About History
Maniots
Of all the regions of Greece, the remote, rocky promontory of the Mani (the Braccio di Maina, as it used to be called) has unique spirit of place which has attracted the interest of outsiders since the earliest times.
Natural environment and human character. Rugged and arid this arresting landscape with its craggy mountains and seemingly inaccessible coast, with few overland lines of communication to the outside world and with the sea, serving at once as a barrier and a bridge, has inevitably affected human society here leaving an idelible on the inhabitants' way of life, their character, their mentality and their behaviour.
Meanwhile the Maniates came into more frequent contact with the mainstream of European affairs. Wars (especially those between Venice and Turkey and other European conflicts as well), local rebellions and insurrections sparked off by those wars, their own petitions to European rulers, and emigration from the Mani to the outside world brought this small community into the foreground of European history after the fall of Constantinople and Despotate of the Morea.
To some observers the Maniates, bristling with arms "like porcupines", were brave freedom fighters who had never submitted to foreign domination, warriors whose services Western rulers should enlist in support of their own schemes for territorial expansion or political influence.
