that tobacco shipping generated more revenue, and went into the cargo ship business. The shipping tycoon dated many famous women, including the widowed Jacqueline Kennedy, whom he married in 1968.
Early Life
Aristotle Onassis, who was called “Ari” by most everyone, was born on January 15, 1906, in Smyrna, a town in present-day Turkey. Never a good student, he did poorly in school much to his father’s chagrin, who hoped Ari would take over the family’s cigarette business. After the Turks invaded his town in 1921, Onassis decided to leave for Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1923, he got a job as a telephone engineer. Poor but clever, he eavesdropped on business calls and used the information to set up deals of his own.
Onassis’s fortunes soon turned favorable and he began a life of good living with expensive clothes. His ability to reinvent himself as an "important businessman" during the day, yet continuing to work the phone lines in coveralls at night, was an early indication of his shrewd social and business skills.
First Fortune in Tobacco
Onassis' first big idea came in the mid-1920s, when he overheard a phone call about a new "talkie" that would have its main character smoke a cigarette. Onassis got the idea to start his own brand of cigarettes aimed at the female market. He chose famous opera singer, Claudia Muzio, as the perfect model. To get her to smoke his brand in public, he showed up at her dressing room with a giant bouquet of flowers.
Amazingly, Onassis seduced her. She, of course, smoked his brand of cigarettes. The relationship proved to be very lucrative for Onassis and by the age of 25, his tobacco business made him a millionaire. Building on his wealth, he realized that the shipping magnates who hauled the tobacco made more than the cigarette manufacturer. This realization came to him at the height of the Great Depression. Just when everyone was getting out of the shipping business, Onassis was able to buy six ships for less than half of what they would normally cost.
Wealth Grows during World War II
At the outbreak of World War II, Aristotle Onassis registered his fleet of cargo ships to Panama, which gave him tax-free status and reduced his overhead costs, making him one of the lowest cost shipping merchants in the world. He struck a deal with the U.S. Government whereby he offered reduced prices on shipping military equipment in exchange for the U.S. granting him very favorable prices on war surplus cargo ships in spite of a ban on non-citizens buying military surplus equipment. This allowed him to build one of the world largest privately owned fleets. It has been recorded that Onassis never lost a ship during the war. Reasons for this vary from being very lucky, to having made deals with both sides, though no credible evidence exists to prove this.
Personal Life
Early in his business career, Aristotle Onassis began dating a string of famous women, including Greta Garbo. In 1946, he met the daughter of the richest shipping magnate in the world, Athina Livanos, a woman almost half his age. They married and had two children.
Soon, however, both of them were having affairs. In 1957, Onassis met Maria Callas, one of the most famous opera singers in the world. Onassis was so proud of his relationship with Callas that he began to flaunt it. Athina was wrecked by embarrassment and divorced him in 1960.
Several months before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Onassis befriended Jackie Kennedy, America's queen. In the agony following JFK's death, Jackie clung to Onassis for friendship. In time, they become lovers. In 1968, the two married on Onassis' privately owned island. Generally, the American public reacted very negatively to the news. One newspaper's headline implored, "Jackie, How Could You?"
Ari's son, Alexander, was a notorious brat as a child, but when he was an adult, Ari insisted that his son work for him. In 1973, Alexander died in a terrible plane crash. Ari was devastated with his son and heir gone.
Death
Two years later, on March 15, 1975, Aristotle Onassis died. It was said that Maria Callas, his true love, never recovered from his death. She died two and a half years later.
