Rum Millet in the context of "Phanariotes"

Ottoman Greeks (Greek: Ρωμιοί, romanized: Romioi; Turkish: Osmanlı Rumları) were ethnic Greeks who lived in the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), a large part of which is in modern Turkey, Greece and the rest of the Balkans. Ottoman Greeks were Greek Orthodox Christians who belonged to the Rum Millet (Millet-i Rum). They were concentrated in eastern Thrace (especially in and around Constantinople), and western, central, and northeastern Anatolia (especially in Smyrna, Cappadocia, and Erzurum vilayet, respectively), in Ottoman Greece and other parts of the Ottoman Balkans, and in Ottoman Cyprus. There were also sizeable Greek communities elsewhere in the Ottoman Armenia, Ottoman Syria and the Ottoman Caucasus, including in what, between 1878 and 1917, made up the Russian Caucasus province of Kars Oblast, in which Pontic Greeks, northeastern Anatolian Greeks, and Caucasus Greeks who had collaborated with the Russian Imperial Army in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 were settled in over 70 villages, as part of official Russian policy to re-populate with Orthodox Christians an area that was traditionally made up of Ottoman Muslims and Armenians.

Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Fanariots (Greek: Φαναριώτες, Romanian: Fanarioți, Turkish: Fenerliler) were members of prominent Greek families in Phanar (Φανάρι, modern Fener), the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is located, who traditionally occupied four important positions in the Ottoman Empire: Hospodar of Moldavia, Hospodar of Wallachia, Grand Dragoman of the Porte and Grand Dragoman of the Fleet. Despite their cosmopolitanism and often-Western education, the Phanariots were aware of their Greek ancestry and culture; according to Nicholas Mavrocordatos' Philotheou Parerga, "We are a race completely Hellenic".

They emerged as a class of wealthy Greek merchants (of mostly noble Byzantine descent) during the second half of the 16th century, and were influential in the administration of the Ottoman Empire's Balkan domains in the 18th century. The Phanariots usually built their houses in the Phanar quarter to be near the court of the Patriarch, who (under the Ottoman millet system) was recognized as the spiritual and secular head (millet-bashi) of the Orthodox subjects—the Rum Millet, or "Roman nation" of the empire, except those under the spiritual care of the Patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Ohrid and Peć—often acting as archontes of the Ecumenical See. They dominated the administration of the patriarchate, often intervening in the selection of hierarchs (including the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople).

Ottoman Greeks (Greek: Ρωμιοί, romanized: Romioi; Turkish: Osmanlı Rumları) were ethnic Greeks who lived in the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), a large part of which is in modern Turkey, Greece and the rest of the Balkans. Ottoman Greeks were Greek Orthodox Christians who belonged to the Rum Millet (Millet-i Rum). They were concentrated in eastern Thrace (especially in and around Constantinople), and western, central, and northeastern Anatolia (especially in Aidin vilayet, Hüdavendigâr vilayet, Konya vilayet, and Trebizond vilayet, respectively), in Ottoman Greece and other parts of the Ottoman Balkans, and in Ottoman Cyprus. There were also sizeable Greek communities elsewhere in the Ottoman Armenia, Ottoman Syria and the Ottoman Caucasus, including in what, between 1878 and 1917, made up the Russian Caucasus province of Kars Oblast, in which Pontic Greeks, northeastern Anatolian Greeks, and Caucasus Greeks who had collaborated with the Russian Imperial Army in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 were settled in over 70 villages, as part of official Russian policy to re-populate with Orthodox Christians an area that was traditionally made up of Ottoman Muslims and Armenians.

The rayah or reaya was a member of the tax-paying lower class of Ottoman society, in contrast to the askeri (military) and kul (slaves, including Janissaries). Ottoman subjects were initially divided into roughly two taxable classes, the military class (askeri) and working class (rayah). The term was attributed to the peasant tax-paying subjects of the Timariots, active until the disintegration of the timar system in the 16th century. A clear social distinction was made between the Muslim and Christian rayah, with legal and religious discrimination against the latter, viewed of as infidels (giaour). Although the term initially and generally was used to encompass all of the subject lower class (taxed Muslims, Christians and Jews), it was particularly attributed to the Christian (also called zimmi), mostly Eastern Orthodox communities (the Rum Millet) in the Balkans (Rumelia).

John George Caradja, also known by his regnal name Ioan Gheorghe Caragea (Greek: Ἰωάννης Γεωργίου Καρατζάς, romanized: Ioanni Georgiou Karatzas; pre-modern Romanian: Ioan Gheorghie Caragea, Cyrillic: Їωан Геωргïє Караџѣ; French: Jean Georges Caradja, Caradgea, or Caradgia; Italian: Giovanni Caradza, Caragia, or Caraggia; Turkish: Yoan Corc Karaca; 1754 – 27 December 1844), was a Phanariote Greek Prince of Wallachia, who reigned between August 1812 and September 1818. He was the second, and last, member of the Karatzas or Caradja family to ascend to the Wallachian throne, but one of several to have also held office as Great Dragoman of the Ottoman Empire. Caradja, whose life is relatively obscure up to that point, held two terms as Dragoman (1807–1808, 7–27 August 1812). Before 1800, he also embarked on a literary career, participating in the spread of Enlightenment literature throughout the Rum Millet, and becoming noted for his translations from Carlo Goldoni. His progeny included Rallou Karatza-Argyropoulos, who was famous in her own right as a pioneer of modern Greek theater.

Caradja's reign came at the apex of Phanariote influence in the Danubian Principalities, a time marked by political corruption, outside interference, and, increasingly, the affirmation of Romanian nationalism as an alternative to Greek hegemony. His candidacy in Wallachia was supported by Halet Efendi and the Austrian Empire, and made possible by large sums of money that Caradja intended to recover from taxes. He arrived in Bucharest just as Wallachia was recovering from a Russian occupation, and was involved in punishing those whom he regarded as Russophiles—his clampdown resulted in the death of Abdullah Ramiz Efendi and the expulsion of Manuc Bei; the latter spent his remaining years attempting to have Caradja deposed. Caradja was then involved in securing jobs for his Greek retinue or in trafficking high offices in exchange for bribes; in order to meet Ottoman fiscal demands, but also his own financial goals, he created an infamous system of spoliation which perplexed foreign observers and angered the Wallachian public. Having to deal with an outbreak of brigandage, Caradja became known for enforcing capital punishment, as well as torture and amputation.

Slavic-speakers inhabiting the Ottoman-ruled region of Macedonia had settled in the area since the Slavic migrations during the Middle Ages and formed a distinct ethnolinguistic group. While Greek was spoken in the urban centers and in a coastal zone in the south of the region, Slav-speakers were abundant in its rural hinterland and were predominantly occupied in agriculture. Habitually known and identifying as "Bulgarian" on account of their language, they also considered themselves as "Rum", members of the community of Orthodox Christians.

After the emergence of rival national movements among Balkan Christians, the allegiance of Macedonian Slavs became the apple of discord for nationalists vying for dominion over the region of Macedonia. Parties with national affiliations, mostly Greek and Bulgarian, were formed in their midst, largely expressing and accentuating pre-existing social cleavages. From the 1870s onwards Bulgarian, Greek and Serbian propaganda appealed to them via the creation and operation of national education networks and by supporting the structures of the Bulgarian Exarchate or the Patriarchate of Constantinople respectively. Attempting to instill the "proper" national sense in Macedonian Slavs, and validate the territorial claims over Macedonia in that way. Amidst worsening economic and political conditions for Slav peasants, the clandestine Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, founded in 1893, gained a wide following with a program of agrarian reform imposed by terror, culminating in the staging of the Ilinden uprising of 1903, which was swiftly suppressed by the Ottomans. An armed clash ensued within Slav communities resistant to national proselytization, with IMRO komitadjis fighting against Ottoman authorities and bands of Greek and Serbian nationalists until the pacification imposed after the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. At that time the international observers viewed the majority of them as Bulgarian.