The Republic was not, as one might think, an easily attained form of government. The path to the Republic was not a rose garden without thorns. A state defeated at the end of World War I, a nation bound by the Armistice of Mudros, and a country quickly surrounded by invasions from all sides. It seemed everything was over. It was at this point that Mustafa Kemal Pasha entered the scene. The Republic embarked on a challenging journey, starting in Samsun and extending to Izmir over three years.