The history of modern Greece covers the history of Greece from the recognition of its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire by the Great Powers in 1828, after the Greek War of Independence, to the present day. The Byzantine Empire had ruled most of the Greek-speaking world since late Antiquity, but experienced a decline as a result of Muslim Arab and Seljuk Turkish invasions and was fatally weakened by the sacking of Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders in 1204; the establishment of Catholic Latin states on Greek soil, the struggles of the Orthodox Byzantine Greeks against them, led to the emergence of a distinct Greek national identity. The Byzantine Empire was restored by the Palaiologos dynasty in 1261, but it was a shadow of its former self, constant civil wars and foreign attacks in the 14th century brought about its terminal decline; as a result, most of Greece became part of the Ottoman Empire in the late 14th and early 15th century, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the conquest of the Duchy of Athens in 1458, of the Despotate of the Morea in 1460.

Ottoman control was absent in the mountainous interior of Greece, many fled there becoming brigands. Otherwise, only the islands of the Aegean and a few coastal fortresses on the mainland, under Venetian and Genoese rule, remained free from Ottoman rule, but by the mid-16th century, the Ottomans had conquered most of them as well. Rhodes fell in 1522, Cyprus in 1571, the Venetians retained Crete until 1670; the Ionian Islands were only ruled by the Ottomans, remained under the rule of Venice. The first large-scale insurrection against Ottoman rule was the Orlov Revolt of the early 1770s, but it was brutally repressed; the same time, however marks the start of the Modern Greek Enlightenment, as Greeks who studied in Western Europe brought knowledge and ideas back to their homeland, as Greek merchants and shipowners increased their wealth. As a result in the aftermath of the French Revolution and nationalist ideas began to spread across the Greek lands. In 1821, the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire.

Initial successes were followed by infighting, which caused the Greek struggle to collapse. Greece was to be an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty, but by 1832, in the Treaty of Constantinople, it was recognized as a independent kingdom. In the meantime, the 3rd National Assembly of the Greek insurgents called upon Ioannis Kapodistrias, a former foreign minister of Russia, to take over the governance of the fledgling state in 1827. On his arrival, Kapodistrias launched a major reform and modernisation programme that covered all areas, he re-established military unity by bringing an end to the second phase of the civil war. Kapodistrias negotiated with the Great Powers and the Ottoman Empire to establish the borders and degree of independence of the Greek state. Furthermore, he tried to undermine the authority of the traditional clans that he considered the useless legacy of a bygone and obsolete era. However, he underestimated the political and military strength of the capetanei who had led the revolt against Ottoman Empire in 1821, who had expected a leadership role in the post-revolution Government.

When a dispute between the capetanei of Laconia and the appointed governor of the province escalated into an armed conflict, he called in Russian troops to restore order, because much of the army was controlled by capetanei, part of the rebellion. George Finlay's 1861 History of Greek Revolution records that by 1831 Kapodistrias's government had become hated, chiefly by the independent Maniots, but by the Roumeliotes and the rich and influential merchant families of Hydra and Psara; the customs dues of the inhabitants of Hydra were the chief source of revenue for these municipalities, they refused to hand these over to Kapodistrias. It appears that Kapodistrias had refused to convene the National Assembly and was ruling as a despot influenced by his Russian experiences; the municipality of Hydra instructed Admiral Miaoulis and Alexandros Mavrokordatos to go to Poros and seize the Hellenic Navy's fleet there. This Miaoulis did so with the intention of preventing a blockade of the islands, so for a time it seemed as if the National Assembly would be called.

Kapodistrias called on the British and French residents to support him in putting down the rebellion, but this they refused to do. Nonetheless, an Admiral Rikord took his ships north to Poros. Colonel Kallergis took a half-trained force of Greek Army regulars and a force of irregulars in support. With less than 200 men, Miaoulis was unable to make much of a fight.

George W. Parshall was an American organometallic chemist who made notable contributions to homogeneous catalysis, he was a senior scientist at Company for many years. Born in Hackensack, Parshall received a Bachelor of Science degree with highest distinction from the University of Minnesota in 1951, he received his Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1954 under the direction of Reynold C. Fuson. In 1954, he joined Central Research Department at du Pont Experimental Station, where he rose to Director of Chemical Sciences, he took two industrial sabbaticals, one at Imperial College London in 1960-61 and another at University of Oxford in 1986. He was a visiting Ipatieff Lecturer at Northwestern University of the fall of 1994. Parshall is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Lambda Upsilon and Sigma Xi. Parshall is a member of the Guild of Scholars of The Episcopal Church.

He married Naomi B. Simpson on October 9, 1954. Parshall was a senior manager at du Pont during an era of rapid development and commercialization of organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis, he directed the work of 50 to 100 DuPont scientists, including that of Fred Tebbe and Richard Schrock. The activation of carbon-hydrogen bonds was a recurring theme of his own research, he conducted research on the use of molten salts in catalysis and initiated work on organolanthanide chemistry. He conducted early studies related to nitrogen fixation, he was most associated with the DuPont processes for making critical polymer intermediates used in producing nylon and polyester and spandex. Parshall coauthored a textbook on “Homogeneous Catalysis” with Steven Ittel. Parshall directed the development of alternatives to the chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigerators and air conditioners; when Parshall retired from DuPont in 1992, he joined the effort to destroy chemical weapon stockpiles in the United States and across the world.

As a member of the National Research Council’s “Stockpile Committee,” he has played a role in advising the U. S. Army in its ongoing effort to safely destroy chemical weapons; the Chemical Weapons Convention called for the destruction of these chemicals, which fell into three types. George W. Parshall, Catalyst of Change

Luis Villoro Toranzo was a Spanish–Mexican philosopher, university professor, diplomat and writer. He published more than ten books between 1950 and 2007. Villoro was born in Barcelona on 3 November 1922 to a Mexican mother. Between 1983 and 1987, he was a delegate for Mexico in UNESCO, he was named an honorary member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua in 2007. Luis Villoro received the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 1986, for his effort in the field of history, social sciences, philosophy. In 2004 he received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Villoro died from respiratory failure on 5 March 2014 in Mexico City, he was 91 years old. The main themes of the philosophy of Luis Villoro are the following: metaphysical understanding of otherness, the limits and scope of reason, the link between knowledge and power, the search for communion with others, ethical reflection on injustice, the defense of respect for cultural differences, the critical dimension of philosophical thinking.

His long intellectual career can be divided into three stages: a first stage of the particular or of the historical philosophy, a second stage of the universal or theoretical philosophy, "synthesis” or practical philosophy. Among various particular topics Villoro dedicated to the study was on Indigenous American philosophy, the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein and of René Descartes, he dedicated important texts to reflection about silence. Conducted an important study on indigenismo in Mexico, what he called "the independence revolution," in line with the multicultural nature of Mexico, a reflection on the need to think of an expanded democracy following the uprising of the EZLN in 1994. Los grandes momentos del indigenismo en México, México: El Colegio de México, 1950. El proceso ideológico de la revolución de independencia, México: UNAM, 1953. Páginas filosóficas, Jalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 1962. La idea y el ente en la filosofía de Descartes, México: FCE, 1965. Signos políticos, México: Grijalbo, 1974.

Estudios sobre Husserl, México: UNAM, 1975. Creer, conocer, México: Siglo XXI, 1982. El concepto de ideología y otros ensayos, México: FCE, 1985. El pensamiento moderno. Filosofía del renacimiento, México: FCE / El Colegio Nacional, 1992. En México, entre libros. Pensadores del siglo XX, México: FCE, 1995. El poder y el valor. Fundamentos de una ética política, México: FCE / El Colegio Nacional, 1997. Estado plural, pluralidad de culturas, México: Paidós / UNAM, 1998. De la libertad a la comunidad, México: Ariel / ITESM, 2001. Los retos de la sociedad por venir, México: FCE, 2007. Luis Villoro at the Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas