DRAGASANI, BATTLE OF

(June 19, 1821), military engagement in which the Ottoman Turks defeated the forces of the Greek revolutionary society Philik Etairea and ended the first insurrection of the Greek War of Independence. Intending to overthrow Ottoman rule in the Balkans and to establish an independent Greek state, Philik Etairea sent the Sacred Battalion, under Alexander Ypsilantis, into the Danubian principalities to lead an uprising there. The Turkish Army, however, destroyed the Greek force at Dragasani, 90 miles (145 kilometres) west of Bucharest, and Ypsilantis fled. The battle marked the end of his leadership but otherwise had little effect on the Greek independence movement, which had launched another rebellion in the Morea.