the greek war of independence (1821–1829), also commonly known as the greek revolution, was a successful war by the greeks who won independence for greece from the ottoman empire. muhammad ali pasha sent his son ismail with an army and a fleet to help fight the greeks and the greek christian revolutionaries asked for help from european christians. a fleet of the united kingdom, france and russia destroyed the ottoman-egypt fleet in the battle of navarino. after a long and bloody struggle, independence was finally achieved, and confirmed by the treaty of constantinople in july 1832. the greeks were thus the first of the ottoman empire's subject peoples to be accepted as an independent sovereign power.