4th of August Regime - The End of The 4th of August Regime

The End of The 4th of August Regime

Foreign policy was one of the main concerns of the 4th of August regime. Metaxas, who had studied in Germany as a youth was pro-German, as was the King. But the reality of 1930s Europe was that Greece's security depended on her traditional protector, the United Kingdom, which was the superpower dominating the Eastern Mediterranean Sea with her fleet. In addition, Italian leader Benito Mussolini's grandiose schemes to create a new Roman Empire in the Mediterranean directly clashed with Greek pretensions to control the Aegean Sea and the Dodecanese islands (by then under Italian control) and to exert stronger influence in Albania.

As the drums of war sounded increasingly stronger in Europe just before World War II, the situation was almost exactly the same as the position before World War I, when Greece had strong pro-German affinities in government, but it depended on Britain for its security. Most observers were anticipating Greece would attempt to remain neutral. Metaxas indeed attempted to maintain neutrality, but Italian expansionism eventually led to an Italian ultimatum and to the Greco-Italian War. Greek forces repelled the Italian invasion completely.

Metaxas died suddenly in January 1941. His death raised hopes of a liberalization of his regime and the restoration of parliamentary rule, but King George quashed these hopes when he retained the regime's machinery in place. In the meantime, Adolf Hitler was reluctantly forced to divert German troops to rescue Mussolini from defeat, and attacked Greece through Yugoslavia and Bulgaria on 6 April 1941.

Despite British assistance, by the end of May, the Germans had overrun most of the country. The King and the government escaped to Crete, where they stayed until the end of the Battle of Crete. They then transferred to Egypt, where a government in exile was established. Meanwhile in Greece a fascist puppet government was placed into power by the Axis.