This period is characterized by the division of the Greeks into two opposite camps that fought ruthlessly between themselves

over the policies of national integration and the urban modernization of Greek society. The National Schism began as a personal clash between two men, Venizelos and, from 1913, when he succeeded his assassinated father, King Constantine I. The main issue was the participation of Greece in the First World War, in other words, the determination of the foreign policy that would best serve the interests of the nation. The clash brought many ills to the country and continued until the Second World War. It was a conflict that verged on civil war in the years 1912-22, when the new conditions caused by the victories of the Balkan Wars brought the content and the materialization of the aspirations of Greek nationalism to the fore. Interwoven with these conflcts were different views concerning the overall evolution of Greek society and the role of the state, the consent or opposition to the internal dimension of Venizelism and the Recovery.

The Schism, therefore, was not only related to national integration but also, indirectly, to urban modernization. On the one hand were the small householders of Old Greece and the bourgeoisie who rallied around the state, and, on the other hand, bourgeois businessmen, the petit bourgeoisie and landless peasants, the Greeks of the New Territories and, from 1922 onwards, the refugees.

Let it be noted that the Reservists' coup, which defended the King in November 1916, is considered to reflect the anti-western spirit of the social groups that reacted to liberalism and Europeanization.

In addition, opposition to Constantine and his policy meant the defence of the achievements of 1909 and of the liberal parliamentary republic itself, the reaction to the intention of the throne to violate the constitutional achievements of democratic legitimacy.