The developments following the Schism and the pressure exerted by the Great Powers forced Constantine to leave the country and to resign in favour of his second-born son Alexander (June 1917).

Venizelos returned to Athens and formed a new government reinstating the Assembly that had been dissolved by the King in 1915, the so-called 'Lazarus chamber'. The new government implemented its ideas on foreign policy and also attempted to purge the state administration of anti-Venizelists, by means of persecutions as severe as those suffered by its own followers in the immediately preceeding period. The government pursued the general reform policies of its previous term in office; and the Asia Minor campaign was already under way.