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After the fall of Missolonghi Ibrahim returned to the Peloponnese
and attempted to subjugate the districts which constituted the fundamental
resistance centres. With the exception of Mani - where Ibrahim was repulsed in June and August 1826 - Karytaina and the region of Nauplion, he managed to gain control of nearly all the important forts of the Peloponnese before the end of the year. During the last months of 1826 and the beginning of 1827 the extensive destruction and plundering of the Egyptian army had led many regions to surrender, especially in the west Peloponnese. These were the so-called proskynimata (submissions) to which certain chieftains, such as Dimitris Nenekos, gave way.
The possibilities of Greek reaction against this situation were restricted. The Greeks punished those who gave in and Kolokotronis' phrase 'fire and axe to the submitted' was again heard in the Peloponnese. In this way the wave of the proskynima was reduced and many returned to the side of the revolutionaries.
Furthermore, Greek inability to confront the well-trained Egyptian army, which was equipped with modern weapons and which applied western military tactics, had appeared early in the battlefield.
Once again klepht warfare prevailed. Unexpected night assaults, ambush from fortified positions, sabotage against convoys - all these were capable of hindering Ibrahim and limiting his success. This immobility was not detrimental to the Greek side. Although there was no impressive victory against Ibrahim, the existence of resistance centres allowed the Greek cause to be preserved on the diplomatic front.
More than six years after the outbreak of the Revolution, and as it was beginning to wane, the position of Britain and Russia changed in favour of the Greeks. Ibrahim did not have enough time to subjugate the Peloponnese, which was to constitute the territorial base of the emerging Greek state. The conflict between the Allied British-French-Russian fleet with the Egyptian and the sinking of the latter on 8 October 1827 in the gulf of Navarino (Neokastro) obliged the Ottoman Empire to accept this reality and Ibrahim to desert the Peloponnese.
A year later (autumn 1828) the withdrawal of Egyptian forces under the supervision of General Maison, head of the French expeditionary force which had arrived in the summer of the same year to ensure the end of the war in the Peloponnese, was completed.
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